Do Directories really work?

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Do submitting links to directories for backlinks really work? I don't want some crap response, I want a response from someone that's actually done it and seen results.

Thanks guys.
#search engine optimization #directories #work
  • Short and sweet, For SERP purposes maybe, depending on the directory you submitted to, for traffic purposes, no
  • There are all kinds of directories
    • good ones
    • bad ones
    • regional directories
    • local directories
    • niche directories
    • general directories
    It just depends on what you are trying to promote. Some local and niche directories get reasonable traffic. Also many directories now allow article submission as well, and even some feature the latest articles on the homepage.

    For general directories here is one site I recommend
    Free Directory List - SEO Friendly - Info Vilesilencer
    and also
    www.web-directories.ws

    Generally speaking, if a directory allows just about any link to be submitted and accepted, its a bad directory, and often you can quickly tell if it is a bad directory by looking at their latest links page and looking at a few of the links. Other directories actually review the links and have some quality guidelines such as making sure the title and description are a good portrayal of the site (rather than keyword stuffing). Matt Cutts of Google has repeatedly said that submitting to directories is fine, but also talks about directories and the review process.

    I also wrote a loner article about quality guidelines for directories
    Quality Guidelines for Directories : PHP Link Directory Script
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    • As long as the directory has a category suited to your site, they are not charging for you to submit your link then it certainly is a good idea to use the resource as that is what it is there for. But always beware of over doing things. Meaning avoid upsetting your link veolcity as it can trigger an upset for your site.
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  • I'm not worrying about traffic, just SERPs.

    Thanks guys for all the tips.
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    • Yea, if you want to rank a easy to medium difficulty key phrase and you have a month or two to do it, just submit to a few directories each day for the next month or so, and you will surely see improvement if not excellent ranking.
    • For the most part, I would agree with this statement. The OP is looking for proof and It is not easy to prove that directory submissions help with ranking. You can not prove it by ranking a page using directory listings alone, since having only directory backlinks is not natural or recommended.

      I am convinced that High quality directories can provide direct traffic. I say this because almost all listings in my directory DirMania.org are receiving click-throughs. The directory includes a click counter. Listings a week or two old may not have clicks but older listings do.
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  • What about for a keyword that gets 1 mill searches a month with 31 million results?

    Keep in mind I'm on page 2 currently with PR3
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    • Unfortunately, that says zero about how tough of a keyword it is.
  • Directory submission worked in the past and the search engines has caught up to the scheme. You should move on to 3 way link exchanges.
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    • I can't agree with 3-way link exchanges. There is plenty of documentation of google being able to detect and penalize larger schemes.

      With directories you are getting a one way link, and 95%+ of the time the link is reviewed before approval. Matt Cutts from Google has repeatedly supported the notion that directories with a good review process are fine.
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  • Yes, submitting links to directories for back links really work. List your site in the best category, it helps to increase the ranking and traffic. Page rank of the directory is not important.
  • Ive stopped using them becuase they proved to be too much work for little gain. When I used to submit to 'decent' directories, I used to see a spike in traffic a few weeks afterwards and then it would drop.

    Ive found other methods such as article marketing, social bookmarking, forum profiles rss feeds etc to be more efficient and bring better serps. Only use directories if you have exhausteed all other avenues and have plenty of time on your hands.

    Just my 5p

    Zaheer
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    • You may be working on very short deadlines. Most of the sites I have worked with we submitted to a dozen or more directories each week for a couple of months and it worked great.
  • If you use an automated tool/service, and submit to a sufficient number of them, then yes, they do work to a degree. For me, I don't think the economics make sense to submit manually.

    When I run backlink reports use SEO SpyGlass I can see the links have been indexed. It can take ages for some directories to approve them, though.

    They're certainly not "high value" links by any stretch of the imagination, but I feel they are acceptable as part of a diversified link building campaign. By no means only rely on them, though.
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    • Yea, I think you are right in saying there is an approval process and SEO through directories is more time consuming, but on the bright side, the fact there is an approval process is one of the reasons people like Matt Cutts from Google have said that directories are ok as long as they have quality standards. Most people who submit to directories are thinking in terms of seeing their site continue to rank better in months to come (not weeks).

