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Web directories - Have they really hit the rock bottom in 2015?

by DavePlus
21 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi,

i've just stumbled upon various opinion about the status of web directories for SEO in 2015. What do you think about it? Do you really think it's pointless to use them as people just google everything anyway? What is your personal experience? I'm very curious.
#2015 #bottom #directories #hit #rock #web
  • Profile picture of the author Tom Addams
    In realistic terms - ignoring the fact that really anything can get a decent ranking - you want to look into local niche directories. There's money to be made. Quickest way to make money? Not in the least, but it can be stable and a strong income platform to build. The trick is to offer a 2015 directory experience for "free" and charge local business the going rate for local exposure.

    Tom
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    • Profile picture of the author SaeedKhan
      Yes local directories can be ok, but in general, think about who would go through the trouble of searching for a directory and then going to the directory and then click on the website lin when you can simply type the exact keywords in the google or any search engine and you'll get great resutls.
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      • Profile picture of the author George123adv
        Google is on record saying it does not want to count any link that is not 'editorial - or freely given.
        Google wants to reward 'user value add' highlighted by organic - NATURAL - links. They want to reward a 'good user experience', basically - and unnatural links don't form any part of that concept.
        Google never has wanted to count inorganic links - but it's algorithms don't work as well as they would like or at least they say they do, so some marketers shortcut the 'value add' task of the job and just build unnatural links to a site which affects how a links based search engine - like Google - rates the 'popularity' - and so ranking ability - of a particular website.
        The more links Google hasn't classed as spam - the higher you rank - and the more traffic you get. Sort of.
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  • Profile picture of the author GodsOwnWriter
    Local directories are more powerful to get the data from a particular place while Google can't. Niche directories are too good to obtain great information for searchers.

    Have you searched any time for a company or a product within your city online?
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  • Profile picture of the author Slade556
    Originally Posted by DavePlus View Post

    Do you really think it's pointless to use them as people just google everything anyway?
    I believe so, yes, I stopped using them a while ago. But they aren't completely obsolete, some people are actually still using the, for some reason.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tom Addams
    I'll give you a good model, and I have quite a bit of experience with it.

    Hotels, Guest Houses, Bed and Breakfasts.

    These can work out very nicely in the right offline location. Tourists don't actually like to expend lots of energy searching for a place to stay. People, on the whole, can be pretty lazy. Present everything in one place for them, and you've satisfied a strong demand. Then what you do is consider what else tourists need: taxis, days out, restaurants, cafes. When you have sufficient traffic, the proprietors of those places will gladly pay for exposure. You have to remember one very important thing: offline businesses are very much accustomed to PAYING for advertising.

    Tom
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  • Profile picture of the author selfdisciplineacademy
    All backlinks are still valuable, and of course web directories do still have value...

    No where near how much they had before, however they still have value
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  • Profile picture of the author Bridgitte
    If you use high rank directories it will drive lot of traffic for your website and help it to get higher on search engine.
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  • Profile picture of the author frankl
    I'm still finding directories a good way to get valuable backlinks and traffic. Just don't submit your website to every directories you find. I tend to avoid PR0 and junk directories.
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  • Profile picture of the author loladohertye
    Only local listing put good impact. If i talk about general directory its not much helpful for keywords ranking and visitors.
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  • Profile picture of the author seokings2014
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author LoclBiz
      1,000 PR-9 links for $5. That's a little expensive.




      Does ANY website have 1,000 PR-9 links to it?
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  • Profile picture of the author patco
    Web directories are still good! Especially if they have a High Authority. If possible it would be even better if you submit to related to your niche directories!
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  • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
    Originally Posted by DavePlus View Post

    i've just stumbled upon various opinion about the status of web directories for SEO in 2015. What do you think about it? Do you really think it's pointless to use them as people just google everything anyway?
    I'm not sure why you had to add "2015" in the topic. They've been pretty pointless at least for several years.

    We've known for more than 5 years that Google divides the link juice between all the links on the page. In case there's no-follows the juice for those just disappears. Your typical directory has your link sitting on a page that has dozens of links. Front-page PR doesn't matter, just the very small amount that's left for your link.

    I guess decent local or niche directories are still ok, but they're not making or breaking your visibility.
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    Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
    Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

    What's your excuse?
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  • Profile picture of the author TopHats
    Depends on the directory. I wouldn't say DMOZ is dead. But the spammed ones are junk.
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    • Profile picture of the author wedreamseo
      Banned
      An SEO company in my country uses a PBN purely setup as web directories and they do a fine job in ranking the site from friends of my brother that run a large franchise business.

      Juice/authority is still the number one ranking factor so as long as that's in place it's still effective. However most publicly accessiable web directories are spammed hard so not much to expect from them.
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    • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
      Originally Posted by TopHats View Post

      Depends on the directory. I wouldn't say DMOZ is dead. But the spammed ones are junk.
      That would depend on the actual page. The ones I might get my sites on are PR0-3, seem to have no active moderator, and already have a bunch of links.
      Signature
      Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
      Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

      What's your excuse?
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  • Profile picture of the author sweezeter
    Nearly all directories are absolute junk these days and will trigger unnatural link penalties or Penguin issues. This has been discussed time and time again and it's really a shame people say otherwise and point people down the wrong road that's gonna cause them ranking problems.
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    • Profile picture of the author dvduval
      Originally Posted by sweezeter View Post

      Nearly all directories are absolute junk these days and will trigger unnatural link penalties or Penguin issues. This has been discussed time and time again and it's really a shame people say otherwise and point people down the wrong road that's gonna cause them ranking problems.
      Let me agree, and let me say that my software product for many years created more directories than any other. There were about 200,000 sites using phpLD at the peak. There is a lot more to the story, and Google has done much to insure that human edited directories never got much traction from DMOZ to Yahoo. Keep in mind that Google uses editors themselves, and it is NOT all algorithim thought they would love for you to believe that.

      Many directory owners have been asking if there is "life after google"
      Business after google updates.

      For phpLD, we still have a strong web development business and are doing great, but unfortunately the directory industry got hit hard. Certainly there were tons of junky directories out there as a result of weakness in Google's algorithm.

      Really links themselves are devalued considerably, though I know some would passionately argue otherwise. Fact is... you have to build something worthwhile and viral if you want to succeed with a website. Marketing is alive and well, but SEO is at best in bed with a fever!
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      It is okay to contact me! I have been developing software since 1999, creating many popular products like phpLD.
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      • Profile picture of the author yukon
        Banned
        Originally Posted by dvduval View Post

        Really links themselves are devalued considerably, though I know some would passionately argue otherwise.
        The reason someone would disagree is because it's complete nonsense. Links are the core of all SEO.




        Originally Posted by dvduval View Post

        Fact is... you have to build something worthwhile and viral if you want to succeed with a website. Marketing is alive and well, but SEO is at best in bed with a fever!
        Saying something silly doesn't make it a fact.

        Your not ranking pages so the rest of the world isn't ranking pages, right? When you search for keywords on Google, all you see is blank SERPs?
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  • Profile picture of the author Curtis2011
    Directories haven't been useful for a few years.
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  • Profile picture of the author st0nec0ld
    Well, we can't deny the fact that most of us see online directories as a backlink generator.
    I believe there are only few directories which are still usable for the people.
    But based on my preference, search engine is enough for me.
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