Are Directories Still of Any Value?
-
I know directories are an out-dated way to gain backlinks but the more I look into competitors that rank high link porfolio - many of thier top links come from paid directories. Granted, these can be old links but they still maintain highest authority, etc.
Do you guys find directories still valuable as a linking building strategy?
-
I will start out by saying I am not answering your question, really. The whole reason I found your question here is because I was about to jump on and ask THE VERY SAME QUESTION.
I am working on several projects, and on at least 75% of the projects, I am seeing the exact same thing. The one or two sites I am targeting in OSE are CRUSHING ME with what Google and Cutts would perceive as crappy backlink sites. I have seen some people have responded to your question by saying "don't let OSE, Raven, Majestic or whatever" be your guiding light in this regard, as Google doesn't use any of these services.
But the pattern cannot be denied. Backlinks STILL work. Now, it's possible this could change at any time, and I am - for the most part - refraining from duplicating their (in Google's opinion) backlink strategies on these thin directory sites.
However, it is really difficult to explain to your client why slow and steady will be better in the long term for their SERP efforts than blasting their link and anchor text out to dozens or hundreds of sites.
Of course, there is this - which was pointed out on inbound.org I believe:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/34432?hl=en
Before May 27:
In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.
After May 27:
In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by creating high-quality sites that users will want to use and share.
==
With this in mind, I think a lot of those sh*tty backlinks that are beating my arse are likely on their last leg.
Again, this is all conjecture. But that sly change with no real announcement is interesting, no?
edited for formatting
-
Yes your Right my friend, Now a days Some of directory sites are not good for you to submit. The best thing for you Dylan, is find a Relevant Directories Surely you will be a Successor!
-
I would strongly suggest only submitting to directories that you believe will benefit you outside of search. i.e. directories that will deliver relevant traffic by themselves.
-
I agree with Matt, there is no go-to directory. A directory or listing can have value for one site but not for another based on relevance, location, and site quality.
If you're looking for a list of directories that MIGHT be valuable then you're going about it all wrong. Don't waste your time with directory listings. Instead, spend time building good off-site content and link bait. Look at the two following discussions for ideas and caveats.
http://moz.com/community/q/niche-directories
http://moz.com/community/q/seomoz-directory-list-some-clarity-needed
-
I was hoping that wasn't going to be the part of that reply you focused on!
Honestly, I don't think that there is a single "go to" directory that I would use for every project. The ones that have value are those that are valuable resources that just happen to be in directory format. The common themes are that they are likely to be hand curated, tricky to get in to and cover one particular niche. They will also often form part of a larger site that has a user base that actually uses that directory.
-
I think it depends on the actual directory as well as its relation to the website's niche. Some directories will still hold value, while others might actually hurt a site. If the directory is related to the site's niche and has a natural www, http, or branded anchor text then they should offer value. With paid directories I would be super careful though, unless it's something like the BBB.
Local directories and citations are still important for local business site rankings too. In addition they give awesome referral traffic because the site or business profile page will show up in serps.
Some of our clients have old directory listings with anchor text that is over-optimized, so we're working on diversifying and/or removing them completely.
When you look at these competitors' paid directory links and their authority, you also need to consider a couple of other things: their relevance to that directory's topic, the date the listing was created, and whether a user would find that listing valuable. At the end of the day it's all about user experience, and there are still a few directories out there whose listings would be valuable to a user if they found them in a search.
Does anyone else have any advice on directories and their place in a site's link portfolio?
Hope this helps
-
Can you list what you think are good directories to name a few?
-
but they still maintain highest authority, etc.
Be very very careful with that assumption. Just because OSE (or whatever your backlink analysis tool of choice is) reports a high metric for a link, it does not mean that link actually has any value. Google doesn't use OSE! (or majestic / ahrefs etc). Only they know for certain which links are passing authority/weight and how much and we know that they have cautioned us about directories.
Use of directories for backlinks is one of the strongest correlation factors I have witnessed with site that have dropped during Penguin updates. Be very very careful indeed.
Now - all that said... here is where I seem to contradict myself!
Some directories are great! Google doesn't actually have an issue with directories. It has an issue with links that have no value - which includes the vast majority of directories. Those that do count though are few and far between and it is now probably best to steer clear if you are not certain.
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
-
Assessing the true value of a backlink
I want to start a discussion about assessing the true value of a backlink. Here's a scenario: I've just started working on SEO for a new client. Once I've got the strategy stuff out of the way, I like to start by looking at backlinks that competitors have. I use Moz OSE (and other tools) and filter by followed links to the root domain. This gives a good starting sense of where competitors are getting links from. As I start to explore those links, I see some black-hat (or grey-hat) practices at play: display:none links, footer links, sidebar links, comment spam, etc. The problem I have is, there seems to be no way of knowing whether or not those links are responsible for boosting the competitors rankings. They come from sites that have good DA and PA, yet we're told that tactics like display:none and comment spam will either get those links devalued or may cause some sort of manual action. My question is, how do others evaluate the full spectrum of the value a link has that goes beyond trust, authority, and citation flow?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | SEMbyotic2 -
Are link directories still effective? is there a risk?