      I don't believe in automated link programs including those for directories. That may be something that works short term sometimes, but I have seen far too many people get burned. There has to be some kind of quality control. I've seen people buy links only to find it hurt their rankings. By no means am I saying that directories are the only way to go. They are certainly not, but be careful with any program that is automated. It CAN hurt you.
  • "I don't believe in automated link programs including those for directories."

    I agree. There are only a handful of directories I submit sites to like botw and romow.

    Also, if I research a competitors backlinks and find that they are listed in a directory, I try and get a listing on the same page.
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    • Well I have over 8 years experience within SEO and I can tell you that certainly from my experience submitting to directories is a waste of time and effort. Period! You're much better off researching high PR sites within your target market, and offer to do some content for them in exchange for an incoming link to your site. This will be far more ffective than spending time submitting to directories which will just result in a whole lof of spam and little else.

      Sorry. It really just isn't worth it anymore. You'll notice that whilst Google used to mention directories within its webmaster guidleines this has been dropped now. So I think you can take that as proof that it really doesn't help much.

      Hope thats of help anyway.
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  • Depends on how it's done, (not manually, $ spent / results is to high). Cheap way is a waste of money too.

    As for examples

    renault dacia sandero - Google Search

    No3 is a site (1mil results)
    Site Explorer - Search Results

    Has 95% of the in links coming from directories. I did a submission 1 year ago i think and thats all the link building for it (rest of the inlinks are spillovers), it's a dead site for me (but making 100$ per year lol not big competition but for 5 minutes of firing it to 500 directories it's ok)
  • Thanks for the example, evcRo. Another example is a search for College Admission Assistance which is #1 on Google, and makes thousands per year. It was done with nearly all directory submissions, though a couple of press releases were done after it already ranked #1.

    There are lots of other examples, and it is definitely not a waste of time, and the cost to hire someone to do manual directory submissions is extremely low.

    Also recently ranked a catering company for their city and they are getting more info calls. I am assuming for those that say it doesn't work they used some kind of an automated tool or hired someone that gave them a bunch of low quality directory links. If you do it manually it does work. You don't do it all at once either. One of the secrets is a few each week over a period of time being sure to look for some new directories.
  • "Well I have over 8 years experience within SEO and I can tell you that certainly from my experience submitting to directories is a waste of time and effort. Period!"

    Wow, I'm glad that's settled!

    In 8 years you must have spent a fortune submitting your site to top quality directories like Yahoo and BOTW. On the other hand, you may have submitted your sites to the mass of free, low quality directories.

    Anyway, I'm glad that you have put this issue to rest.
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    • Yea, if you are going use that strategy to prove the strength of your argument, you might want to quote some leading professionals in SEO. There are certainly people on both sides of the issue. I chose to quote Matt Cutts.

      Hear for yourself:
      YouTube - What types of directories are seen as sources of paid links?At no point does he say the size of the directory is important. He instead talks about the practices of the directory:
      1. Do they go out and look for directories for themselves?
      2. Why do they charge for reviews? What are you paying for?
      3. What is the value add?
      4. Do they have high standards?

      And what he says at the end is what I have been saying:
      "If you make a great site, and make sure people find out about it" the traffic will come to you.

      But clearly he says that Google does not like "fly by night directories", but refers to the practices that make for a good directory. So it follows that some directories are good both large and small.
  • I think that they're only worth it if you want your first couple of backlinks to index a site in Google, nothing more, why?, because they have been there for years, and I think is obvious that the search engines in some way filter them and a backlink from a directory has almost no value at all.
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    • Well, then why is it that sites that were only submitted to directories are able to rank?
      (beating competitors)
  • I really appreciate all the posts guys, but I'm reall stumped, one person says something and a different person says somehing else. For the naysayers, what would you suggest to do to get backlinks to a PR3 arcade gaming sites?
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    • Personally, I've had the best results with both blog commenting and profile linking. In fact, I spend 95% of my time on these two things alone.

