Large Paid Directories - Still Worth It?

[bradkrussell]

Hi,

So we've heard all the updates from Google lately: don't get involved in buying links, link networks etc etc.

My question is, does buying a link from one of the traditional large directories get penalised by Google? If I was to buy a link from Best of the Web - http://botw.org/ - would this be a waste of time? Would I get penalised?

If we are only buying 2-3 high value links for our site from very high quality directories, do you think this is fine?

I'm asking because BOTW is having a sale today (tomorrow US time), half price submission.

Thanks!

Edit: Paid directories such as this are still featured on SEOmoz - http://www.seomoz.org/directories - so I'm thinking they still have value if used sparingly?

[SEOIntouch]

You are correct, BOTW isnt one of them- it is currently marked in LinkDetox as a "toxic" link

[Webmaster_SEO]

Getting links from directories like Yohoo and BOTW are not considered paid links by Google due to their authority and also because the amount they charge is towards editorial fee and they still reserve the right to reject any spam site.

Having said that, due to recent changes in the way Google uses incoming links in determining ranking these links might have no to little effect in rankings. They still might get some direct traffic.

[Gyorgy]

Don't expect too much improvement from those directory links. They're good to start a project but you'll need a lot more to achieve good rankings.

[RankSurge]

Google knows that there are high quality directories out there, and BOTW is one of them. Since Google knows that real humans are reviewing the sites that are submitted and allowed to appear on the site, it's a quality service that benefits the web.

While the list of high quality directories is small, they are certainly worth getting for any link building campaign.

[Boodreaux]

We will see...I just got BOTW and Business.com a couple weeks ago...looking forward to the April 27th crawl for updated rankings.

[Gyorgy]

As far I know, registering your business in these well known directories is not considered as "link buying". These are "quality" business directories and (according to them) they do filter dodgy, spammy, low quality websites.

I've registered a large number of websites in BOTW, Yahoo, Business.com, etc and never had any penalties.