List Of The Best Free New Zealand Business Directories Online
Today I was asked for my secret list of the best free online New Zealand directories.
Since I just started giving away my Search Engine Optimisation ebook for free, I might as well share my list of NZ directories too.
The funny thing about free online directories is that they might be free to get a link on them back to your website, but it can cost you the most precious resource of all – TIME.
Some registration processes can take up to 30 minutes to work through.
Is the pay-back (in terms of a high quality back-link) justify the cost of your labour?
Sometimes it doesn’t.
But you’re in luck, my list is here to help.
Why is it important to add your website to these directories?
Because every link back to your website is an indication to Google that your website is important.
This search engine optimisation technique is often called “link-building” or “back-linking”.
The best place to start your link building is by using human edited directories because Google favours them.
List of The Best FREE Online NZ Directories (In Priority Order):
- Dmoz.org (New Zealand)
- Worldwide directory actually, but has 2-thumbs-up from Google, so put a link to your website here first (and it can take ages before it is approved so you might as well start the process now)
- Finda.co.nz
- In my opinion the very best online directory in New Zealand. An official Google partner. Automatic submission to Google Maps, UBD.co.nz & Wises.co.nz. Easy to use. Good looking profile pages
- NZS.com (“New Zealand Search”)
- Really good quality. Great looking graphics. Good profile pages.
- HotFrog.co.nz
- Impressive presence in Google.co.nz for a variety of searches.
- Zenbu.co.nz
- Very cool map-based business directory.
- MadeFromNewZealand.com
- High quality. Lots of features.
- NZPages.co.nz
- Good, clean, “minimalist” directory.
- Google Local Business Centre
- After your free Finda listing has placed a marker on Google Maps for you, “claim” your business using Google LBC and add more details about your business
- Yalwa.co.nz
- Global directory, with dedicated subdomains to New Zealand cities. Free text in the description field, you can add hyperlinks (this is rare)
- NZWebZ.co.nz
- Ok
- ZipLeaf.co.nz
- “In growing stages, clean/sharp graphics, up to date functions. Promising” – [Thanks to James for his review]
- NZDirectory.co.nz
- “Clean/sharp graphics, up to date functions, PR 5 with a lots of categories with PR 4/3, Alexa rank isn’t too bad either” – [Thanks to James for his review]
Quality Non-NZ Directories That ARE Worth Your Time:
Criteria For The Best NZ Directories:
To get on the official list above, the directory must meet most of these criteria:
- Does Google like it?
- Does the directory often appear in Google.co.nz Search Engine Results for a variety of NZ searches?
- How good are the directories own Search Engine Rankings?
- What SEO techniques does the directory use?
- Is the process of adding my website to the directory easy, intuitive and quick?
- Will it provide a clean hyperlink to my website?
- “No-follow” hyperlinks are of little use to us
- Redirection “tracker” hyperlinks are not as good
- Is the website approval time short?
- Are the other websites in the directory high quality? (Eg, have the webmasters let spammy websites through?)
- Can I specify my own anchor text for my hyperlink?
Other NZ Directories That ARE NOT Worth Your Time
- NZSearch.co.nz & SearchNZ.co.nz
- 5 years ago these directories were great because there was little else to choose from, but the web developers abandoned it long ago and it has slowly rotted away. Badly in need of an overhaul.
- PiperPat.co.nz
- Crude, old, but effective (Page Rank 6!). But I have had no response to my requests for additions for over 6 months.
Other NZ Directories I Haven’t Reviewed Yet
If you have used any of them, please write a short review of your own, in the comments below.
- SearchZone.co.nz (Looks promising actually, worth a closer look)
- Gopher.co.nz (Worth a closer look)
- SosNow.co.nz
- DirectoryNZ.net
- NZWebs.co.nz
- NZsbDirectory.co.nz (NZ Small Business Directory and Travel Guide)
- WebsiteDirectory.co.nz
- WebLinks.NewZealand.co.nz
- AccessNZ.co.nz
- BizNZ.com
- NewZealandWebsites.com
- IndexNZ.com (Ghastly!)
- KiwiDirectory.co.nz
- LinkNow.co.nz (Hideous)
- BizDirectoryNZ.com
- GoNZoz.com
- Go4NewZealandBusiness.com
- FindMe.net.nz
- FindItOnline.co.nz
- mKiwi.com
List of NZ Directories You Have To Pay For:
For the sake of completeness I thought I better start a list of “paid-inclusion” directories too, so here it is.
Is There a New Zealand Directory Missing?
What other New Zealand directories do you think should be added to any of these lists? Add them in the comments below.
Thanks for the links Sheldon. Will check them out
Hi Sheldon. Good list. Thank you. Now I can cross check my extensive list to see if either of us has missed any. I’ll let you know if there are any to add.
@Jenny Wilmshurst
Yes please Jenny, that would be great, thank you!
Very nice list and good information, but I must ask what is wrong and makes these sites as you put it “poo” – http://www.zipleaf.co.nz and http://www.nzdirectory.co.nz , both sites are in the growing stages, have clean/sharp graphics, up to date functions, with nz directory being a PR 5 directory with a lot of it’s categories having PR 4/3 and their Alexa rank isn’t too bad either, seems promising to me?
Hmm… interesting, reason why my comment was not approved please? You are aware I had made a valid point regarding this post and the mentioned websites. Last time I checked this was the whole concept of running a blog, although a so called ‘search engine expert’ who uses the term “poo” to describe a websites design and structure, as well as using that as a reason not to check back on a sites progress, does explain a lot. At least me and a few work partners here at Fairfax had a good laugh about it, keep trying is my advice.
Hi James, your first comment went into quarantine because it contained 2 hyperlinks. It is now visible. And even though your second comment is mildly insulting I will leave that visible too because I embrace alternative points of view.
You are right James, thank you for your input and bringing these issues to my attention. I have made the following changes:
Heading changed to remove “poo” (I spelt it wrong anyway).
Moved http://www.ZipLeaf.co.nz and http://www.NZDirectory.co.nz into the “best NZ directories” list, quoting you for evidence of their inclusion
You have helped make my blog article better James, and for that I thank you.
Not a problem Sheldon, your welcome. Glad you had taken the points in to consideration and the time to view those websites, the list is looking good in my opinion. There is one other NZ search engine/directory which came to mind and that is http://www.mkiwi.com , although I haven’t seen much happening with this site over the passed couple of years, it also seems to have a lot of Google ads and functions implemented in to it, might be worth adding to the “Other NZ Directories” list, I’ll let you decide.
Excellent, thanks James.
Hi Sheldon,
thank you for the great list. I will definitely use some of them in the future.
I was wondering if you are interested in reviewing the Yalwa Business Directory for New Zealand? The URL is http://www.yalwa.co.nz/
Listings are SEO friendly and support links and html formatting. No backlinks required and it is also absolutely free to use.
Many thanks!
@Sarah
That’s a nice directory Sarah, I’ll add it to the list today, thanks!
great, thanks a lot Sheldon!
Very sad to see that my favourite directory Finda.co.nz has started putting huge, hideous ads smack in the middle of free listings
Very disappointed.
Nice list, thanks, checking all of them right now.
Hey guys
Just used Gopher, easy and qiuck to use..
Will def use again.
@Fran
Ok, thanks Fran!
Another way to build quality back links to your website is through writing comments on other peoples blogs. Here is an excellent list of Kiwi blogs to get you started: http://www.kiwiology.co.nz
Thankyou for the great list