Which Directory Sites to Choose?
-
Hi All
I am a newbie to SEO and have a quick Q.
Assuming that appropriate steps would be to;
a) Ensure all onsite matters are are correct, title tags, meta descriptions, redirects, canonical issues.
b) Submit to Directories
c) Build Links
I am approaching step b)
Which Directories are worth submitting to? For those which require payment, how can I decide which are value for money or should I just use SEOMOZ list of links and assume that theyre worth the $50 - $100 if my higher ranking competitors have links from these directories. Also, can this be looked opon as grey/black hat 'buying of links'?
Thank you
Sean
-
Keri, that link in your post is broken. I see it as:
http://../blog/seo-link-directory-best-practices
-
Just wanted to leave a quick note saying that SEOmoz has upgraded the Link Directory! You can view a post Cyrus wrote with more information about the directory updates and link building via directories at http://www.seomoz.org/blog/seo-link-directory-best-practices
-
Yeah I just feel like if SEO people put half the effort they put into tricking Google, into doing SEO the right way and creating value that they could have one hell of an SEO product.
What you are essentially looking to do is create web spam.
It seems like a lot of effort for something that may work for a whille but will almost surely be figured out eventually and doesn't bring any value to your clients.
-
Cheers for reply Roger.
-
You should put that in a new question and I'll bet it would get more eyes on it.
I've seen it done a lot but not sure as to how effective it is. I would think its pretty easy for google to figure out. Especially if they are all new domains registered to you and hosted on one c block or even the same IP address.
I think to do it where it wouldnt raise obvious flags would be expensive and you are still just getting links from new sites with little/no authority so not sure its worth it.
My guess is Google would figure it out anyway.
-
Roger
Thanks for that advice.
I just downloaded quite a good whitepaper from http://www.fastdirectorysubmitter.com/ which seems makes sense to me. Any of you have used this site or similar?
Thanks
Sean
-
Not a chance its worth 50-100.
-
I never pay directories for inclusion, nor do I pay people to do directory submission for me (unless you're just trying to get into 1000 low-value spam directories, it's not worth it). You need to do it yourself so you get the categorization of your site's listing correct (each directory is a little different) and optimize/maximize the characters that each one gives you to write a description of your site (and/or add tags/keywords). It's a high-touch operation for human-moderated directories that are actually valuable.
-
Mike
Thanks for taking the time to give your advice. I think you make good points.
One last thought is; Is it worth paying 50-100 $ pa?
Thanks
Sean
-
Directory submission is a background task and subject to time management constraints and other things you need to get done. I would do all of the relevant non-weak directories first. Then, when you have time, get around to the relevant weak directories. Every do-follow inbound link you get has some value. Especially if it's on a different C-class IP address, or from a trusted source (human moderated directory). I wouldn't obsess about directory submissions, but I would put it on the list of things to do for when you have a few minutes (do a few per day or else you'll get burned out on it if you do them all at once).
As for UK vs non-UK, it may help you to have some .uk directories but regular old .com directories should help, too.
-
Thanks Mike The seomoz contains 180 directories with some of them towards bottom of list described as weak? Why have they listed these weak links? Also, as I am in the UK a) Should it make much difference as to which directories I use? b) As I am hoping to optimise for google.co.uk in the main, is there a different approach I should take due to my location? Sean
-
SEOmoz maintains a list of directories here: http://www.seomoz.org/directories
-
Roger
Thanks for reply. That makes sense.
I will take a look at these links.
Sean
-
Hi Sean,
I guess I am being a little black and white there. I would try and get listed in any directories that your competitors are listed in that show authority in OSE. It may or may not do you any good but it wont hurt.
Here is Yahoo Directory, submit link.
https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro/
I guess what I am saying is that I would limit my time submitting to directories and try to use that time doing something that ads value, like participating in a community. It will pay you back way more than just pure SEO value and directories just aren't a good use of time or money in any large quantity.
Also check these links out for more info (the fact that SEOmoz has not dedicated ANY resources to updating this list or really discussing directories at all since 2008 is a good indicator of what they think of directories.)
-
Roger
Thanks for you reply. The main reason I ask is that when I use Seomoz Open Site Explorer they list some of the most important links of my competitors as some directories. Our site is as you suggest almost devoid of links. I have submitted to dmoz and I assume that is just a waiting game. How do you get listed with Yahoo sites you mention?
