Link DIrectories - Is it a Good Idea with recent Panda Updates
-
Yo!
I have been doing a tonn of research on a few of my top competitors and have noticed that a decent percentage of their links are from link directories. Most of these directories seem organized and the links on the pages are relevant to the selected category. These pages offer both free link submission and a paid feature link submission.
My question is that is it a good idea to submit my site to these directories with the recent Panda update(s). I have read a bit about it, but still do not fully grasp the overall picture of it.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
-
Hi guys, some good answers above, however in regards to Panda I do not believe link building is directly connected. Are links from Panda hit sites as valuable as they used to be? That is still being debated and I am yet to see any clear tests on it. Although commons sense tells me links from pages Google deems poor should have less value!
However you can read a little about it on question 3 here: http://www.sugarrae.com/link-development/link-building-with-the-experts-2011-edition/ (although it is worth reading the whole article!)
-
what happens if after your article what got a couple of links, you still dont rank...what then?
Then the article is probably not as good as it needed to be. It's then time to figure out where you missed.
-
Ask those who did link to the article what made it stand out to them.
-
Ask other experts on the same topic what information they would find helpful enough to cause them to want to link to an article.
-
Ask yourself "how can I improve?". Could you add images or videos or graphics? If you already have those items, can they be improved?
-
Can you add more details? Or perhaps summarize points better? Can you tie in to current events which would make the article more relevant to what's happening in the world today?
-
Is the article supported by experts? What evidence do you offer to support the article?
Look at a great SEOmoz article you may have linked to and measure the differences in quality and presentation.
Millions of articles are read every day. If you wrote a quality article, and I mean a truly great article, and others are not linking to it then either you need to publicize it more (tweets, etc.) or you picked a topic with such a narrow focus that it will take a lot of time to build links for it.
@Grotbos, there is no harm to submitting your site to FREE directories outside of the loss of time.
You are right that we have all seen sites boosted by these directories in the past. We have also seen many of those site owners in this Q&A site with the standard "Help! My site rankings dropped and I don't understand why" questions after their links have been devalued. Most directory links do not offer any value to users. SEs knows this and are adjusting accordingly.
-
-
Also @Ryan and techbattery. Techbatteries question regarding panda has also not been answered clearly. Could submitting a site to these directories have a detrimental effect due to the panda update from Google?
-
Hi Ryan
I agree with you 100%, but that is a bit easier said than done, even once you have written this great article to find people to link to it is the next challenge (A big one). And what happens if after your article what got a couple of links, you still dont rank...what then? I agree with your perception of directories 100%, but if google still values them (which in many cases it looks like it might), should we just neglect them all in all? We obviously do not want to prioritize directories over quality content, but the questions is does google still value those links? I would love to know this from someone who has run an experiment, as I do believe directories can sometimes be helpful to increase number of links and get good anchor texts. If someone could give me proof (besides the user argument) that directories don't help at all, I would appreciate it.
-
Link directories are a poor method of link building. Ask yourself, as a user, do you like link directories? Do you use any of the ones on the list? Do you know anyone who does? If the answer to all these questions is "no", then why would you want to spend time and money to be added to one of these directories?
Take all the time and effort and write the best article ever on a single topic. I notice your user name is techbattery so I will use a battery example. Write an article on cell phone or ipad batteries. Make the article relevant to anyone who owns one of those devices. "Best Ipad Battery for you" could be the title. Talk about different battery types, charge life, shelf life, can you overcharge them, why do they get so warm/hot, etc. Make it an article that everyone who owns an iPad will want to read. Let the world know about the article.
Ideally everyone who sells or owns an iPad will WANT to link to your article. The value you will get from that article will exceed anything you get from your link directory efforts.
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
-
We're looking at providing SEO for a website that has the majority of its incoming links from websites created solely to provide links. Few have bad spam rankings. How worried should I be about those links?
The majority of incoming links to a prospect's website are from website pages apparently created solely to provide links to the website. Few have high spam scores. The sites linking to the main site have versions of blogs with linked text. They seem to be providing positive SEO value now, but I'm concerned they might get noticed and hurt the main site in the future.
Link Building | | PKI_Niles1 -
Directories
Hi The former owner of One of our competitors ( www.gastrocatering.com ) gave my some insight into how he got his site up in the rankings. He said he got his site listed on 100s of directories had bloggers Wright about him. Gastro catering ranks highly for almost every key word we want I used the moz tools to see where his links came from, Should I copy what he did? I read a lot of posts that lead me to the conclusion I shouldn't, but he ranks #1 for so many desirable keywords. What are your thoughts on this please? All the best Ben
Link Building | | SussexChef830 -
Linking Etiquette
Hi Moz Community, Long time lurker, first time poster. I work for a real estate firm and have recently done some link analysis. I'm noticing that my company is not getting linked to as frequently as we should be. Several news outlets (including NYT & Bloomberg) have cited our reports, interviews with employees and other original content belonging to my company without linking back to our site (although they do mention us).Some publications are even linking back to our competitors for similar content but not ours. Is it appropriate to reach out and ask for links from these outlets after they've been published? Does anybody have tips on making others aware we want links shared for future articles? Thanks in advance!
Link Building | | rlaughlin0 -
Linking to a site in the US from a site in the UK - Good, bad or not important?
Would linking to a site in the US from the UK do harm or good if the site being linked to is industry related? i.e. a UK web design company linking to a US web design career site.
Link Building | | Tone_Agency0 -
What is the best way to seek out good incoming links?
I get "form letter" type requests for links all the time from companies whose product has absolutely no relationship to mine. I always decline them. But I really want to build up link juice, and I'm wondering how to begin. Is the "form letter" all right to send or should it be more personal? I sell tablecloths; I assume I should go to home decor companies? Thanks in advance!
Link Building | | go4linens0 -
There is a New link to my Site but I can see it on link report ?why ?
Hi I found out using link campaign and Open site explorer that my competitors where getting links from this page http://www.visitgreece.gr/en/activities/land_sports/golf So I conatc the admins and added our golf courses too Is the dunes and the bay course in the middle of the page But this happened 3 weeks ago and still this linking domain is not appaering in my campaign why is that any ideas ? does it take so much time to appera to SEOmoz ? Or the problem is because they are linking 2 diffrent sites ? my site is www.costanavarinogolf.com Thanks a lot in advance for your help
Link Building | | grzontan0 -
Directories
Hello, We are a UK based business targeting the UK market (at the moment), we are looking at placing our sites URL in directories that are based in the UK as well, should we stick to this market or should we be placing our URL in non UK based directories? Thanks Daniel
Link Building | | LushDuck0 -
Asking other websites to link your website when the want to be in your directory
Hello, We have 3 web directories, and I wonder if it is legal for search engines to ask people who want to be in the directory to link to a particular website in order to be in our directory. I mean, it is free adding the url in the directory but if they lwant to be in the directory they have to ink to a website we have decided.
Link Building | | teconsite.com
Is this correct, or is punishable? Thanks!0