Why is Business.com a valuable link when they are all nofollow?
-
Earlier today, I received a $50 off coupon for a Business.com listing. Back when I was really learning about directories, lots of people recommended getting one of these listings because editors actually review it to make sure the website linked is of good quality. Even the SEOmoz Directory Guide regards it as a good link.
Now, it seems like every outbound link from Business.com has a 'nofollow' tag right when they link to the target website. Furthermore, the actual business listing doesn't even link to the website! Let me take, for example, web design companies:
http://www.business.com/internet/web-design/
This directory has tons of 'nofollow' links. On top of that, if you take any of the companies listed and do a search for their business page, the business page doesn't even have a link to their website! That doesn't exactly seem like it's worth $300 a year...
Any chance there is something I'm missing here? I'm not fully understanding this, it seems.
-
As you already know Yahoo directory, business.com and DMOZ are sites that require a review process and in the first two a large financial investment that prevents spammers from taking advantage of low hanging fruit. They have a do follow attribute when it's part of the directory not the ads. Google trusts these sites.
-
Hi Echolls,
You probably were looking at the sponsors. Those are paid links which are deemed as nofollow. If you scroll down to the directory listings you'll see the follow links with those are people who paid to be in the directory.
Example:
<div class="g3-dl-block">
<a href="http://www.digitalbrands.com" target="_blank">Digital Brands Inc.a><p> Web development firm that creates online and mobile brands in competitive, high-volume verticals. p><a class="g3-dl-prettylink" href="http://www.digitalbrands.com" target="_blank"> http://www.digitalbrands.coma>div>
As far as the value, that comes down to industry. In our industry the major directory is ThomasNet however you only see them in SERP's occasionally on really low traffic keywords, but their site is highly linked, very authoritive and used throughout our industry. So the value of the link is not just SEO but also leads. Picking up 1 job from them can pay for itself. Make sure you not only evaluate the SEO value but the marketing value of each potential listing.
Hope that makes sense.
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
-
Do links on Reference.com and Ask.com count as backlinks?
Hi there Just had a quick question about links on Reference.com or Ask.com. I have been looking at my competitors link profiles to get ideas of who and where I should/could be linking from. One of my main competitors seems to have links on Reference.com and Ask.com which are being listed in there profile. Reference.com are dofollow. Our site is also appearing on these sites, but the links are being listed under our profile. We have been up and running for more that 3 years now. The obviously have high DR and I think must be a contributing factor to their rank, having looked at other links in their profile. It seems strange because I thought these sites are effectively search engines and therefore wouldn't count towards your backlink profile? Can anyone explain? Would be most grateful if someone can. Many thanks in advance. Clojo
Link Building | | Clojobobo2 -
Link building
hello, my website is www.anavasis.gr and it is in Greek. Which is the best way to build backlinks? Hire a freelancer and let him making links to any site? What should i ask from a freelancer when building links for me? what should i give him like (keywords) ?. what is important to take take of? When you go to freelancer.com there are people offering backlinks for less than 100$ is that a good method? Will this help my seo? Is it a matter that my site is in Greek? thanks
Link Building | | anavasis0 -
Do footer links pass less link juice?
One of my best inbound links for PA and DA happens to be a footer link, curious if it's less valuable or has any value at all.
Link Building | | Theskimonster0 -
Removed Link
After I have removed a link, how long does it take for it to be reflected in Google WMT?
Link Building | | raph39880 -
What is the difference between external followed links and internal followed links.
I have almost 3,000 external links followed and only a tiny amount of internal followed links. My website is doing really badly on google at the mo. I am also an SEO beginner and learning new stuff every day, but am not sure exactly what the difference is! Thanks!
Link Building | | heleni0 -
"gimme links" = easy to fill out profile/personal reputation links that offer a do-follow anchor text flexible link
I'm doing some SEO for small niche service sites...and aside from niche directories and some light article marketing and local search directories (yelp, etc) there really isn't a budget for content generation. I really only have a budget for profile/submission links. What are some sites where you can quite easily fill out a personal profile with an anchor text variable link that may not be THAT juicy but will stick (i.e. not a spam/fake profile type of link, but something like Linkedin). I'll start with giving away 1 www.istockphoto.com Any others that aren't obvious?
Link Building | | ilyaelbert0 -
Back Link: Is LinkedIn keywords in profile good Link building strategy?
I distribute industrial products B2B with e commerce. I have a personal profile on LinkedIn. I listed the products I sell and I could have all my partners and associates list my web site on their profiles. Do search engines review LinkedIn personal profiles or company profiles and is it a good marketing strategy to have my web site, keywords, and my two largest selling products on LinkedIn?
Link Building | | Wales0 -
Inbound links vs. internal links
Which scenario does more to help SEO - A) An inbound link from a low traffic/low page rank site to my site B) An internal link where one page of my site links to another page on my site
Link Building | | DVanSchepen0