Starting the SEO process on my site...Directories to begin?

start doing blog commenting and build high quality links, directory links wont work anymore they are not effective for seo like it was used to before

If you aren't prepared to spend a bit of money, don't expect to see good results.

You can do it on forums or post quality articles with your links on sites like Hubpages.

Just Forget the directories.

Depending on the competition of the keyword(s), directory submissions can still have an impact. They still carry some weight, just not as much as they used to. I put a site on page one using only free directory submissions. The competition was very weak, however.

If you submit to web directories, does the page rank of the directory apply to the value of the backlink which you get? i.e. if you submit to a PR3 directory, do you get a PR3 backlink or is it like with article directories such as Ezine. Although Ezine is a PR6 site, you don't get a PR6 backlink because the article is on a PR0 page.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. So we have some differences in whether Directories help or not. I wish I knew more about SEO!

Can somebody chime in with some resources they would recommend in starting the "high quality linking" process? I'd like to better understand it myself!

I have a new Fiverr gig where I will make over 2,000 back links from directories. I tried it on my test site Cheap Stylus. It jumped up seven places to first on the first page, and hasn't dropped since. It also pushed it into related searches like cheap stylus pens. So I tried it on another site, and my main site, no change on high competition searches, but it doesn't hurt. See rowanman28 on Fiverr if you're interested.

That's the one I was offering to show in my Fiverr gig, it seems to work. Apart from that, you could try Build My Rank, Link From Blog, Buy Blog Reviews, comment on relevant blogs using the search: "yourname@yourkeywords" plus your keywords, for example: Facebook "yourname@yourkeywords" write articles on high PR sites like HubPages, Squidoo, Factoidz, Ezine, Go articles, Yahoo Contributor Network, etc, etc.

Don't forget to get links from social media, as you need to have a natural, gradual increase of back links from everywhere, and it has to look like real people like your site.

What a coincidence! Sorry I couldn't help you

Thanks for the heads up, Rowan! I appreciate it.

Blog commenting and social bookmarking is a great way to start building links. I have try it and it really works.

Use Add This, a free Firefox or Google Chrome add-on to make hundreds of social bookmarking links. Social bookmarking used to be my main way of making back links, not so effective anymore, but it's something to do. I mainly use Digg, Delicious, Linked In, Ping FM, Friend Feed, StumbleUpon, MySpace, and Bebo. There are hundreds of other ones to choose from, Blurpalicous, Mister Wong, Mixx, Digoo, She Told Me, etc, but you have to join all the sites, and some of them are pretty crappy, or don't work at all.

I would suggest you to do Article posting and do blogging(Blogger, hubpages, squidoo) and link your site to them. Then you can start blog commenting, forum posting and directories. If you can't do it or you are too busy, you can outsource then on oDesk, Elance..etc

I've been starting with some whois listings, followed by one or two runs of an upgraded Social Monkee account.

I am considering directory submission as a next cheap step or a single shot article blast. I'll just see what seems safe the next time I can spare a few dollars.

you should spend some money in marketing to expect good results.

Depends on competition, I think. If it's not that strong, you can get good results by commenting a blogs and directories submission, social bookmarking as well. Just choose the ones that are not overspammed and look like a cr@p.

start with directory submission. No matter who tells you it does not work, it will help you gain some traction on SERP. Start with submitting to PR 3+ directories that are aged and have quality web sites in their index.

For me directory submissions still work, for every new website i do directory submissions but i don't do it in one go, i do monthly 100-200 directory submissions.

i will suggest you don't stick only to directory submissions, diversify your link building

create a link building plan for each month and increase link building tasks gradually, you can start with 100 directory submissions, 100 blog comments, 100 social bookmarking, 100 forum profiles, 25-50 forum postings, 1 article submission to top article directories(do bulk submission to other article directories next month)

you can easily get fiverr gigs for above tasks. don't go for quantity at this point - look for people who offer high PR link building tasks, if someone offers 30 blog comments on high PR posts then go for it. look for high pr services gigs and increase your budget gradually and quantity of links, you will see very good results if you diversify link building and increase gradually within 2-3 months.

hope this helps.

regards,
rushikesh

Just like in life around people you want to make a good first impression, same thing in SEO regarding new sites. It's best to start with high quality links, such a contextual backlink (e.g: write a 300 - 400 word unique article, post it on a web 2.0 site such as weebly.com and hyperlink your keyword with your link) not low or average links.

Visit some similar sites with High PR and create a Link Wheel to bring traffic to your site. This way you will get traffic at large.

The first step you should do is bookmark your home page, then find the site that is in the top position for the keyword you are targeting, get a list of the back links that are pointing to the top site and then one by one go through the links and see if you can get a link from the same sites.

Once you have done that write an article and submit it ezine articles with link pointing back to your site. Once it has been approved, submit that same article to the top article directories.

That should get your site ranking quite well to start with.