Directories - Bad or Good for Link Building (Discussion on Penguin)
-
Hello,
I would like to hear everybodies opinion on directories for link building now that penguin is out.
Here's a good background post: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/web-directory-submission-danger
Do you think their out?
How do you still use them?
Which ones do you stick to?
-
Thanks Cyrus. That's close to what my intuition told me. I'll try to keep the niche directories in the 4:1 or 3:1 ballpark.
-
Excellent! Thanks for the further explanation. I knew what I did worked but was not sure if it was short term. I did make the mistake of submitted to a few non editorial directories early on but I will not get any more of those. Industry specific makes the most sense and I have two real good general directories.
I will have to research were else I can get links. I am guessing blogs are huge so we are developing a blog on our website over the next 2 months. Also we are adding social sharing to our content in hopes of getting additional links.
Boo
-
Hi Bob,
Great question. I wrote a post a few months back about this when SEOmoz re-released it's Directory List - most of the advice still applies today:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/seo-link-directory-best-practices
I don't think directories are inherently bad for SEO, although their value has certainly diminished over the years. That said, I generally stay away from "general" directories and stick with niche specific directories. Some general rules to follow:
- Make sure the directory is editorial - if they accept anyone, you don't want to be there.
- Be sure to make directories only a small part of your overall link building effort. An old rule of thumb used to be 2 regular links for every directory link. I might go 4 to 1 just to be safe.
- Be wary of directories that let you choose your own anchor text. Not only are these directories usually lower quality, but over-optimized anchor text can lead to penguin dangers.
- Check the ratio of MozRank to Page Rank. The closer this ratio is to 1, the less likely the directory has been penalized. For example, a directory with a homepage Mozrank of 6, but a PageRank of 1, probably has had an algorithmic or manual action taken against it by Google.
- Niche specific directories are best. If you run a nursing home, try to get in directories of nursing homes.
In short, it's fine to use directories, but be cautious, and use them in moderation. Think of them like sprinkling salt over your larger link building efforts.
-
Bob, your question is irrelevan "How do you get enough links without including some directories" because today it's ALL about quality and not quantity.
Now on a different note based on my experience. We did lots of directories way back and many of them show in the WMT as if they are pointing hundreds of links to my site. These sites are very simple and made to the point of links, they don't use rels properly (next, prev, canonical etc.) so Google thinks I have cross sites links from them - I only want to remove these links these days... Only use directories that you think are serious.
-
Based on results for my "new website" that didn't have but a few links..... and being new to seo for my company....... I highly recommend industry specific directories and some high quality general directories. Not being experienced I may be walking the edge but for a new website it gave our website a very big jump across all SEOmoz factors.
My Domain authority(doubled) and Page Authority (33%) just shot through the roof because I added several new reputable high ranking directories. I also added two or three industry specific links.
Two of the best general directories BOTW.com and Business.com and one industry directory have not been added yet for some reason. . Hopefully those will show up soon and help me a improve a little next month. It has been an exciting journey so far on this new adventure in SEO.
-
with the exception of a few real sites like BBB or yahoo (who does not guarantee inclusion) I would stay away from directories.<<
I like your line of thinking. How do you get enough links without including some directories?
-
no directories provide traffic. google is a directory, why would they want to show crappy directories inside their directory. it's strictly a SEO play and with the exception of a few real sites like BBB or yahoo (who does not guarantee inclusion) I would stay away from directories.
-
sign up due to the potential value of traffic from it<<
Could you give a couple of specific examples or explain this
-
Meny directories are still providing link juice, and it tends to be the least spammy ones.
I would say the best rule of thumb is any directory you would sign up due to the potential value of traffic from it is going to be relitivly safe to go for as it will be providing real value and thus less likly to be crushed by google.
Directories for links sake is more risky.
