I often see the question in this forum, "Do links in web directories help?" so I decided to do an experiment with a new site where the only link building I did was with web directories. Below is the test and the results. Site Overview Built the site 1 year ago. Site is all unique content. Added new content to the site a few times a week. Directory Submissions Used only free directories. Started with directories related to the site's niche. Then submitted to directories where the category in which I'd be listed was ranked in in the SERPs. Submitted to only 2 to 5 directories a week (about 1/2 hour a week researching to find appropriate directories). Used unique titles and descriptions for submissions (no copying and pasting the same set of titles and descriptions over and over) Submitted deep links where appropriate, but mostly links to home page SERP Results Got long tail search engine hits after about 1 month Started getting hits from important keywords in the niche in 6 months --NOTE: these are 2 and 3 word keywords (not the top keyword for the niche) Ranked in top 20 for important keywords in 6 months Ranked in top 10 for important keywords in 9 months Ranked in top 5 for important keywords in less than 1 year Site still doesn't rank in the top 20 for the main keyword term in the niche Traffic Results after 1 Year 10,500 Search Engine Hits per month (and growing each month) -- from 5300 keywords -- 1000 from variations of the top 5 keywords -- 40 keywords that bring more than 25 hits a month500 Direct Hits a month from 260 different cities -- 7% of monthly traffic has hit the site 3 times or more -- 8% of monthly traffic has hit the site on different days250 Referral Hits a month -- 40 from directories (all hits from niche directories none from general directories) -- 15 from social networking sites -- 45 from email servers -- 15 from natural links (a few people liked the site and posted a link from theirs) -- the rest from search engines (google translate and google in other countries) Conclusion Submitting to web directories will get you part of the way there, but you will still have to do other types of marketing (forums, blogs, social networking, articles, etc.) to rank for major keyword terms in the niche. However, with the amount of return traffic and referral traffic to the site it has the possibility to rank for major keyword terms as natural links grow. The important take away from the experiment is that submitting to web directories is just one type of marketing. Web directories can get your site noticed and if people like it they'll send an email to a friend, post it on a social network, or tell someone about it. That "buzz" will get your site natural links that will help it rank in the search engines. If you build a good site and find ways to tell people about it you can be successful.
A very good approach. Your results partly confirmed what I have been saying for years, that niche and regional directories will bring you some traffic.
Very nicely done. The first thing I do when I build a new site is submit it to web directories. It's an easy way to get links and get some PR. I don't really care about the page rank, but when I ask for link exchanges with other site's later, it's a lot easier to get a "Yes" when your site has PR. I use the DigiXmas tool to do my submissions though, and I don't spread them over the course of weeks or months. I typically submit to 2000+ directories in a 3 or 4 hour time span. I know some people say this is bad, but I don't agree. Googlebot doesn't see every page every second of every day, so what's to say it won't find the 300 links I spread out over a 2 month time span all in the course of a single day?
I agree with you Tim_Myth, based on my studies in link building, the velocity in which you build backlinks for your website has no bearing on Google's ranking system. Here is why: because what if your site was too become an overnight success? So for instance like Twitter! Meaning sometimes backlinks can be built naturally by other people than your self, and can be thought of as word of mouth advertising. Google realize this, and for that very reason you will not be penalized.
This is really interesting. So good old directory submissions still work. Thank you for sharing this info.
That's the important part. One type of inbound links can harm SERP, you need to get mixed type of links to gain good result.
Nice report. Would be nice to see it made into a sticky and put an end to all of the ridiculous repetitive posts asking the same question all the time.
I've been saying the same thing for a long time, directory submissions still work great for niche terms, but you should never rely on just one form of link building, but directory submission should always form a part of the link building process somewhere. Target lots of niches and you start to get serious amounts of traffic. i've been using submiteaze for almost 4 years now, and i'm still getting the same results now as I did back then.
I wonder if one day google will penalize directory sites like they seem to have done with the guestbooks of the past. Who knows. Directories are sometimes good for now at least if done right, but who knows what the future will bring. So many directories start up all the time and die off shortly afterwards is another consideration. I guess the same could be said for any website for that matter though. Nice to see someone has researched directories recently though.
I've always believed that good directories will never be penalized by Google because they help Google determine which websites are in which niche. If a directory is well edited then Google will treat it like any other good site simply because the directory adds value to the internet.
Thanks a lot for the research. I do think we should see the site though. I believe that a well-designed and optimized site will rank in the top 20 or achieve similar rankings to those you described after a year anyway, even without many good links. Anyone got an opinion on that statement?
This is true if there is little competition. If there are hundreds or thousands of competitors then it is not easy to rank. You also have the big sites that rank for all kinds of keywords.
aweseome, yeah i built a site a few years ago, did only directory submission and was making over $600 a month from adsense in a niche that paid about $1 per click.
Excellent post and very detailed reporting. Thank you for sharing. This backs up what I have found. That only using 1 source for backlinks will only do a little bit of good to your site. However it will always be better to get a variety. Then, why not get variety you know? I mean it isn't hard to make up a couple squidoo lenses, or hub pages, not hard to make a powerpoint and record a video from it. I agree with you and say we should use all the powerful tools the internet offers us to use. KT
Yes I have an opinion on that statement...You are absolutely right. Although good keyword choice is important also in this equation. What you said here is achievable and I have seen it done and done it. I suggest doing the best onpage SEO, and pack as much content as possible on your site, as you stated, and get a few backlinks to it to help it be found by the bots. Now I have recently had a site this happened to but, now some big commercial sites are invading the search term. I will have to get some backlinks going to it...although...I am not holding out much hope of regaining the top 3 again. But, never say never right?