How to Use This Directory
and Choose Well.

How to Read a Listing

Each publication has a permanent page, laid out the same way. The measurements on it fall into three groups, and they answer three different questions.

Rule of thumb: authority tells you what a link could pass, traffic tells you whether anyone will see it, and the keywords behind the traffic tell you whether to believe it.

Reading the Traffic Figure

The traffic on a listing is Semrush’s estimate of the visits a domain receives from organic search in a month. It is a model rather than a measurement: Semrush’s reckoning from rankings and search volumes, not a number from the publisher’s own analytics. The vetting guide walks through how a figure like that is put together. On a listing, the useful question is how far to trust it.

Because the estimate is built from rankings, the number of keywords a domain ranks for is the natural check on it: it shows whether the visits are spread across many searches or rest on a few. Listings that carry both figures print the average as visits per keyword and set it against the directory median. Across the 67 listings with a traffic estimate and at least one ranking keyword, that median is 32.8 visits per keyword.

Read a listing’s own ratio against that median rather than against some ideal number. Close to it, the traffic is spread across the keywords much as it is on a typical listing here. Three readings should change what you do next.

A ratio far above the median

The estimate leans on a few heavily searched terms rather than a spread of ordinary ones, usually carried by one or two pages that rank well. Those visits belong to the pages that earn them: a new article on the site does not inherit them, and if one of those rankings slips, most of the estimate can go with it. Before you pay for the audience, ask the publisher which pages bring it in.

A handful of keywords

With so few terms, the ratio is fragile. One ranking gained or lost can double the figure or erase most of it, so read the traffic and the ratio as a snapshot of the review date rather than a trend. On one listing here, Semrush estimates 194 monthly visits from a single ranking keyword, so its 194 visits per keyword is simply that one term’s traffic, against a median of 32.8. Weigh a listing like that on subject fit and authority first, and treat its traffic as a bonus for as long as it lasts.

An estimate of zero, with keywords behind it

A traffic estimate of 0 beside a keyword count above zero means the domain’s rankings, wherever they sit, bring no visits Semrush can model: typically positions far down the results, or searches almost nobody makes. A placement there is a link rather than exposure. Judge it on authority and subject fit, and do not count on readers arriving from search.

None of these readings rules a listing out on its own. Set it beside the authority gap, below. Where the figure comes from, and how a zero differs from a missing estimate, is set out in the editorial guidelines.

Authority Versus Audience

Domain Authority and Domain Rating measure how much linking points at a domain. Who reads it is a separate question, and it is the one buyers lose the most money on, because a link profile can be assembled in weeks and a readership cannot — so a domain can carry DA 60, rank for almost nothing, and receive almost no organic traffic, while still looking excellent in the one number most directories print. The longer piece on authority scores works through a live example from this directory.

Read the scores against the search figures rather than one at a time. The distance between DA and DR shows how far two independent link models disagree about the same profile. The traffic estimate and the keywords behind it show whether that profile is attached to anybody.

A wide authority gap is not a disqualification. The median gap here is 17 points, so some distance between the two scores is ordinary; one several times that means the two link indexes see very different profiles, which is worth a question to the publisher before you pay. The more serious signal is a high score with little search traffic behind it: the links arrived without an audience following them, and a link on a page nobody opens passes whatever ranking power it has into silence.

Using the Filters

The directory filters instantly — no reloads. Here is what each control is actually for.

• SearchMatches on domain name. Use it when you already have a shortlist.
• SubjectOne primary subject per publication, the same grouping the subject hubs use.
• Domain ageA minimum number of years since registration, read from the registry record. Use it to set aside titles too new to have shown what they publish.
• Min DA / Min DRSet both. A site strong on one and weak on the other is worth a second look.
• Sort byDomain Authority, Domain Rating, Semrush traffic, ranking keywords or oldest domain. Narrow with the filters first — sorting a full list only tells you which extreme is which.

A good first pass: choose your subject, set a minimum DA and DR, and sort by ranking keywords. The titles with the widest search footprint rise to the top, and each one’s listing then shows whether its traffic holds up against those keywords. To price what survives, send us the shortlist; every listing says “Email for today’s price”.

How to Choose Well

1. Check the traffic against its keywords first. Where a listing carries both figures, it prints visits per keyword beside the directory median. A ratio far above it, or an estimate of 0 behind ranking keywords, needs explaining before anything else on the page is worth weighing; the traffic section covers what each means.
2. Read the two authority scores against each other. A domain strong on DA and weak on DR — or the reverse — has a lopsided link profile. Every listing states the gap between them.
3. Check relevance before authority. A DA 40 site your audience actually reads beats a DA 70 site they do not. Subject fit outranks both numbers.
4. Open the site. Every listing names the publisher's domain — open it and read two articles. If you would not want your brand next to them, the metrics do not matter.
5. Look at age and archive together. Read the registration date beside the number of pages in the sitemap. Several years and thousands of pages describe a publication with a history; a few months and a few dozen pages describe one still to show it will last.
6. Spread across subjects. Ten placements on near-identical multi-topic blogs look exactly like what they are. A mix across genuinely different publications does not.

Five Expensive Mistakes

The first is the argument of the post on authority scores, and the second is where the vetting guide begins; the fifth is what Google's spam policies describe under link spam, and the post on link profiles covers how to avoid it in practice.

Questions