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Web directories have fallen out of favor with the SEO industry because so many of them are constructed as made-for-advertising sites. I don’t see as many directories style themselves as “SEO friendly” as a couple of years ago but there are still hundreds, perhaps thousands of cheap off-the-shelf directory sites that get spammed to death.

A typical in-house SEO or freelance specialist probably cannot justify the work of promoting several small directories but many agencies with 100 or more clients may be able to justify investing about 6 months in building up a small stable of trusted Web directories where they can get client Websites listed quickly.

Here’s the catch: You have to work with niche directories that are not being abused by the rest of the SEO industry.

So how does an SEO agency find the right kinds of directories? Some agencies just build their own small general purpose directories. Some agencies rely on professional or business organization directories (hubs from chamber of commerce sites, city and county business directories, etc.).

That’s not what I’m proposing. What I’m proposing is that you pick 5-10 small directories, take them under your wing, help populate them (with both your own clients and similar but uncompetitive sites), and help promote them.

I’m talking about doing some pro bono work (or, if you can get the directories to sign up as clients, then get them as clients).

Web directories don’t have to be relegated to the slag heap of yesterday’s SEO spam. You can turn them into meaningful resources as long as you can maintain engagement with the directory operator.

Your objective is not to create the next Yahoo! or DMOZ. Your objective is to foster a relationship with a Website that provides a source of reliable linking. One site won’t help much but 5-10 sites can do wonders for a new, small Website or network that needs some link support.

Web directories can and do send traffic to listed sites when they look like they are being maintained. That’s the other catch to this proposal: you can’t build up a directory with a “build it and they will come forever” attitude. You need to make sure the directories you support are going to keep working over the years.

And then help promote them with blog articles, free articles, press releases, and links from other, trusted directories. You don’t have to pay all the fees if the directory owners are willing to buy the quality listings.

A good directory listing will engage with people through social media, too. And now that I’ve written that you know all the spammers are going to set up Twitter and Facebook accounts so that their new listings are pushed out to hordes of content-scraping robots.

It really takes less effort than you think to create a viable Web directory. It just needs to establish itself through sound marketing practice in order to build up traffic and search engine trust. And when you have that reliable group of 5-10 directories that you personally know and trust, your initial round of link-building can get results quickly.

You don’t want or need to submit a Website to 100 or 1500 worthless directories. What you do want and need is to be able to get a Website into all the major search engines quickly. It’s easier to add a target listing to a good directory than it is to go through all that link-begging that most SEOs still engage in.

And speaking of SEOs, there is one more key aspect to this kind of optimization strategy: Under no circumstances should you EVER disclose your list of closely trusted directories to the rest of the SEO community. Let them go out and build their own resources. Protect your hard work.