How Google handles with paid directories?
-
Are paid directories held to the same standards as paid links? Is it going to get penalized my website if I submit website to paid directory?
-
Actually it is quite easy for Google to understand if a directory is still a reliable and valuable source of information and what is simply another easy (paid) tactic for ranking.
SEO Directories are easy to be discovered, as they declares quite easily their nature ("insert your site for better rankings..."), they offer link back as "paying option", they don't have usually incoming traffic (aka: users don't use them) and don't send traffic to the sites present in the directory. Also their cheapness can be taken as an alarm signal: 5 € is not really a sign of a real editorial control, revision and maintenance by the directory.
Instead directories like Yahoo! still have a value, and - apart from having the trust factor of being Yahoo - it has a real editorial control and never mention rankings as one of the advantages of paying for being present in their directory.
-
Hi Jozef
Not necessarily, not all directories are the same, some that you pay for are great and others are not good at all.
The Yahoo directory for example has a pay to be considered for inclusion system but it is one of the best directories to be listed in.
There are a lot of factors that go into deciding if you should be paying to be in a directory including, what are the other sites like in the directory, does it relate to your niche? are the sites good quality or can anyone get in?
The question I always ask myself is, if this directory had no SEO benefit would I still pay to get listed in it? if the answer is yes and you have checked the quality of the site then go for it if the answer is no then do not do it.
I hope that helps
Sean
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How to create link from google redirect?
I have seen redirect links from google but not sure how to create one. Please guide if anyone knows the answer. Example: https://images.google.cv/url?q=https://mza.seotoolninja.com
Link Building | | Melissacarter3 -
Google indexing nofollow links
Hi Guys I have yellowpages.com.au appearing in the link profiles for some of my clients, but not in others (even if clients without the link in their profile have had an actual link on yellowpages.com.au longer than some who do have it in their profile). My understanding is that Google MAY eventually index a nofollow link... My question is what would cause Google to actually index it?
Link Building | | JuiceBoxOM0 -
Diagnose My Google Crash!
On July 20, my site peaked in terms of google impressions. On July 21 it crashed and then got worse. Here is my chart from Google Webmasters. http://tinypic.com/r/abruv7/5 I have been working really hard to get qualify backlinks from my niche (mom deals/coupons) and I know people like my site due to the growth in newsletter subscriptions etc. So what happened with Google? Is it Google Panda? Nothing on my site changed except maybe I had been getting less backlinks for a few days. I am having duplicate content issues which I posted about in another question. For some reason Google is indexing past page 1 of my category pages even though Yoast Wordpress SEO is set NOT to. So I am getting duplicate title tag errors from the subpages. I also have some crawl errors/404s due to deleting and renaming categories to improve my site. Any SEO issues my site might have (shorter posts than 300 words, affiliate links etc) are the same issues my competitor's have who are on page 1 of Google. Any input would be appreciated.
Link Building | | 2bloggers0 -
Google Reconsideration Response Time
Hi all, 3 of my websites have received a massive hit from Penguin/Panda due to exact phrase links. I have had all the links changed so that they are completely different, and submitted a reconsideration request to Google. Would anyone be able to tell me roughly how long it takes to get a response from a Google reconsideration request? Thanks, Anthony
Link Building | | AnthonyHall0 -
Are directories still an option for linkbuilding
I know that after the recent slate of Google updates, many free directories got taken down. We've typically used the list of directories placed on SEOmoz (www.seomoz.org/directories). Before adding a site to a directory, we always check to see if it is indexed by Google. Is this still a safe option or should directories be avoided?
Link Building | | TopFloor0 -
How do directories that pull listings from DMOZ work?
I've listed an example below. I see these all the time, where a directory pulls it's listings from DMOZ. So you would naturally assume that if you're in DMOZ, you would get these links, but that's not the case. This particular link was picked up by OSE so I'm wondering what the quality of these links really are and if they're legit? Also, if you go to the main subdomain the page just says "Buy shirts". What is the deal with these types of so-called "directories"? http://www.searches.org/go/search/Shopping/Home_and_Garden/Furniture/ Another example: http://www.westcairn.com/furniture.htm
Link Building | | MichaelWeisbaum0 -
Google Cache Date
The Google Cache date for my website: This is Google's cache of http://www.petmedicalcenter.com/. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Aug 28, 2011 03:19:05 GMT. Does this date coorelate to the last time Google reevaluated their rankings for my site? So if I had done 15 or so backlinks after the August 28 date, will those start to affect rankings (once they are discovered) after the next time the site is updated?
Link Building | | PMC-3120870 -
Linking to Google Place page??
I'm wondering if anybody has tried and had success in improving search rankings by creating links to Google Place pages. What say you?
Link Building | | bdiddy0