      However, it's good to have a variety of different types of links so things like submitting articles to directories, submitting videos to directories, creating accounts and submitting posts at web 2.0 sites like Blogger, Squidoo, Xanga etc will all help.
    • I'm not sure why you stumped. Its one of only 10 billion IM subjects that people disagree on. You came to the wrong place if you're looking for a consensus.

      Although, I am truly shocked, as I didn't expect any positive votes, but that's just me.

      For backlinks, forum profilies + blog comments, throw in a couple of articles and web 2.0 links and you will be on your way.

  • Getting a yahoo directory link ($299/year) clearly helped a new forum that Terry Kyle and I started about a month ago jump up very quickly in the SERPs.

    Now, if you are talking about the junk directories that 99% of people on WF post to, then those won't help you one iota.

    Tom
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    • Yes, It works but before doing the directory submission find the best keywords for the site.

      Directories are said to not be nearly as valuable as they once were, these days social bookmarks are considered by search engines to be more important, due to the number of junk directories designed primarily to attract paid listings. I have seen file servers run by SEO companies containing 100 directory sites, probably all managed by the SEO company. You can find services that will submit a site to 1000 directories for about $10, this sort of directory saturation has damaged their credibility.
      Onewaytextlink.com is a free service that will help you semi automatically submit your site to 1371 directories (for a backlink to their site) you can view the list of directories used.

      DMOZ is still the holy grail of directories, this human edited non profit site is used by the search engines as a source of legitimate sites. Yahoo's paid directory is still useful for improving ranking, consideration for a commercial listing costs $299.

      Sometimes, for directory links to work for SEO the page that the link is on has to be reached by following a path from the home page (not from a search) and also has to be a direct link, not one that uses a click counter for example as some of the ones in the list of directories in one of the other answers have.

      Ignore toolbar PR - this is so far out of date that it doesn't count (and I have had pages at the top of searches returning over 100 million results on pages that have a toolbar PR of zero).
  • I think automatic submission programs are crap...I tried some of them on a test site and it didn`t work at all.
    As far as quality directories...I am submitting to a couple of them and I hope I`ll get some results soon
  • yes..especially one way back link from high PR and do follow directory..
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    • Directory age may also be a factor. Many new directories are just set-up on expired domains with pagerank. The old directories that still retain some pagerank over the years could be worth submitting to.
  • Would submitting to the Yahoo Directory make a big difference?
  • Hotfrog (in Australia at least) is one of the fastest indexed and well ranked directories I have come across. It is free to but the quality of sites/submissions is very good.
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    • Thanks for the suggestion!
  • I have been spending a lot of time doing keyword research lately. What has really jumped out at me is the fact that 2 similar sites can be on page 1 of google SERPS - the top site has 50 inlinks, the site near the bottom of page one has 50k. After examining the links, most of the 50k ones are junk blog comments, forum posts and directory submissions. The site with 50 links are relevant links. I have come across this situation a lot.
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  • Some of the niche related directories have worked for me in the past. I have got 100s of links from these directories for my sites. However you have to select your own niche related directory. Any normal directory will not carry that much weight to get you a backlink as compared to high ranked niche related directories.
  • Yes directory submissions really worked for me. These is one of the best way to build backlinks to our site.
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  • I have noticed that big companies, fortune 500 companies have started submitting to one of my directories in the last year. They seem to be late to the game so I'm not sure if that is a good sign!
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  • Yes, Directories helps alot in getting good ranking and traffic
  • There are all kinds of directories. You could submit an article to a directory. You could get listed in a local or niche directory. One nice thing about directories is you can choose the anchor text and description to some degree, and this definitely helps with rankings.
  • In directories submission. You must avoid those offer submitting to thousands of directories.

    Just pick some high PR directories to submit to.

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    Do submitting links to directories for backlinks really work? I don't want some crap response, I want a response from someone that's actually done it and seen results. Thanks guys.