Paid Directory Links
-
To my surprise, I couldn't find a clear answer to the questions "Do paid directory links violate Google guidelines?"
I know Matt Cutt's recently had a video on paid links, but it didn't really cover paid directory links. Are well-curated directory sites that charge for inclusion violate Google's guidelines? A good example would be the business.com directory.
-
Snap! So many of our new clients have been penalised through paid link building.
-
Ha, in that case, it's pretty much every second new client you speak to!
-
I was asking if you have any "new"clients who have been hit by penguin as a result of acquiring poor paid links.
Thanks for sharing Jane.
-
I don't take these risks on purpose - if a link shows up on what looks like a high quality "directory" as a result of a paid posting for a client or a personal site, I won't worry too much about it but that's on a case-by-case basis. Links like that show up in the wild all the time, but I wouldn't personally seek them out. It depends on how much of a risk you're willing to take, but if you're otherwise good at link development, you don't need to take the sort of risks you see people taking when they acquire 20, 30, 40 paid directory links.
I am not sure what you mean by clients - are you asking if I have been responsible for clients being penalised? If so, no, I have not. Thanks.
-
Thanks Jane. How about you?
Do you use "paid directories?”
Do you have any clients coming to you with "Penguin" battle wounds?
I'm a firm believer that businesses should invest money in developing interesting/educational content as part of their marketing strategy. If it is good enough, applied and shared correctly, it will create the foundations for success.
I'm just against paying for directory links that "could" cause harm a website, and may "never" become searched.
-
William and Gary sum it up really well here - directory listings can be useful, but they should be sought for other reasons than SEO. Noah and Eduardo are also right - the safest thing to do is to acquire these links with the nofollow tag.
If you want to take a risk or two, the highest quality directories probably won't hurt you if they're followed links. Google's stance on these things is pretty hard line though, so if you're working on behalf of a larger company or client, perhaps it's best to play it safe.
-
I used white spark, and I found some great directories that were related to my site, so I felt that it was good resource to have.
-
I completely agree with this. Well researched and reputable directories are still worthwhile. As long as they are part of a mix that includes some link diversity, I think they can be a very valuable way to jump start a brand new site.
-
Think of the Yahoo Directory. It has cost associated with it and a listing there indicates a real website rather than spam. Whether no-follow or not, if a directory carries trust and authority it is beneficial.
Regardless of what is said, these listings do add to your metric profile and do contribute to ranking. Just like all the other "non-working" link types (read Press Release etc).
Don't believe me? Go disavow or remove all your no follows.
-
Agreed, if you're doing it, don't rely on it to increase your website's PageRank, but powerful citations on those reputable directories can help with Maps and getting some targeted traffic.
-
Most directories are not worth being listed on and certainly not worth the money in my opinion! Who uses directories anymore? Maybe some folk's still do, but like Eduardo says, make sure it's a "no-follow." Surely your money could be better spent elsewhere?
"Do paid directory links violate Google guidelines?" I'm going to have to say, yes! And I'm saying yes to "no-follow" links to - why? Purely on the basis that your practically throwing money away!
Any links intended to manipulate page rank or a site's ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s guidelines.
You can find further information here.
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en
Hope this helps?
Gary
-
You'll never get a straight answer from Google, but here's what I've witnessed:
-
Paid directory links CAN be beneficial if they are human-moderated and/or reputable. Something like BOTW has been a good historical example. There are also niche-specific reputable paid directories.
-
Be INSANELY CAREFUL. If you're skeptical about a specific directory site, don't do it. It should be a well-known brand in the niche, for example, Martindale-Hubbell for Law.
-
Think of it more as citation building than link building. There is SEO-value, but don't rely on directory link juice.
-
If you're careful, rely on the directory site's authority and reputation, and do a little research, you should have no issue having some paid directory links in your link profile with no penalties.
-
-
Yes, I agree with Noah. If it makes sense to pay for this link (potential customers are browsing these directories) then by all means, pay for them and get listed, but make completely sure these links are no-followed. You'll gain visibility, but won't affect your ranking positively.
-
If you pay for it, it should be no-follow. I would imagine the same for a paid directory.
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
-
Page links, header links, footer links
HI I have been hearing about links, you should keep to 100 Just look at this url http://www.powerwale.com/store/acdelco-sealed-vrla-iacdv5l--b-5ah-bike-battery/77031 and go for Recommend section, where you same product applies to different vehicles 1. im confused, should keep it or not?