-
If you can get into dmoz (impossible? maybe) and Yahoo sites they are worth while. Unless you are just have absolutely no links I think directories are pretty useless anymore.
If you are looking for quick easy links, maybe spend some time in some forums answering questions related to your business. you get a signature link (for what it's worth) and if you add value as a contributer, you can see some REAL referral traffic.
I would not pay for many directories.
Find some good communities and participate.
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
-
What will the SECOND link from a site do for me
Say I have an opportunity to get another link from a high authority site that has already linked an important article from me (a page I REALLY want to rank well). Now a month later, they are interviewing me and asking what I'd like to link. I have plenty of good content I can offer, but I really want that page they already linked to to climb a bit in the rankings. So my question is, how is that second link best spent? Would linking to the same page give it a boost? Or does Google see it as "oh. Another link from the same domain. Yippee." Would that link do more for a different page on my site at this point?
Link Building | | cbrant7770 -
Can a feeder site link directly to the main site?
I have a client that has several coupons sites. They have about 15 different URLS all of which are [city]deals.com all of the domains have coupons lists that are relevant to that area. Other than the coupons there is not any other content on the sites. There is a Main site however, that has coupons, content, store locations, blogs, news etc... The coupons on the feeder sites are displayed differently than what is displayed on the main site. They are also categorized differently. So the question is on the feeder sites can they have the coupon link directly to the store page on the main site?
Link Building | | Firestarter-SEO0 -
Links from non existant sites?
Hi! I'm new at all this 🙂 I've taken a look at the backlink profile for one of my sites as it's seems its been hit by this last Penguin update. I'm finding links to my homepage from sites that no longer exist, like this one: http://mikimoto-pearls.org - does this hurt my backlink? I mean, I would figure it does since there's nothing there? If so, how do I get the link removed? Do I even need to? Disavow tool maybe? Thank you!
Link Building | | Noviceseo0 -
Tool sharing sites
Hi All I have a finance calculator that our IT team have built and I would like to get it distributed to sites will find it useful, I am contacting sites that I think will directly benefit from the calculator, but are there sites that I can share it on (like you would use youtube for video)? Thanks Sean
Link Building | | MotoringSEO0 -
What should I look for when choosing a good article directory for SEO purposes?
I have been writing SEO content for blogs for the past year or so, but I am fairly new to article directories. With SEO in mind, what makes a particular article directory valuable? Currently I'm using EzineArticles and Squidoo; I liked Ezine in particular because of their thorough review process. I saw that recently Squidoo also amped up their checks for original content as a result of Google's stricter policies. I was interested in using HubPages also since they are good about reviewing content. I'm just curious how much factors like this reflect on an article directory SEO-wise. Are there any additional factors that set a a good article directory apart?
Link Building | | Madlena0 -
Paid Directories and On-page Keyword SEO
I have a new website and I am getting ready to submit to a few paid directories to get my links started. I wanted to optimize my domain name/keywords for those directories and also for my on page SEO. My domain contains my keywords. For example "www.horsebuggy.net Questions: #1 Should I target the horsebuggy.net in my on-page SEO or just target horse buggy? #2 When I submit to a paid directory which should I choose for my company name. (I currently have a DBA for each term....for ex.. horse buggy and horsebuggy.net . Thank you, Boo
Link Building | | Boodreaux0 -
Why Google is not getting many of the links to my site?
Hello, I have a website for cosmetics, selling and a lot of information (http://www.vipcosmetica.com). For about half a year I've been working also in seo for several google keywords. My question is about the external links to my site. Using different tools, including those of SEOMoz, I see just a few links to my site, however there are plenty, because I've been putting them myself, in public directories, related blogs, industry websites and so on. Alexa shows 5 links only, OpenSiteExplorer shows 4, and Market Samurai 9. I thinks theres should be like 50-60 links, minimum, in pages with good google PR (Youtube, Vimeo, Vulka, Hotfrog, Digg, Flickr, etc.). In Alexa, recently two more links appeared, from two blogs that have copied some content from my site (priveta policy) without changing the original links that point to other pages on my site, and those are the links that Alexa shows now. What could be the reason the rest of the links do not appear at all? Thank you very much
Link Building | | MadridOriflame0 -
What are good sites to get no-follow links from?
Yahoo Answers is a good one. What other sites have you guys used to get no-follow links? Blog comments excluded from this.
Link Building | | qlkasdjfw0