I know that some directories will not help at all, where as others will actually decrease the quality of weight that Google gives a site because they are known for spamming or whatever. Does anybody have a list of directories that should be avoided? Or this problem a lot less signicant than a lot of people think?
That has to be personal decision that comes from experience. You need to judge how much benefits you will get from directory. Check the other pages and links in that directory and see how quality they are. But in general directory backlins are not quality backlinks at all.
You have no idea what you are talking about. No link from a directory is going to hurt your search positions. If it were possible, then everyone would be getting plenty of links for their competitors.
Links from useless web directories may be counted as zero but no negative side being given. Or your competitor may messed up your ranking by pointing a tons of link to your website. It is depend on your link profile as well. A links from quality website / web directory could help established more authority on your link profile. I would recommend you stick with these three directories first - Yahoo / Business.com / Botw.org. DMOZ is another best option available but it does take forever times to get your website listed there.
Sxperm is right. Google can't downgrade your site because of a link from a bad web directory or your competition could crush your rankings.
Thanks for that & Tornado; if you have not got anything constructive to say, don't bother saying anything.
Web Directories always help to your website and its never damage to your seo ranking. People doing directory submission for long time ago. They never disappointed to do that again i m saying no one directory can't effect your seo ranking that's all.
Yes its true that No link from a directory is going to hurt your search positions.It depends on you that how you submit your site.
If you have too many links from spammy directories and few quality links, I think they will actually hurt you.
I assure you that what I said was both accurate and constructive. If my exposing your lack of knowledge has hurt your feelings, see a psychiatrist. My tissue box is empty at the moment...
I believe that any link building should be done with attention to your link profile. Google will notice if you gain links in a way that strays too far from a natural pattern. Possible signs that your links are not natural might be: - your links all come from the same type of sites - the anchor text of your links is not natural - most of your links point to your homepage - a high percentage of reciprocal links - too many sitewide links - a high percentage of links from a few IPs For detailed information see the Top 15 Signs Your Links are Not Natural.
the overall link profile is more important then ever - so links from a variety of sources is important. Also be careful when submitting to directories that you are consistent with the www or no www in the domain name - if you add www to the directories, it can send a ranking signal to google that will not help your mysite which you want to rank for if you use mostly no www. This has been my experience - so be careful - keep it all the same.