Link Building | | Rahim119
2. Header links are less, Footer links are less, and in the future, we are planning to add more, will this affect SEO more than 100
i see many ecommerce sites, has menu showing many categories, more 100 categories links
3. Wht about link equity? If I have more links in header and footer page(all this will follow in the rest of pages).
4. More links in the header and footer shows that you are big ecommerce site.. Pls suggest, which is right way and go gain SEO value1 -
Linking between properties
I own 3 domains. One is my blog, one is my photography business site, and one is my graphic/web design site. They are all hosted on the same VPS account. I link between each site. Also, since the links are either in the nav, footer or sidebar, all pages from one page link to the homepage of each other. Is this an issue for SEO? Should I not be doing this? Would it be beneficial to use a no follow link instead if I'm to keep them?
Link Building | | studio35design0 -
Indirect Link Earning via dofollow Links In News Articles
Hello, MOZ SEO Gurus. I've been trying to think some deep thoughts on safe, effective link earning for news publishing sites, and wanted to run this up the flagpole and see if you salute. Our site is a biotech news service -- we pump out copious amounts of news content each day, which works well for driving traffic. That being said, we also want to rank some optimized landing pages as well. Take, for example, this page, which we'd like to rank for "secondary progressive MS" and related keywords: http://bionews-tx.com/secondary-progressive-ms/ Now, as far as I'm concerned, shopping this page around to MS influencers isn't easy. I can go to Foundational websites, blogs, etc., and say, "hey, we have this info page on SPMS, and I thought that you might find it helpful/want to link to it." But chances are, the MS influencers already have their own proprietary content on SPMS, and there isn't much value to linking to it. Therefore, I think that we'll get few link earning conversions on the effort. However, what if I take our Secondary Progressive MS landing page, and I link to it in a corresponding article about SPMS research, as I did here: http://bionews-tx.com/news/2014/01/30/secondary-progressive-ms-natalizumab-clinical-trial/ Then, I go to the drug developer who is at the center of this story and say to them, "hey, we recently covered your drug in the news, and I thought you might want to link to it." Then, we get a link from an MS drug developer to the news article, which in turn has a prominent anchor text, dofollow internal link to the landing page for SPMS. If the link from the drug developer is dofollow, then we flow page rank juice from the drug developer page to our news page to our landing page. To me, it's much easier to earn safe links this way than to try and shop the landing page itself. That being said, if we get a dofollow link on the news piece, we only get a diminished portion of page rank going to the landing page. Is this strategy viable? Is the indirect flow of page rank from a linking site to a news article to a landing page even worth it? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
Link Building | | bionewstx2 -
Reciprocol Links
Am I correct in stating that linking to every article about your company is a bad idea. I see a lot of sites with followed links to the articles that link to them. Is this not devaluing the link? I've been recommending removing the links or no indexing the page and no following the links. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Link Building | | brandonschultz0 -
What is the difference between external followed links and internal followed links.
I have almost 3,000 external links followed and only a tiny amount of internal followed links. My website is doing really badly on google at the mo. I am also an SEO beginner and learning new stuff every day, but am not sure exactly what the difference is! Thanks!
Link Building | | heleni0 -
Penguin Recover: Remove links vs Burry Links
The best is to do both. However with those with limited resources, would building more links with branded and naked URL anchor links be a better solution than painstakingly asking every webmaster to remove links.
Link Building | | reprisemedia10 -
Changing links
Hi guys i wanted you views on changing the anchor text of links. I have quality links coming in but with year terms such as 2012 in there, if i want to change them all to 2013 for example would it be badly seen by Google? I cant say i feel comfortable about doing it but they are my links and are related to our products. Any advice much appreciated.
Link Building | | pauledwards0 -
Buying links
I have 2 websites to pay monthly to gain links from, number 1 is on the homepage of a directory, it has a PA of 90 and DA of 88.
Link Building | | myloseo
the link will be on the right hand side along with 55 other featured sites.
these links are there throughout the whole site. number 2 is from a website with 20 max sponsored links on a page and will be one of the sub pages on the site with a PA of 74. How valuable if any would these links be? My current pa on the site i wish to send the links to is 26 Can i expect my PA to go up by much? Also i currently have 317 links from 7 root domains on my site will this effect the rank of the paid links? Thanks in advance0