Directories
-
Hi
The former owner of One of our competitors ( www.gastrocatering.com ) gave my some insight into how he got his site up in the rankings.
He said he got his site listed on 100s of directories
had bloggers Wright about him.
Gastro catering ranks highly for almost every key word we want
I used the moz tools to see where his links came from,
Should I copy what he did? I read a lot of posts that lead me to the conclusion I shouldn't, but he ranks #1 for so many desirable keywords.
What are your thoughts on this please?
All the best
Ben
-
Right, as was said a little earlier in this thread, "quality over quantity". Getting a write up in a local paper or being listed on the directory of a local township site are all great signals that you're legitimate and doing the thing you say you do.
Don't ignore advertising either. As Rand mentions in the latest Whiteboard Friday, "advertising can show returns in many organic channels, including SEO." http://moz.com/blog/advertisement-investments-organic-roi-whiteboard-friday. Cheers!
-
so the point is: quality better then quantity
-
excellent thank you. I have submitted to the big boys and will leave it at that I think.
-
I would like to believe it would.
-
Thanks again Ryan!
I really appreciate it I never even thought to check the amount of comments. So many of the sites that claim to have high volume don't allow comments. such an easy way to check how their site fares.
any other tips for choosing? I was thinking an easy way to get links are to mention equipment that we use so surpliers will link to us, but they won't really influence customers,
Ben
-
Technically most NAP (name, address, phone#) listing sites are directories such as yelp, yellowpages, etc. There are also usually industry specific directories which should be fine to submit to as well, such as AVVO for lawyers or healthgrades for medical professionals. After that is where it gets iffy, some sites like BOTW, DMOZ, joeant are still considered quality by most, but there are hundreds of thousands of other directories where submitting may get you in trouble.
-
Hi Ben. Ideally you'll want to get your links from a source that could also provide referral traffic as well, so if it's a directory that looks useful to several local businesses or specific topics, great! Same goes for a blogger that seems to be getting comments and some level of interaction on their site, excellent! In addition you'll probably find new ways of networking that older sites didn't do well early on and could target those. Working on developing the PR side of the business will go a long ways too as you'll be building relationships with people that make content on the web. Look into researching sites in other areas or other types of food service, maybe places that are highly competitive, to get an even broader idea of tactics.
What's hard to tell in just looking at the numbers is how many of those old links that seem somewhat spammy have been discounted anyways a while ago. Cheers!
-
Yes, my point exactly
But then again, could he just be the best of a bad bunch? looking around none of our competitors seem to have shareable interesting content.
I'm thinking if we pay for some blog posts from recognised industry leaders such as wedding magazines and create a lot of interesting content and perhaps a free to use tool that helps with wedding catering planning, should this out shine the competitor thats just got a lot of links going for it?
-
I thought that being listed in directories wasn't recommended anymore...
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
-
SEOMoz directory list - some clarity needed FROM SEOMOZ STAFF
There are 455 directories (212 web, 188 social & 55 local) on the SEOMoz list.
Link Building | | Jeepster
Presumably they are there because SEOMoz recommends them. Yet common wisdom seems to be that web directories have negligible SEO benefit - see this recent SEOMoz Q&A discussion.
Matt Cutts advises against paid directories in this video (which >99% of them are)
In a private Q&A last month a member of the SEOMoz staff told me a link to my site from this directory, which appears on the list, was a "poor link". I think some better clarity in SEOMoz's guidelines on directories would be appreciated -- and I'd appreciate SEOMoz staff weighing in as promised when Private Q&As were ended -- especially as many SEOMozzers take most of what we learn here as near-gospel.1 -
Directories and Bookmarking
Our company has a wide range of linking strategies. Currently, our SEO team members are linking to directories more than anything else. Are there any advantage to this or should they put there effort elsewhere? My views on directories: these links are easy to acquire and offer little push to our SEO efforts. It appears that Google is no longer taking directories in consideration and essentially they could be hurting our rankings. What should our company do; should we stop linking to directories all together or keep it to a minimum. Also isn't bookmarking on the same lines as directories? What is the best way to handle this?
Link Building | | WebRiverGroup0 -
How to work with directories for SEO?
Hi, How many directory links do you tend to build in 1 month? And what do you look for in a directories before you submit? I could build 2 links a day from directories but the thought of 60 links being built a month from directories shouts bad news to me. I've had a look and come across a few directories with high DA/PA but at the end of the day they are just link directories, no content, lots of thin pages with lots of links pointing out. A couple of examples of good directories would help. Cheers
Link Building | | activitysuper0 -
Is there any value to writing articles for Article Directories such as EzineArticles anymore?
Is there any benefit to SERPs of writing content for EzineArticles anymore or is it pointless?
Link Building | | harrygardiner0 -
Should I abandon directories?
To say I'm new to SEO would be an understatement. I am heading up marketing for a firm and they have zero web presence. I've used Alexa.com to check out our competition and one site in particular has about 150 sites linking to it. I dove in deeper and created a spreadsheet. The majority of these links are sketchy, paid directory listings (or what look sketchy to me). The confusing part is, they rank first on Google when I search for industry keywords. Is it because of these directories? Should I follow them or avoid them completely? I'm planning on creating content and pushing that out to reputable industry sites. I figured getting links/mentions from these would help SEO. Should I only target these high value sites or would submitting articles to the directories with "article" sections offer any assistance? It seems as though my SEO knowledge is limited to less-than admirable tactics, although not by choice. I am planning to dive into paid search in the coming weeks but wanted to know of any "ground work" I could do aside from pushing content and paid search. It seems like there are 1,000's of these paid directory sites and I find it hard to believe they will offer me a benefit...it's just the competition is on them and something is working. Sorry this is so remedial, but I need to figure out where to go!
Link Building | | InfabCorporation0 -
Importance of Directories
Hi there, I just started using the pro tool 6 weeks or so ago. I have done all the on page optimization I can and am starting to think more about building links to my site. What I want to know is how important are directories as part of this link building program? Should I treat doing an audit of what directories we are in, identifying what ones we should be in, and actually signing up for these ones as an important and vital part of the link building program? So basically how important are directories? We are a b 2 b business if that helps.I am kind of assuming directories are (still) important and that we should spend some time on this, but just wanted to get some expert thoughts on directories, approach to use etc etc. I reckon it should be easier than other link building, as we can at least pay a fee and get in the directory, so it’s less a case of someone doing us a favor as other links sometimes seem to be….
Link Building | | inhouseninja0 -
Directory Submissions
Hello All. Our site has 17,000 links from over 300 route domains but none from directories. Using open site explorer i've found tons of paid and free directories but Its so time consuming manually submitting. Is it better to take the time to check each directory manually or should I look at some kind of automated service? Cheers Todd
Link Building | | toddyC0 -
Good Free Web Directories
Hello All, Does anyone have a list of good free web directories that are still woth registering with especially any for the UK. My boss is willing to pay for a good list. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks Shehzad
Link Building | | Gareth_Cartman0