Are directory listings still appropriate in 2013? Aren't they old-style SEO and Penguin-worthy?
-
We have been reviewing our off-page SEO strategy for clients and as part of that process, we are looking at a number of superb info-graphics on the subject. I see that some of current ones still list "Directories" as being part of their off-page strategy.
Aren't these directories mainly there for link-building purposes and provide Users no real benefit? I don't think I've ever seen a directory that I would use, apart for SEO research.
Surely Google's Penguin algorithm would see directories in the same way and give them less value, or even penalise websites that use them to try to boost page rank?
If I were to list my websites on directories it wouldn't be to share my lovely content with people that use directories to find great sites, it would be to sneakily build page rank.
Am I missing the point?
Thanks
Scott -
Thanks, I appreciate your response.
Scott
-
Hi, thanks for you reply. One of my clients, build garden offices and I have explored a lot of garden related directories. There are loads. Defining which is worthy isn't always straight forward. Some sites look good at first glance, but when you dig deeper, they seem pretty spammy. I got caught out with one website which when I added my listing it appeared on thousands of pages in a number of sites under an umbrella called Durokon. All horribly similar. I still can't work out if that site is real or not. I tried to contact them, but no luck, so I'm now assuming it's a link farm of sorts.
I suppose we need to be more critical when doing work like this.
Thanks
Scott -
I think any directory that is either niche relevant or local is still valuable! Especially in terms of local optimization because they also serve as citations!
-
95% of directories are for passing PR and I wouldn't use them for link building. There are only a few like Yahoo or Dmoz that I would consider safe.
-
Scott,
You are right - the majority of directories don't really seem to provide much real value to actual users. I would suggest being extremely critical and conservative if you do decide to pursue 'general' web directory links.
There are niche directories out there such as directories that feature businesses that are green, and electrical contractor directories. These types of hyper relevant directories both add value and Google responds well to them. The more general type of directories are the ones that tend to attract the penguin's wrath. Hope that helps!
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
-
Should I noindex shop page and blog page for SEO?
I have about 15 products in my store. Should I noindex shop and blog page for SEO? The reason I ask this question is because I see someone suggesting noindex archives pages. And the shop page is product archive and blog page is archive too, so should I choose index or noindex? Thanks!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Helloiamgood0 -
Silo architecture and PR dilution! What's real?
Hi all, Today I have gone through this "Silo" concept where we need to build 2nd hierarchy level pages and then lower hierarchy pages further to rank good for related terms of "keyword(s)". But I wonder, is it real? the so called Silo structure? Google may consider that we are trying trick if we create multiple pages (doorway pages) targeting same keyword. And one of my competitors is having too many 2nd hierarchy level pages against this Silo structure and even the homepage rank may dilute by contributing to the so many pages. But their web pages rank good for the keywords they chosen by creating multiple landing pages. These are contrary to each other. How it works in real? Thanks
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | vtmoz0 -
UKBF 'forex' clones appearing
Hi all, Just been looking at my referring domains and it seems someone is taking the pleasure of cloning the UK Business Forums website and adding 'forex' based links on all the external anchors. This includes everyone who is listed in their directory. I've put below the domains I know of, but if anyone else knows of more please add them so we can all get them disavowed. domain:redwood96.ru
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | phero
domain:zanier.it
domain:selskie-zori.ru
domain:gabrielloni.it
domain:reserva-ideal.com
domain:imexaf.com
domain:rassemblementpourjouy.com
domain:windsorlegion.ca
domain:powerconector.com
domain:eltallerdelorfebrewd.com
domain:aepedome.net
domain:spkvarc.ru
domain:mtdnk.ru
domain:koning.rs
domain:rassemblementpourjouy.com
domain:imexaf.com
domain:gabrielloni.it0 -
Submitting url to link directories seen as un-natural link building?
