Which directories to use?
-
I've recently has a conversation with a colleague regarding which directories to use when link building. In her opinion we should use only the ones that are relevant and nothing else. For example if you're working on a travel website, you should only submit either to travel directories or local directories (based on the business location). In my opinion yes we should submit to these directories but then you'll reach a limit and then you need to submit to general directories that have the "travel" category, even if the business is in NY and the directory is in India, as long as it is a good directory and has the relevant category.
What is your opinion about this?
-
The link is dead, it goes here http://www.whitelistproject.com/
-
I agree with most of what Tom pointed out.
Directories in general are outdated and not many people use them. Thus they have no value and rightly so.
However, this is not true for every industry. There are some animals out there for some industries like ThomasNet (Paid), Designt2Part (Paid), Eng-Tips, Efunda, are all good for manufactures and engineering. The difference here is these sites actually add value to users looking for companies and services.
Additionally, DMOZ.org still seems worth while getting but I wouldn't fret if they don't add you.
Hope that helps
-
The problem is not the client, but the marketing agency I work for. They do link submission to directories and if I want to work there, I have to do it too. I'll have a look in to that list, thank you.
-
Who's the SEO consultant here? You or the client? If they won't listen to your recommendations and want to rely on crap tactics, let them get on with it themselves.
If you must use directories, I would do as your colleague says and only use industry specific ones, or location specific ones. General directories are not only link-farms but they will not be able to pass on strength to your website due to indexing issues.
Check out the SEOMoz Directories list for some of the 'better' ones out there.
-
Thank you but this client really wants directory submission so I have no chance. Can you please answer my question? Thank you.
-
My advice would be not to use any directories at all.
Directories offer very little user value (no real web user uses directories any more - at a push they use very local ones) and consequently they offer very little SEO value. What I have seen consistently since the turn of the year are links coming from directories being completely devalued. It has been a common theme in the Moz forums that people experience ranking drops for homepage keywords, with no apparent penalty. A look at their link profile shows that the majority of their links are coming from directories, pointing to the homepage. They're low quality links and Google has been quite proactive in devaluing directory links on the fly every month or so.
There are infinitely better ways to earn high quality links to your website. Don't bother wasting your time and money with directories and focus your efforts elsewhere. Start creating content that is going to accrue high quality links over a sustained period of time.
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
-
I use to have very good ranking for my website, now I'm struggling
I use to have very good ranking for my website, now I'm struggling with ranking, I've been trying almost everything, I purchased an advance link building, a contextual link building campaign with Submit, and doesn't seem to be working. Any recommendations!
Link Building | | desdetj0 -
Worth paying for directory listings?
I'm going through the recommended SEO directory list but I notice that most of them are paid listings. I have been told that it is not worth spending any money on this, so why are there so many recommended in this list?
Link Building | | BridalHotspot0 -
My competitors all seem to use "junk" pages to rank / backlink, how to compete and not cheat
Hello, Page 1 of Google for the word "copier lease" and most other valuable copier leasing terms are dominated by the same 4-5 for organic (PPC too of course, but organic is what I want) They all use some SEO company, so when I go and look for good link oppertunities, most of the pages I find are just SEO companies who of couse would never be interested in a competitor's link. Examples: ajaxunion blogspot com or excellentpoly blogspot com and the list goes on, all just AjaxUnion "blog pages". blog homerenovationguide com /2011/06/15/repair-or-replace is just inhouse SEO making ranking pages for CostOwl. So, its hard NOT to want to throw up a blog farm and do as "the Romans do". What ideas do you all have to get backlinks in this market of Copier Leasing that would hold up. Thanks 6SW66.png 6SW66.png
Link Building | | einstein99992 -
To list in paid directory or not to list in a paid directory?
Can anyone give a yes or no as to whether paid directory listings are any use from an SEO perspective or is money better spent elsewhere? Thanks!
Link Building | | ebowdublin0 -
Is bold text anchor link worth the higher price tag in directory listing?
Does it make a difference with Google if anchor link text is bold? The niche directory is offering regular lifetime listing for $199 (actual page pr 6) or bold for $349 (same page, same position). Also bold link has option of including email address. Does email address have any effect on SEO? Seems like a bad deal for bold, isn't it?
Link Building | | SirMax0 -
Yahoo Directory Question
I'm working on building some links for a used car store and thinking about submitting a site to the Yahoo Directory. The page that I want to rank for this category is not the homepage of the site (as the store also sells new vehicles), so I'm curious if anyone knows if I can submit a specific page instead? If not, how does the idea sound of creating a separate domain that 301 redirects to my page of choice and submit that to the directory? EDIT: Found this in the Yahoo TOS: "The site may not appear in the Directory under a different URL." "The site must not be dedicated to directing the user to another page." Hm. Any ideas? Should I just submit the homepage?
Link Building | | kylesuss0 -
Link building and directory links to a new site
I have three new sites all hosted on the same server in the same public html folder and each site is in a different folder inside the public html folder. These sites are a listing of live music venues in different cities in Texas. Should I link these sites together to increase page rank to each other and also put key search phrases in the anchor text and place these links in the text in the center of each page of each site to make the links more effective? Also, because the sites are about a year old they don't have many inlinks yet. If i submit them to about 50 directories will Google not like this because there are way more directory links than natural links? I've been told that it is trouble to have more than about 50% directory links compared to natural links. Thanks in advance for your answers! Take care,
Link Building | | Ron10
Ron0 -
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