Which directories to use?
-
I've recently has a conversation with a colleague regarding which directories to use when link building. In her opinion we should use only the ones that are relevant and nothing else. For example if you're working on a travel website, you should only submit either to travel directories or local directories (based on the business location). In my opinion yes we should submit to these directories but then you'll reach a limit and then you need to submit to general directories that have the "travel" category, even if the business is in NY and the directory is in India, as long as it is a good directory and has the relevant category.
What is your opinion about this?
-
The link is dead, it goes here http://www.whitelistproject.com/
-
I agree with most of what Tom pointed out.
Directories in general are outdated and not many people use them. Thus they have no value and rightly so.
However, this is not true for every industry. There are some animals out there for some industries like ThomasNet (Paid), Designt2Part (Paid), Eng-Tips, Efunda, are all good for manufactures and engineering. The difference here is these sites actually add value to users looking for companies and services.
Additionally, DMOZ.org still seems worth while getting but I wouldn't fret if they don't add you.
Hope that helps
-
The problem is not the client, but the marketing agency I work for. They do link submission to directories and if I want to work there, I have to do it too. I'll have a look in to that list, thank you.
-
Who's the SEO consultant here? You or the client? If they won't listen to your recommendations and want to rely on crap tactics, let them get on with it themselves.
If you must use directories, I would do as your colleague says and only use industry specific ones, or location specific ones. General directories are not only link-farms but they will not be able to pass on strength to your website due to indexing issues.
Check out the SEOMoz Directories list for some of the 'better' ones out there.
-
Thank you but this client really wants directory submission so I have no chance. Can you please answer my question? Thank you.
-
My advice would be not to use any directories at all.
Directories offer very little user value (no real web user uses directories any more - at a push they use very local ones) and consequently they offer very little SEO value. What I have seen consistently since the turn of the year are links coming from directories being completely devalued. It has been a common theme in the Moz forums that people experience ranking drops for homepage keywords, with no apparent penalty. A look at their link profile shows that the majority of their links are coming from directories, pointing to the homepage. They're low quality links and Google has been quite proactive in devaluing directory links on the fly every month or so.
There are infinitely better ways to earn high quality links to your website. Don't bother wasting your time and money with directories and focus your efforts elsewhere. Start creating content that is going to accrue high quality links over a sustained period of time.
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
-
Are good directories still worth submitting to
Hi guys we have launched a new site and need to get some links is it still worth submitting to (paid and unpaid) directories like Yell.com - obviously we would only consider the non spammy ones cheers
Link Building | | odysseytravels0 -
Lawyer Directories
I am doing some SEO work for a lawyer and I am wondering if there are good legal directories I should be using to help improve SERP's.
Link Building | | kevgrand0 -
Do you know worthy web directories
Does somebody know editorial web directories where it is still worth posting your link (like Dmoz)?
Link Building | | MichaelJanik0 -
NoFollow & Directory Scraper Backlinks
I was wondering how important it was to remove/disavow: NoFollow backlinks - many ("buy viagra" etc). Directory backlinks - many questionable/generic directories. Obviously the focus is the equity passing links but both of the above constitute a significant proportion of backlinks to the site - I've seen that "scrapers" are seen as natural and obviously NoFollow do not pass link juice - but does the sheer number have a bearing and therefore make them equally important to address? Thanks in advance for your responses. Regards
Link Building | | National-Homebuyers0 -
Blog commenting for SEO - Useful practice?
With most blog comments being no-follow, I was just wondering whether blog commenting for an SEO campaign these days was actually a worthwhile practice. Would love to get some insight on this.
Link Building | | Gavo0 -
Getting backlinks on a page using https
Our company got a backlink on a page with high DA but using https (https://developer.apple.com/internationalization/) more than 2 months ago. However, this particular backlink was never counted by Open Site Explorer or other backlink checker. I've contacted the Moz Helpdesk and they said they are having issues crawling https sites. So I'm wondering if anything I can do to make sure this backlink gets counted? Thanks.
Link Building | | OneSky-Admin0 -
Which backlink will be more useful?
Which bacllink will be most useful and gives me most juice? -link from all pages on the website (in footer), such as menu
Link Building | | ATCnik
-link from all pages on the website (in footer, display:none;), such as menu
-link from home page (footer)
-link from the page which have highest PR (PA) (footer)
-contextual-link from most relevant page on the site0 -
Should I use a branded url or an exact match, and which branded url?
I'm thinking of changing my client's 37 character exact match url because it looks spammy to me and Google says it will be turning the dial down on exact match domains. I still see a lot of value in it however and it is helping this client, albeit very little since he is new in his arena. His goal is to rank for keywords in that url so I hate to lose the benefit of that url. As an example, let's say his url is floridahealthinsurance-quote.com I'm concerned now because I plan to do some reputable and highly relevant link building and I'm afraid bloggers might hesitate linking to a spammy sounding url. This client does have a branded url that is short and sweet, something like millerbenefits.net, and that redirects to the long url. Back linkers could link to the short url instead. However, it lands people on the site with the long spammy-sounding url and they may not want to be affiliated with it. Something like millerbenefitsinsurance.com is available and it does have 2 keywords in it. Should I get that instead? In short the question is this:
Link Building | | KatMouse
Should I change or keep floridahealthinsurance-quote.com If I should change it, should I change it to:
millerbenefits.net
millerbenefitsinsurance.com Thanks for your help!0