For those of you that have used link directory listing services in the past, have you noticed page rank increases as a direct result of using those services? Jeremy
Getting just one link will get your PR. The question that you should be asking is: "Are rankings being achieved with directory listing services"? The answers? No...not really. I like to use those services to kick-start my link building process, just to get the site's indexed and some of the time they do poorly at that. There are only really a few good directories that you should submit to. I only really submit to 10 now and then work on getting partnerships with other sites. Calling people on the phone for link exchanges works wonders.
Directories do help, but should only be a part of your site promotion strategy. I submit to a few more than 10, just because it's an easy way to pick up some decent free links.
Yes directory links helps. There lots of good directories. I don't think there is any harm in having free link in directories so why to submit in just 10.
Adding loads of low quality links to a site could harm your ranking in Google. I would recomend if you do add free directories then also submit to some paid directories as well. Low quality links have little or no effect in Google. Most free directoires fall into this bracket. Yahoo and MSN is a totally different story.
Murray that's why i rank 1 in Google for a keyphrase that gives 2.4 milions results becouse of the low "quality of those directorys that i submited to" And my site in Alexa is under 100k rank .... hmm i wonder why ..... Anyway there some good payed directorys out there but i still don't have a budget for that at least for now
Over my sites I have noticed directory submissions appear to make no or little difference. Many seo people are saying the same. I am not saying don't submit - I still do submit to free directories myself. What I am saying is be careful of acquiring too many low quality links. I would be very surprised if somebody could show my a site ranking for a competitive keyword on the basis of free directories. If you do know of any please post them so we can take a look.
Dude, who cares that there are 2.4 million results. That doesn't mean anything. How many times is that keyword searched per month? Like 2? I really hate when people throw out the "I'm ranked on a page with 394 trillion pages". Well, that's great. Why don't you throw out how many times that keyword is searched, like 50,000 a month. That would be WAY MORE impressive then page results. Because people have the Alexa toolbar installed. I could easily get into the top 100K just by adding the toolbar to my browser and everyone else's browser at my office and setting the homepage to our site. (which I have done before on many occassions)
Voasi here we where discussing if free webdirectory submissions can help at PR and most importantly in SERPs Results and i give an exemple to sustein my answer YES We are not discussing how much is searched over a month that keyphrase that's a nother story .
I used them for some sites. Don't know about PR, but I did get some small traffic from some. now I have too many things to do and stopped taking care of this aspect, but I think this discussion made me realise that I should try to index my site in few of them.
yes...and thats irrelevant if you're getting shit rankings for keywords that don't garner any traffic. The real question is: Do free web directories (or even paid) help get good rankings for semi-competitive keywords?
I don't think that it would really affect you (unless you are doing reciprocal linking with low quality sites) since it is something your competitors can do.
Voasi for me competitive keywords are ones with a good number of results ... the number of searches for a keyword/phrase is a nother story .
Google won't penalize for being listed in low quality link directories as, in theory, a developer has no control over who links to their site. It can't hurt to submit to these directories. However, since you're asking about PR, if you're choosing higher PR link directories, they can help your PR. A follow up question to this from me would be: How does PR affect SERP? I've seen sites that have 0 PR, but number 1 in SERP. Does PR even matter? Other than looking more enticing and being able to sell links or ads on a site?
For one of my sites, I did manual directory submission to over 500 directories. Over a period of one month, over 150 backlinks showed in MSN and Yahoo, but Google showed only one. So I guess Google does not give much importance to the links from directories. I was rewarded by Google of a marginal improvement in my PR from 1 to 2. Later I changed my strategy. I paid $300 to Yahoo for inclusion in Yahoo directory. I also got some high PR links from relevan websites. And I started a blog which was regularly updated. With all these my PR went from 2 to 5 in just 2 months. I'd still keep directory submissions, because they are naturally acquired links from relevant categories.