Are Directory Links a Good Source of Branded Links?
-
I am trying to increase the number of branded links for a few of my sites since the links are too heavily weighted on anchor text. If so, would you recommend a service like Directory Maximizer?
-
Good quality directories are indeed a perfect fit for your needs, but I would not use that company or any company at all.
Do your own research for quality directories in your niche and/or locale/country/state, which will take a while, but IS worth it. Try not to use general directories, as there are so many directories out there it is hardly necessary. Do not use any kind of list made available anywhere, just check for "your niche directory" and if you find some high quality ones, do a related:domain.com search, both to check for new opportunities and to check what Google thinks of that directory. If related:domain.com doesn't return any results or returns websites that are not about that niche or locale, I would not submit to that one.
Then check if the exact page your link will be on is indexed in Bing, if it is, then it is pretty likely of good enough quality to carry some weight as Bing only seems to index high quality pages and leaves all the low quality out of the index, in stark contract to Google which indexes every crappy page their bot sees.
This way I find it still safe and functional to use directories, as Google sees that directory as part of your niche/locale AND Bing thinks the quality of the specific page is enough to be indexed. If both these conditions are met, the directory link will carry weight and because you can specify the anchor text, you will make your backlink profile more natural.
Many people are saying don't use directories, but don't believe everything you read, do your own research. If you do enough research you will find good ones and they will help you.
-
nope
-
I'd keep my distance. Google has been clamping down on paid directories, and any sort of automated service like what you're describing would be awfully risky.
-
I would stay away as well. The best way to get links is to earn them and links that are "given" away typically do not carry much weight as anyone could get them.
-
Under no conditions would I ever use any service which submitted links to my site to various directories. The only reason a site owner would do such is an attempt to manipulate search engine ranking, which is the definition of black hat SEO. You are likely to incur a penalty at some point with such a tactic.
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 -
Inbound Links not showing. Links are not no follow
Over the past several months I have definitely received inbound links to my website ( none of which are no follow). I have HubSpot as well s Moz and none of the links are showing. My competitors with the same link sources are showing though. I am completely dumbfounded. Why are my inbound links not showing and how much time does it take for them to show if they show at all? Thank you!
Link Building | | NPatt0 -
Deciding on directories
Hi guys, I've read lots of different opinions on directories and it seems that directories are still a useful part of an SEO strategy. What I'm struggling to understand however is how to know which directories are worth listing with and which may get the company a slapped wrist from Google. Is there an easy way to know such as its domain authority? Cheers in advance for your help! Leo
Link Building | | Leo_Woodhead0 -
The No of Sites linking to www.apollopowersystems.com is 50 as per Alexa, but Moz shows that the no of sites linking is 23\. The no has increased in Alexa but in Moz the no is 23 since 3 months. Why is this Difference?
Hi There, As I am new to SEO, so the problem that I am listing below may seem very naive. Please help me out. Please explain me the difference between the no of backlinks of the website, www.apollopowersystems.com as per the websites below. The nos are completely different as per the websites below: As per www.moz.com the no is 23 As per www.ahrefs.com the no currently is 586 As per www.alexa.com the no is 50 Please tell me why these nos are different. Looking forward to hear from you at the earliest. Thanks in advance.
Link Building | | KDKini0 -
When do my links show up?
For the last two weeks I have been working on linkbuilding. I have downloaded competitors link reports and started contacting or submitting links. In the last two weeks I have gotten about 50-60 or so. In the newest report it shows I went up four c-blocks. Why is that? It is kind of discouraging.
Link Building | | EcommerceSite0 -
Outbound links
We are working with a large, global customer that has asked us to link to their website from about 5,000 pages of our website. The links would either point to one page on their website, or they would point to specific pages throughout their website. Is this a bad thing from an SEO perspective, as in - would either of us be penalized from search engines for doing this?
Link Building | | Prospector-Plastics0 -
Link in the footer
we have a sponsored link in the footer of a website, and since that footer is displayed on each page of that site, it shows that we have thousands of links coming from that site. my question is : does Google consider this as spamming? and does it help us , harm us, or has no effect?
Link Building | | puremobile0 -
Editorial links
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/1999/01/17484 how do you get a link from an article like this where the author writes for a high domain authority site and just ends up listing a lot of links to different companies?
Link Building | | JohnWalker0