BOTW, Yahoo Directory and Joeant - Unnatural linking, surely?
-
Hi,
I have been reading with interest that many SEOmoz forum members still believe that a link in BOTW, Yahoo Directory and Joeant can still add value to a linking strategy.
It's my understanding that the Penguin update was designed to stop unnatural linking and link buying but Google does still seem to place some kind of value (although potentially diminished) in these directories despite them being pretty much exclusively paid for links.
What am I missing here and in a money no object world would you guys still consider them part of a good linking strategy?
Many thanks
-
Many thanks for your response. I was only asking to check that it wasn't a 'they're on borrowed time' kind of situation before I parted with any cash
-
Firstly, i'm dead certain that if those directories didn't add any value, Google would have dealt with them because they are well known directories. The fact that they are still there means Google and its Panda/Penguin family sees value in them. We can argue all day about it but that won't change it.
Secondly the payment you make to these directories is not for your inclusion, rather for an editorial review. Two different things.
A link can be viewed as paid depending on the angle from which you are looking at it. Someone can argue that giving a blogger a product to write a review post about it, in a wayi is paid.
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
-
Linking Adsense to an Anaytics account
Hi Ive linked an adsense account to the relevant sites GA account but cant see an approporiate new section in GA with the Adsense data in it! I presume there should now be ? If so where should it be and if its not there what's likely cause/fix ? All Best Dan
Paid Search Marketing | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Questions on Paid Directory Links...
Hi Moz Community! We have a client in the manufacturing industry that is listed in Thomasnet.com for a about 75 different terms. For those that might not know, this is a paid directory site that ranks extremely well and has a very high DA at just under 90. These 75 different terms have spanned about 9,000 "dofollow" links on Thomasnet.com around 4 months back, right about the same time as the Penguin 2.0 update. The link profile for this client had around 2,000 links prior to the 9,000 additional links, and our team is unclear if we should be concerned about these paid directory links. The organic rankings have dropped a bit, but that might be because of a more general Penguin update and not be directly tied to this paid directory. I'm looking for some general guidance and recommendations in this paid directory space and help with Thomasnet.com if available. Should these links be requested as changed to "nofollow"?
Paid Search Marketing | | zadro
Will Google see this domain as one major domain link?
What other recommendations/experience with "quality" paid directories can be expected? Thanks much and look forward to your comments and discussion. Dario0 -
What are the strongest and most-Google friendly directories to place my business on for the sake of large SEO gains? for the sake of Exposure to customers? What is the best way to invest for ROI nowadays? Thanks.
I do basic SEO stuff as well as marketing for quite a few clients. But, I am wondering which directories or exposure based groups are worth the money? Is a business.com directory listing for $300 a solid investment to get a strong link? Is yext a good move? How about wildfire? I could use some really high DA links to stack on top of the link profiles I have already built through content, etc.? Please advise me. PS Confession: I was once a pre-panda Fiverr link junkie. But I am in recovery. I have an 18 month chip and am currently making amends. 12 steps to SEO freedom baby.
Paid Search Marketing | | creativeguy0 -
Yahoo Directory Submission Issue
Dear all, I was submitting my site to Yahoo Directory on 08/26/2012 and at this time the order remain in status "Pending" and the site wasn't included into the directory. Any idea or suggestion how to deal with it. Thank you Claudio
Paid Search Marketing | | SharewarePros0 -
What to do about bad links from Social Media Bookmarking
I'm still relatively new to SEO, so this site has been super helpful but I've hit a wall. My predecessor at my new(ish) job left me with a site that has been hit pretty hard by Penguin. I've been working at establishing all the bad links, and there are a lot. One of the things that I have found is that at some point a Social Bookmarking scheme has been run and there are a huge number of links (all with spun content) on low quality sites. I don't think there is any value in them and at the moment they are ranking so badly that I really don't care if a couple of them do have value, I'd rather start again - changing the urls etc is not an option 😛 I can't remove these links so about the best that I can do is to 'bury' them but of course this doesn't mean they disappear. Is this worth doing? Does anybody have any better suggestions?
Paid Search Marketing | | lemonz0 -
What is the definition of 'Paid links' for Google ?
Many high authority sites are doing paid text linking and linking sites through 'Sponosred linking' sections, But, Google does not seem to be bothered. Just because they are already ruling the industry. Sponsored links are obviously not natural, they are absolutely paid, still Google is giving them priority that is why only people are paying huge for them. Please go through the website http://goo.gl/tgfH and see "Sponored link" section So, What actually Google considers as paid link? nNolr nNolr
Paid Search Marketing | | koamit0 -
SIte wide links by google display / adsense
hey guys, I had a quick question about my back links that might be coming from adsense. I am trying to help my father our on his site and help him recover from penguin. unfortunately his company hired some shady SEOers to do "SEO". little did my dad know the BLs he were getting might be spammy, thats what I am checking now. When I ran a BL report on him ( i use two tools, SEO spyglass and OSE ) i found that there were many "sitewide" links, but i dont think there were placed there by the webmaster, i think they come from adsense. I know he has a PPC campaign where the daily spend is 3k/ day so I know its very possible that this might be the case. If my tool is picking up BLs from these sites ( which are niche related ) does google count these links for ranking purposes? and might this hurt my rankings if google just sees these as "sitewide links"
Paid Search Marketing | | david3050 -
Running image ads with text is better? - anyone have the link?
Blank mind and cant find the Google research (or maybe it was someone else) that showed that sales were better when running image ads alongside your text ads Does anyone have that link? Cheers S
Paid Search Marketing | | firstconversion1