Hi I have been a lurker for a long time, so I finally took the step to make my 1st post, and will hopefully start giving back more in the future since I have gained invaluable info from this great site Background I hired a new freelancer on our team of SEO consultants ("specialists") During the course a month he (the new consultant) submitted our website to numerous link directories (he assured me this is good), today I received the report of the work he had been doing for the past 4-weeks. I opened the report and I was furious and wanted to sack him there and then The Problem / My Question He had submitted our website to 150 directories with various levels of page rank, ranging from 7-1. Most of the directories are totally irrelevant to our niche (we are in the catering business) and he had gone and submitted the site to directories such as "finance busters", "questfinder" etc For all 150 submissions he used: exactly the same url exactly the same title exactly the same description exactly the same keywords My Concern Am I right to be worried about this? Or am I completely wrong and may this actually have an effect (even if none)? The way I see it is that Google is seeing 150 duplicate links coming from irrelevant directories all within a months time, which will trigger a red flag and possibly do major damage to my site, which has always been strictly white hat and been doing pretty well. p.s does link directory submissions even count these days anyway? Thanks for reading and advice very much welcome
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | timthetanker0 -
New Domain Name or Keep going - Help not Recovering after Penguin
Hi Moz Friends I wonder if you can help me , a while ago we had a Penguin Penalty and lost our Rankings. After Months of work Disavow and Reconsiderations , Google sent me a message in Webmaster Tools to confirm the Penalty had been uplifted. Since then we havent recovered. I have been working with Bloggers to build relevant safe links, each having a DA of between 10-30. We have developed a Mobile Friendly Website and ios and Android Apps. We have improved Site Speed and moved to a Server within the same Country. We add lots of content and believe we have ticked all the boxes for onpage optimisation. However our DA and PA seems to have dropped slightly after Moz update today. We seem to be jumping in the serps, one day page 4 for "fancy dress" the next day nowhere to be found. I'm not sure what to do next. I'm not expecting to jump back to page 1 for the main keywords but some positive movement would be nice, especially as there are Lower DA Website, not mobile friendly or as fast above us in the serps. What I am looking for I guess is any ideas from you and also what you think about this idea A few people have mentioned that we might stand more of a chance using our domain name example.com instead of example.co.uk. example.com has never been used and is totaly clean (no penaltys ect..) Do we use example.com and move the website and content away from example.co.uk ? if so do we use redirects or would that just pass any hold thats on example.co.uk to the .com version Ideas Welcome Thanks Adam
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | AMG1000 -
Was I hit by Panda/Payday Loan/Penguin?
Good Mozzing, So, as some of you may know based on my previous post, I am working with an odd situation here. I have taken over an account for a company and the Main domain pretty much falls into the category of everything Google hates. I have suggested to the CEO that the practices they did before me were sorta in the Grayhat realm bordering on Blackhat but I need empirical data before I can make any drastic changes. In May and June of 2013 Panda, Penguin, and Payday Loan all had updates. Our company has nothing do to with porn, apartment rentals, finances, or anything like that, but the SEO methods used were, as I said, questionable. In June of 2013 there was a drop from 8,000 sessions to 5,000 sessions from organic traffic. If I switch over to all referring traffic the loss increases to 11,000 to 7,000 sessions. To me that seems pretty substantial. Not only that, but according to the data we have not been able to recover.There was a steady climb for about 5 months before the drop, and then now we are in this middle ground. I have only been here for about 2 weeks, so the things I have been uncovering are pretty amazing. Is that enough to assume that we were indeed hit by the updates?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | HashtagHustler2 -
I am experiencing referrer spam from http://r-e-f-e-r-e-r.com/ (don't click) - What should I do?
It amazes me that every day in search marketing is filled with something new that I don't know or never heard of. Most of you are probably familiar with referrer spam, but I hadn't ever heard of it before. I am currently experiencing referral spam on my personal blog. What's the best way to get rid of this pest? Shall I ignore them? Block them in my robots.txt file? Use Google's Disavow? or should I just plain holler "Curse you referral spam people!!!" ? Thanks all!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | danatanseo0 -
Press Releases and SEO in 2013
Mozers, A few questions for the community: Distributing a press release through a service like 24-7pressrelease.com - is it a serious duplicate content issue when an identical press release is distributed to multiple sites with no canonical markup (as far as I can tell)? All of the backlinks in the press release are either nofollow or redirects. If there IS a duplicate content issue, will the website be affected negatively given the numerous Panda and Penguin refreshes? Why SHOULDN'T a company issue a press release to multiple sites if it actually has something legitimate to announce and the readership of a given site is the target demographic? For example, why shouldn't a company that manufactures nutritional health supplements issue the same press release to Healthy Living, Lifestyle, Health News, etc _with a link to the site?_I understand it's a method that can be exploited for SEO purposes, but can't all SEO methods be taken to an extreme? Seems to me that if this press release scenario triggers the duplicate content and/or link spam penalty(ies), I'd consider it a slight deficiency of Google's search algorithm. Any insight would be much appreciated. Thanks.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | b40040400