Which directories to use?
-
I've recently has a conversation with a colleague regarding which directories to use when link building. In her opinion we should use only the ones that are relevant and nothing else. For example if you're working on a travel website, you should only submit either to travel directories or local directories (based on the business location). In my opinion yes we should submit to these directories but then you'll reach a limit and then you need to submit to general directories that have the "travel" category, even if the business is in NY and the directory is in India, as long as it is a good directory and has the relevant category.
What is your opinion about this?
-
The link is dead, it goes here http://www.whitelistproject.com/
-
I agree with most of what Tom pointed out.
Directories in general are outdated and not many people use them. Thus they have no value and rightly so.
However, this is not true for every industry. There are some animals out there for some industries like ThomasNet (Paid), Designt2Part (Paid), Eng-Tips, Efunda, are all good for manufactures and engineering. The difference here is these sites actually add value to users looking for companies and services.
Additionally, DMOZ.org still seems worth while getting but I wouldn't fret if they don't add you.
Hope that helps
-
The problem is not the client, but the marketing agency I work for. They do link submission to directories and if I want to work there, I have to do it too. I'll have a look in to that list, thank you.
-
Who's the SEO consultant here? You or the client? If they won't listen to your recommendations and want to rely on crap tactics, let them get on with it themselves.
If you must use directories, I would do as your colleague says and only use industry specific ones, or location specific ones. General directories are not only link-farms but they will not be able to pass on strength to your website due to indexing issues.
Check out the SEOMoz Directories list for some of the 'better' ones out there.
-
Thank you but this client really wants directory submission so I have no chance. Can you please answer my question? Thank you.
-
My advice would be not to use any directories at all.
Directories offer very little user value (no real web user uses directories any more - at a push they use very local ones) and consequently they offer very little SEO value. What I have seen consistently since the turn of the year are links coming from directories being completely devalued. It has been a common theme in the Moz forums that people experience ranking drops for homepage keywords, with no apparent penalty. A look at their link profile shows that the majority of their links are coming from directories, pointing to the homepage. They're low quality links and Google has been quite proactive in devaluing directory links on the fly every month or so.
There are infinitely better ways to earn high quality links to your website. Don't bother wasting your time and money with directories and focus your efforts elsewhere. Start creating content that is going to accrue high quality links over a sustained period of time.
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
-
Does Dofollow links from forumn profiles, blog comments, business directories or article directories etc have any impact?
Hi guys, So looking at my competitors in my city a lot of the people ranking on 2nd, 3rd pages and so forth have little or no quality backlinks, instead, their links are all from business directories, forum profiles and blog comments. I saw google employees saying easy to create links hold very little value and it's easy for the algorithm to distinguish been easy to obtain backlinks and difficult ones. From what I see on my competition backlink profiles, they may not get them to the front page but they do get them to pages, two three and four. I was wondering if creating say 20-30 easy links per week and also focus on obtaining high-quality backlinks. Would they be any penalties for 20-30 easy to make links a week from Google? Cheers
Link Building | | sydneygardening0 -
Directory sites in 2013
Are there any directory sites or article/press relies sites that are worth getting links on in the post panda/penguin worked of 2013?
Link Building | | mark_baird0 -
Worth paying for directory listings?
I'm going through the recommended SEO directory list but I notice that most of them are paid listings. I have been told that it is not worth spending any money on this, so why are there so many recommended in this list?
Link Building | | BridalHotspot0 -
Would it make sense to add a no-follow to About, Sign In, Join Us, Privacy, Terms of Use etc?
Hi everyone, In order to increase link juice for relevant interlinks, wouldn't it make sense to attribute no-follow to the following interlinks: About Us, Sign In, Join Us, Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, Security, Contact Us, Home (assuming brand name / logo also links to homepage), and any page where there are 2 or more links directing to the same page. Thank you, Kristian
Link Building | | knielsen0 -
Directories for backlinks
Hello, I was wondering whether directories are a good source of creating quality back links? Thanks
Link Building | | PeterAllen910 -
About Paying 300$ to "Best of The Web Blogs" Directory
Am Planning to pay 300$ to http://blogs.botw.org/ a seomoz recommended directory to get my website listed there plz suggest if this is a wise decision from SEO perspective or not thanks in advance
Link Building | | ksbnok0 -
Yahoo Directory unable to access a domain for submission
Tried submitting a website to Yahoo!'s directory but each time no matter how i input the domain i get the following error: We were unable to access your web page. Please double-check your URL. Is there anyway to contact Yahoo! to request a manual submission?
Link Building | | EAOM1 -
I'm aware that spamming tools can lead to ruin..what do you use as a backlink strategy.
But I have had some luck with bookkmaRKING DEMON, and understand the pitfalls of massive submission, but I deal in facts not generalities. If the goal is to mix your links accross the pages in your site, and mix the DA quality, or pr of the links, and have them contextual as well as comments, directories, etc. who cares how it is done as long as it appears natural 1. Linkvana claims to be a posting service for you. you put text in with your link and it posts to relevant sites, the same as you would do manually. For my context links I see this as a better way than begging people to give me a link, or wasting time kissing butt of reporters (kike i did in the past). Anyway there is good and bad with everything. I want to know if anyone knows of anyone who used linkvana and what their experiences is ? And more importantly.... WHAT DOES EVERYONE USE AS A COMPLETE BACK LINK STRATEGY? Thanks
Link Building | | joemas990