What are the best paid directories today?
-
Looking to do some paid directory submissions and was wondering if a) they were still worth the money and b) if you have $500-$1,000 what paid directories would you submit too?
I am assuming that BOTW is still on the list, but I rarely every see a BOTW link in any backlink report. Are they still relevant or are they more a sign of quality to the engines rather than an actual link?
Same with JoeAnt
-
I respectfully disagree. I know they don't necessarily pass loads of link juice but some of the paid directories don't have all the millions of spammy links to spammy sites in... because they're paid. Some are very, very cheap too. I know most are rubbish and not worth squat but there's still lots which are cheap and do pass link juice which far outweighs the cost.
Also the paid ones add you much faster... and if you want a diverse backlink profile it's worth getting a bunch of directories in there as well as your other link types... rely on the free ones and you could be waiting forever for that.
-
All y'all SEO clever men be saying that paid directories (and fo' sho unpaid ones) ain't worth diddly.So how come when I open a can of Open Site Explorer on the a** of my (breathin'-down-my-neck) rivals, their (meant to be worthless) directories be passin' them lots and lots of link love? Riddle me that, people.
-
Look for directories that have a review process and don't just let anyone in. You can tell if they have a good review process by looking at the other sites in the directory. If the directory lets crappy sites in and charges a fee for inclusion, it isn't going to be as valuable to you as a site that charges a fee for "review" and doesn't guarantee inclusion - especially if that site only includes high-quality websites. Many of the ones Wissam mentioned would fit that description and, IMHO, are worth submitting to.
I disagree that there is no benefit to SEO from paid directories as a blanket statement. Like all things in SEO, diversity, moderation and common sense will usually give you the correct answer. And correct answers aren't always, or even often, black and white.
You mentioned sports niche directories. Niche directories are another example of ones that are often worth submitting to. But all in moderation.
This tool will help you if you haven't used it already:
As will searches like this, which Wissam probably used to find you those examples:
-
I understand. In that case as I stated in my edit I don't think most of the "well known" directories of that sort have a whole lot of their link value passed through by Google. I would say the money could definitely be invested in another tactic that will provide a better ROI, but that is of course an opinion which could be incorrect.
-
Not looking to buy links Frank. Looking to add links of quality. I know that BOTW or Yahoo directory are quality links, even tough they don't always show up in backlinks. Looking for similar directories
-
Hi David,
First of all you need to keep in mind that paid directories may be able to take your money, but they can never take YOUR FREEEDOOMMMMM!!!!!
Now that I've got that out of the way (and hopefully delivered a mild chuckle at least) on to the business at hand.
There is a fundamental problem with "paid" directories. That being they have 2 options when it comes to the links they provide from their directory listings. They either need to 'nofollow' the links to not have Google penalize them as a link buying service, or they need to hide the fact that they are indeed basically just a link buying service... otherwise Google will likely penalize them.
You need to look at a paid directory from Google's point of view. If the directory is openly advertising that you can pay them for inclusion, and thus get a link from their site for the money then Google has just about no choice but to flag the directory as a link buying service.
If the directory already links to your site for free as a service to their customers, Google can consider them a legitimate service and not penalize the directory. Many directories of course do this and then offer premium type services that business can pay for and not receive any Google penalty from (yelp and even the BBB being great examples). In this case, though, you're not really receiving any extra "link juice" for the service you're buying. You're usually just receiving extra visibility or an endorsement of some sort.
So in short, if you're trying to find a paid directory for the purposes of acquiring links I would strongly suggest you rethink your strategy. If you are, however, simply looking to "buy links" then disregard this advice.
EDIT - Something I realized I need to add. You stated you do recognize that BotW rarely shows up in back link reports. Site's such as BotW and others (JoeAnt and so on) I think don't pass much link juice through to websites from Google and Bing. The search engines recognize that these sites offer paid review services, and while it's certainly not like link buying because instead there are editors supposedly quality checking the URL's submitted, I would guess the search engines still do not pass full link value on to websites.
I could be very wrong of course - I've just never seen any noticeable impact from going through directories such as those.
-
David,
I do not see the benefit of paid directories for SEO. I would rather invest that amount towards testing out the efficacy of my target keywords through PPC.
-
here is a couple with a lil research:
- http://www.business-directory-uk.co.uk/sports.htm
- http://www.mysoccerlinks.com/
- http://www.londonmmxiiolympics.com/
- http://www.golfshack.net/
Cheers
-
Thanx fo the quick response. Do you know any directories in the sports niche or uk specific?
