Hi, I heard recently there is some evidence that search engines like Google are devaluing directory submissions. Has anyone had any recent experiences that support or dispell this idea?
Directory submissions are still important as they vary your backlink sources however search engines have devalued many directory sites. I would suggest you get your website listed in human reviewed directories as google knows who these are. The reason for many directories being devalued is because many spam sites know that submitting to directories is an easy way to get backlinks – however many of these directories would accept more or less any websites – due to this many have been devalued and will not affect your websites credability – they will not hurt your website though – If this was the case then I would be listing my competitors in the directories which have been devalued.
Links from directories are valued the same as links from any other site. Good directories that are focused on just one subject and are well edited will be treated the same as a good blog on the subject. A good general directory that is will edited and has a good category structure will be treated well by Google for the simple reason that they help Google's algorithm figure out which sites are in which niches. On the other hand, poor directories that have many unrelated sites on the same page or descriptions that have been repeated in several other web directories will be treated as the same type of trash that a spammy copy and paste site. Bottom line, spend a little time searching for directories in your niche and also looking for general directories that are well indexed in google. Those will pass on serious link juice.
I am listening this news since 4 years, yes there importance have decreased due to Google continuous updating algorithm, but you can't ignore it.
Google has been steadily devaluing low quality sites. If a directory has weak content it's been devalued. If a directory has good content it continues to do well. They have been treated no differently than any other type of site in that regard. In general, directory submission hasn't been devalued. It's the percentage of directories that offer value that is declining.
as every one says.. Directory submission has its value always. first thing long term traffic (backlinks gained from directory submission will help us to get high page rank which will drive the traffic from search engines) another thing is most of the directories displays recent articles from website, that also drives quick traffic to us.
Most of directory submissions are of duplicate articles which are devalued. But dofollow backlink from original article whether from an article directory or any junk place is of value. Main idea is dofollow backlink from relevant context irrespective of site's PR. But site must not be banned one.
as far as I now, Google started to be more picky about directories as there are crazy amount of increase on web directories lately. It turned out to a big market. If you know what you are doing, you can benefit from web directories.
Its threads like this is the reason why I love Digitalpoint. I want all my competitors to come here to learn their SEO from you guys.
Directory submission gets backlinks to your site. Would it be a generally good idea then to submit to high PR directories? The higher the PR the more important google finds it?
After Panda, the submission directories have kind of lost their sting and especially the link farms and link exchange methods are really frowned upon. So unless the directory is real good apart from the prescense of the link you may not be getting any real value.
Basically I'd disagree with the opening statement in the first sentence, and refer to the more accurate depiction ymc stated. Directories haven't been devalued, bad sites have been devalued... Thus it hit a lot of me-too directories that are poorly edited and were worthless to begin with. Directories with strong editorial control and consistently enforced standards still perform a function the SEs value... Separating the wheat from the chaff. In the current environment of spun articles and autoblogs vs worthwhile and unique content, SEs need every tool they can muster to determine which is which. Directories that are known to make such distinctions still play a valuable role in providing an eyes-on certification process, and sites accepted to those venues do still appear to receive increased credibility.
directory submissio always had power and still have.. i have achieved too many results by doing directry submission only.
Yes, There is no doubt that directories have been devalued by Google, It's my personal experience I did directory submission for almost 300 sites which has been approved but I haven't received a single backlink that's really frustrating... Many people are saying that it's still working so I request them to please send me the list of directories from where they're getting positive results.