We've contracted a traditional SEO firm, mostly for link building. As part of their plan they want to submit our site to a large list of link directories, and we're not sure if that's a good option. As far as we know, those directories have been ineffective for a long time now, and we're wondering if there is the chance of getting penalized by google. When I asked the agency their opinion about that, they gave me the following answer - Updated and optimized by us - We are partnered with these sites and control quality of these sites. Unique Class C IP address - Links from unique Referring Class C IP plays a very important role in SEO. Powered by high PR backlinks Domain Authority (DA) Score of over 20 These directories are well categorized. So they actually control those directories themselves, which we think is even worse. I'm wondering what does the Moz community think about link directory submission - is there still something to be gained there, is there any risk involved, etc. Thanks!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | binpress0 -
Is Best of the Web a good directory to pay to be listed on?
We are currently paying to have a listing in the directory Best of the Web. Should I be paying to renew our listing in this directory?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | djlittman0 -
Link directories question
Looking over a clients site and they have a bunch of link directory links that seem very skeptical to me, but the mozrank and authority seem to be ok on the home page. One directory is addlinkzfree and they have the same template and layout as a few other directories this client has. Link page has no juice whatsover, but home page has PA 54, MR 5.04 and root domain is DA 45. At first glance this would appear to be respectable numbers right? But the title of the directory and multitude of links lead me to think its nothing but a link farm. Should I advise the client to run and try to remove links from these type sites even though home page has decent scores? Im of the mindset that anything diredctory with links, free, partners etc in title need be avoided. Would appreciate any backup on this or am I just being paranoid?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | anthonytjm0 -
Who's still being outranked by spam?
Over the past few months, through Google Alerts, I've been watching one of our competitors kick out crap press releases, and links to their site have been popping up all over blog networks with exact match anchor text. They now outrank us for that anchor text. Why is this still happening? Three Penguin updates later and this still happens. I'm trying so hard to do #RCS and acquire links that will ensure our site's long-term health in the SERPs. Is anyone else still struggling with this crap?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | UnderRugSwept2 -
Bid Directories - Recipe for success or disaster?
Hi There SEO Elite, One of my competitors has recently gone from page 3 to well above me on page 1 on our moderately high competitive keyword. Their site has 20 pages and ours is a combined e-commerce / niche information site with 1000 pages+ of which 40 are purely informational written by us,300 PDF brochures and 550+products with mostly hand written descriptions. On looking at the competitor's links in Open Site explorer, they had huge numbers of inbound links from bid directories with many using anchor text of the keyword, and usually $2 bids. Many of the bid directories are 'linked' as they all have an almost identical template and menu etc. But these are all giving the top PA and DAs on their report. Their DA, PA and LRD is also marginally less than ours? Our total links is 26,000 theirs is 100? Shouldn't penguin be burying them for these low quality paid links? Or is it just not been gotten around to yet? They seem to be sailing high on $500 worth of Bid Directory links. To follow or stay away?.....that is the question Also, other competitors have Yahoo directory listings. These are $300. Is Yahoo directory entry worth it for our SEO with Google being 80-85% of my inbound search traffic? Thanks for your advice
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | BM70 -
Check For Bad Directory Backlinks For Free
I used http://deletebacklinks.com/ yesterday to search 7 of the directories they have access to for searching bad links. I found one of my sites had links on these directories and I was able to remove them for fairly reasonable price. Thought this is a good tool to do a free quick check for any bad linkbacks on deindexed directories. I know this may be a small portion but every little bit helps.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | TheSEODR0 -
40,000 High Value Links - Sold?
I'm a developer spending ever more time on SEO for SMBs. I've never had cause to buy links. Not one bit. I've done ok. Until now that is. Now I am getting my arse kicked into last year. By, I think, a top SEO company. Really, you know these guys and they are whiter than white. But what they have achieved seems an impossibilty to me using white hat techniques. Maybe they are from another planet than me. Or maybe something else is going on. In six months they have built 40,000+ links. These are unbelievably high quality links in their thousands. Really top notch. Keyword rich anchors slap bang in relevant content on great, great sites such as newspapers, univertsities, government, corporate, charity etc. Nothing spammy at all. Amazing. I was skimming but I found nothing to question at all until link 800 which was a cloaked link on a well known review site's product page. But generally the high quality sustained. Gradually, some began to feel somewhat worked into the content, although worked very well. 2000 links in and there are still magazine and review sites, still page authority 40+. There are still local government sites at 10,000 links when the export file ends. I go dizzy at the thought of the remaining 30,000. How far down could this quality have gone? Gulp. I am in awe, intimdated...and a little suspicious. How on earth do you do that with a pure white hat on? Actually, whatever colour your hat - how on earth do you do that? Rand's position is clear. He doesn't do it. Other's are less unambiguous. Comments like "I do it, you do it, we all do it" go unchallenged. Even on a recent link buying question here on SEOMoz most comments say don't do it but one advocates "Paid, targeted, individually prospected links". Am I too suspicious - a fool trying to rationalise my relatively pathetic link building? Honestly, you should just see these links. Of course, maybe some of you have. 🙂 Come on, please don't tell these guys simply worked hard. But maybe that's the harsh truth I cannot face. I have to say I cannot see the site generating an income to pay for the man hours needed for 40,000 high-value, white-hat links but then what do I know. Tell me, what do you think: Is it possible to build 40,000 very high value links in six months using pure white hat techniques - or is there another way? Phil
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Phil_2