-
there is alot of good directories, please put in mind the more relevancy of the directory to more valuale it is for you
here is a couple:
- www.dirjournal.com
- Yahoo Directory
- Canny Link
- JoeAnt.com
- Ezilon
- Jayde
- Skaffe
- BOTW
- Aviva 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
-
Why do the best ranking websites not seem to follow SEO best practice, particularly in terms of link building?
I work for an online retailer, which predominantly sells perfume products. In recent months, we have been spending more and more time on SEO, particularly in terms of improving our content, and as part of our strategy we have been working with beauty bloggers in particular (independent reviews, articles etc) to increase the number of links to our website. Whilst we’ve seen steady improvements, we are concerned that some of the key words/phrases we are targeting still aren’t ranking as high as we would like. Some weeks they will move up a few places, but more often than not, they will then move back down. We are more frustrated as we are seeing other websites, which are much poorer in terms of quality content, number of products, etc., ranking quite highly for these terms. From analysing these sites, it seems they are achieving their high ranking from having a considerable number of what appear to be poor quality links. We have been warned countless times to avoid link farms, etc., yet these sites have 100s even 1000s of links coming from suspect sites and it isn’t doing them any harm. Recently, we noticed a lot of our competitors are receiving links from websites such as LinkPartners. When we checked the website, we could see that whilst it appears to be a fairly SPAMMY website, its domain authority (67) is actually quite high. Should we base our decision about whether or not to place a link somewhere solely on how high their domain authority is, i.e. would it be more beneficial to us to have a link with what appears to be a link farm if their domain authority is high, than what appears to be a fantastic independent beauty blog with a low domain authority? Or should we avoid these sites whatever the circumstances? It’s slightly confusing for us as we are being warned about placing links on websites as google is apparently going to penalise us for it, but then we see our rival sites doing well by simply placing links everywhere they can.
Link Building | | DazzaH1 -
Are Directory links relevant?
What are everyone's thoughts on directory links now a days? I'm talking about the old tried and true ones, like Yahoo directory and DMOZ? We had previously been on a couple and removed the links, thinking it was hurting us. But we've been falling in rankings for a while now, and I'm trying to think of some ways to bring us back up (even if they're small). Do you think it would be worth it to be added back in? Anyone's thoughts on this would be appreciated.
Link Building | | Viewpoints0 -
How do I remove bad web directory listings?
I am starting SEO for an E commerce website. I guess like 1 year or two ago they had another SEO company working for them. After looking in Site explorer I realized that they have like 2000 links (almost all from website directories) that have the correct anchor text but are all in the wrong categories, and most from countries like china and india. Many of the Titles are even in Chinese. This company sells packaging supplies and they are in categories like real estate, animals, and so on. I am changing the domain name, so I guess any links to internal pages will be lost, however I have to forward the main domain to my new domain, so any links to the home page will still be there. Does anyone know how I can remove these links??
Link Building | | DTOSI0 -
What is the best platform or tool for Link Management?
I'm looking at Raven Tools and Wordtracker's Link-Builder, and am open to others.....Any thoughts, recommendations or insights would be appreciated. Thanks!
Link Building | | WhiteCap0 -
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 -
Best SEO Bang For Buck from $1000
I'm a developer with little SEO / Marketing skills. I've recently redesigned my site ( www.habitmix.com ), I think the site is great but it doesn't get a lot of organic search traffic (about 30 visits a day). I have $1000 available to spend in next couple of weeks and am wondering what the best way to use the money would be. I realize SEO is a long term process not a one time job, and I realize $1000 isn't a big budget. So far I am considering : Finding someone on ODesk to create blog content, say a post a day for a month Finding an SEO company to analyse the site and create a link building strategy for me to execute. Surely there are a lot of other ways I could spend my $1000 that would help grow organic traffic. Any suggestions appreciated. Cheers Sam
Link Building | | samh0 -
Any one have a list of directories still good idea to submit too
I have a client who's competition is in the BBB, yahoo directory, best of the web sort of the standard ones. My client is empathetic about being in more places than their competition so a i am hoping for some help. I wasnt sure if the seomoz content of this is really relevant, seems a little dated on this specific topic.
Link Building | | EvolveDigitalLabs0 -
What percentage of my links should be directory links
I feel a lot of my link building might be a bit heavy on the directory links side. Should I limit the percentage amount of links as a part of my overall link profile? If yes what percentage of links is ok to be directory links?
Link Building | | iSenseWebSolutions0