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
-
Is it good or bad to add noindex for empty pages, which will get content dynamically after some days
We have followers, following, friends, etc pages for each user who creates account on our website. so when new user sign up, he may have 0 followers, 0 following and 0 friends, but over period of time he can get those lists go up. we have different pages for followers, following and friends which are allowed for google to index. When user don't have any followers/following/friends, those pages looks empty and we get issue of duplicate content and description too short. so is it better that we add noindex for those pages temporarily and remove noindex tag when there are at least 2 or more people on those pages. What are side effects of adding noindex when there is no data on those page or benefits of it?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | swapnil120 -
What link would be better?
Hi Guys, Just wondering what would be better in this instance: finding an old post (with good authority) and getting a link from that old article or creating a brand new article and adding the link to that. Finding an old post (with good authority) and getting a link from that old article Creating a brand new article and adding the link to that. Both naturally link out to the page you want a link too. To me, number 1 as the page already has authority but then again number 2 since Google might place some weight to recency. Any thoughts? Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | spyaccounts140 -
How would you link build to this page?
Hi Guys, I'm looking to build links to a commercial page similar to this: https://apolloblinds.com.au/venetian-blinds/ How would you even create quality links (not against Google TOS) to a commercial page like that? Any ideas would be very much appreciated. Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | spyaccounts140 -
Link Building Strategy?
If I use unique content written from writers & post it to good sites (free blogs, bookmarking, directory, articles sites, etc.) having nice good cache, good PR, different IP's do i still have a chance of get hit by Spam actions of google? Planning to do like just 30-50 a month all with unique content or say 1 unique content then re-written & used not more than 3 times. If not this then What else would you suggest? One more thing to add up, like i have 1000+ pages out of which i have like 80-90 pages that matters to me (important pages) then how do I spin the anchor text between all the pages. Should i spin them between 1000+ pages or use only 80-90 IMP pages. If the content is 300 words let say then how many anchor tags should i have?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | welcomecure0 -
Is CloudFlare bad for SEO?
I have been hit by DDoS attacks lately...not on a huge scale, but probably done by some "script kiddies" or competitors of mine. Still, I need to take some action in order to protect my server and my site against all of this spam traffic that is being sent to it. In the process of researching the tools available for defending a website from a DDoS attack, I came across the service offered by CloudFlare.com. According to the CloudFlare website, they protect your site against a DDoS attack by showing users/visitors they find suspicious an interstitial that asks them if they are a real user or a bot...this interstitial contains a Captcha that suspicious users are asked to enter in order to visit the site. I'm just wondering what kind of an effect such an interstitial could have on my Google rankings...I can imagine that such a thing could add to increased click-backs to the SERPs and, if Google detects this, to lower rankings. Has anyone had experience with the DDoS protection services offered by CloudFlare, who can say a word or two regarding any effects this may have on SEO? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | masterfish1 -
How to build links to landing pages?
I have been using link baits like infographics to get quality links to my site and I have observed that these tactics are great to get links to the home page or that particular post page where infographic was originally posted. But we have various other important landing pages and we want to transfer some link equity to those pages. Whenever we publish an infographic we post it on out blog with an embed code carrying anchor text pointed to our site’s home page. People who share our infographic, normally links to the home page or to the post page where they find that particular item. So, what are the possible ways to get links to any other landing page? Can we post some bait on other landing pages as well. I need to know some more techniques to attract deep links. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | shaz_lhr1 -
Link Building on a small budget
Hi Folks I'm looking for recommendations from the community that can help me tic the requirements below; Looking for link-building services for a small start up. Prefer to work directly with the person doing the work. Prefer that they speak English 🙂 Have a small monthly budget so not looking for big organisations, rather a expert who is working on his/her own, and can have a phone conversation with me before engagement. Any-hoots I may be looking for a needle in a haystack here but any recommendations on people would be highly appreciated 🙂 PS: I know SEOmoz recommends some folks, but wow they are expensive ... can't afford that
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | OMDAustralia0 -
Building A Forum
I want to build a forum, and I was wondering, can anyone please help me find an open source platform for building it? I want it to be custom and I want to create my own rules. Also I want this forum to be about all topics, is that going to be an issue?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SEODinosaur0