Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Link Directories - Good or bad?
-
I've just done a search on open site explorer for a competitors site that has is ranked number one. Most of their highest authority backlinks are from link directories. I just read an article on here saying to stay away from directories that state things like 'seo friendly directory'. Many of my competitors links are from these kind of sites! Will it harm me to get links from such sites? It seems to be working for my competitors.... confused.com!
-
It depends. Directories are not all bad. Think about it beyond the SEO perspective - any business should list itself in directories that would bring customers. One thing you should never do is pay for a directory listing - that's a paid link and we all know how Google feels about those.
Regarding your competitors, there are so many other factors that could be contributing to their rankings (domain age, keywords in URL, site architecture, unique linking domains, quality of on-site content, social media sharing) that I would not consider the directories as a major source of juice.
-
"good mix of link directories and natural links"
Exactly, that's what I was missing in my first reply.
You're still going to need those legitimately earned backlinks to go within your link portfolio. Just replying on 50,000 directory submissions might get you a burst up front, but that will fade away very, very quickly.
-
I believe the link directories are fine within reason. Don't rely only on link directories but submitting to them I have found did any harm. I think if you have a good mix of link directories and natural links you will be fine. I would avoid low page rank directories.
-
I am yet to find any harm in these (assuming you don't post to ones that carry bad links, ie. outbound links to gambling sites, xxx sites, etc).
If link directories were so bad, how come some of them are as respected by Google as they are (PR7/8/9's).
Just don't go overboard, and don't expect a whole lot from them. Get your keywords right, and use approx. 10 different keywords/phrases throughout. Also throw in your brand name as a set of anchor text.
So, let's say you found a package to submit to 1,000 directories. Chop that into 10 different anchor text's (max, and 10 might be pushing it), so you'll now get approx. 100 links to different pages of your site with different anchor texts. And don't forget to use your brand name for 100 of those.
Like you said, every time I do research on competitor's backlinks, they always, and I means always, have thousands of links in link directories, and are top 3 in the SERP's. So I have found it hard to believe that it's a bad practice, even though every SEO guru on the planet will try and tell you otherwise.
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
-
Value of Links? What is each link worth?
Morning Everyone, I just had this thought and wondered what everyone's opinions were in terms of link value in monetary terms. We'll assume for the purposes of this that the links come from contextually relevant sites and that the sites in question have got the Moz DA from being high quality and have a good quality incoming link profile. Its a bit of a theoretical question, but i guess imagine if the only way you could get links was to pay for them, what would they be worth to you. This is link value for SEO purposes, they will have in addition value from traffic from good sites, that no doubt varies wildly depending on topic. I assume everyone also agrees on: The first link from a domain is the most valuable High DA sites are worth more than low ones. So could anyone who has an opinion on the link value suggest a monetary value for links. Its really just using a monetary amount to see how best to target my time. Here is my example of what might be expected, but I am hoping people with more knowledge will perhaps correct it. DA Rating First Link 2nd-5th Link 5th-10th Link 10Plus Links 5 $5 $2 $1 $0 15 $7 $3 $2 $1 25 $25 $10 $5 $2 35 $45 $20 $7 $3 45 $65 $30 $11 $4 55 $95 $45 $19 $5 65 $200 $100 $45 $6 75 $350 $120 $65 $9 85 $700 $240 $95 $15 95 $1100 $450 $200 $30
Link Building | | wellandpower1 -
Redirecting dofollow, high-domain-authority links from one site to another: good idea?
I have two sites that offer help for freelance writers. The first gets almost no search traffic and is very low priority for me. The second is my main priority and gets substantial search traffic. The low-priority site has a significant number of dofollow backlinks from high-domain-authority sites. Is it a good idea to 301 redirect these links to similar/related posts on my high-priority site? Would this potentially boost the SEO of my high-priority site? Thanks for any help!
Link Building | | John88990 -
Backlinks vs External Links vs Referral Links vs Outbound links
Hello all, I was just wondering if you could explain the difference between all the links above? I'm confused as they all seem to be the same or similar and I would just like to clearly know what distinguishes them from eachother. Thanks for your help, Jayne
Link Building | | NCOREGSEO0 -
How many links per week/month should a link building campaign acquire?
I am running a linkbuilding campaign for my company. I am mostly focusing on guest blogging opportunities and responding to emails from HARO. How many links would I have to acquire each week or month to be considered doing a good job over a 6 month or a year time period? Thank you,
Link Building | | fersu0 -
Is tiered link building a good thing?
I think that I have watched all the webinairs and online courses available on the web, but I still don't seem to know how and where to get links from. I know what type of links I should be getting and what type I should be avoiding, but that little luck so far. I came across the website of Matthew Woodward about tiered link building where he explains how to do this type of link building in depth. It seems quite interesting but also a lot of work so I don't want to invest my precious time in something that will be penalised by Google in the near future. Is there anyone that can give me some reason why I should or shouldn't do this?
Link Building | | BridalHotspot0
