When I say paid directories, they are not Yahoo or Business or BOTW. I see tons and tons of directories that are PR 4 and PR 3 and are charging more than $20 for submission. I am wondering if people really submit their sites in these directories. When you can submit your site in free directories why would you bother to pay? Can you guys tell me if you opt to submit your site in paid directories or not? Thanks.
It's better to submit in big paid directories like you mentioned yahoo, BOTW than other little ones. The downside is that it can cost you few hundreds each year, which doesn't sound very good for small website owners like you and me. But the upside is that the search engine will respect those bigger directories than smaller ones. So of all those smaller ones you mentioned, I'd say 99% of them are useless for charging people unless you have reason to believe that the search engine gives them credit and respect. They should be old, have good PR at least a 5 and be highly respected in the search engine community. The goal is to get tons of other regular but respected websites/blogs to link to you. You will get way more points than paying some $10-$40 to directories. Google doesn't really respect directories. Google wants you to gain your links naturally and slowly through time.
I read about this all the time, people getting the shakes about submitting to directories. For sure the directories may be in and out of favor, but generally I can't go past the idea that they are valued. There is simply too much evidence that directories are useful for the weight of opinion to have them falling permanently out of favor. I say submit to local (if possible) niche specific (again, if possible) directories. Slowly, over time building the links.
Yes, people pay for submissions to all types of directories. My focus would be on niche directories first then the more popular general directories. In addition, I like to look for directories where my niche is indexed in google and they get a lot of traffic. If I can determine the traffic is from people hitting their site (rather than just webmasters looking for a link) then I know the directory will help my site.
Many people believes that free directories have a higher advantage and equate to better quality sites over paid directories. In actuality, a lot of free directories are very strict about the listings. Paid directories can be just as negligent about the review process as any other directory, that's why I give preference to free directories to paid ones.
I have had great results from selectively submitting to paid directories. Check their guidelines and then the latest links page to see if there are adhering to them. If they are, then it is almost certainly a good directory. Ignore the rubbish about keywords in titles and use your actual site name with unique descriptions. I have had very poor results by submitting to the old "Submit to 1000 free directories for 3 cents" spiel. Sounds good but very few submissions are actually accepted and then only by lower quality directories. Try that technique though and when a directory rejects you then go to that directory and submit a paid link as it almost certainly means a higher quality, edited, and monitored directory.
Free directories are just to say the "Free Directory" but they don't approve site. Yes, You can submit free, but what does make difference if they don't approve your site. or you don't get any traffic at all. After while, there would be lots of dead link and forbidden sites that director owner does not keep clean so Google start dropping SEO rank. Now what? have fun because you might get problem from Google for having your link in those kinds of directories (Free directories).
I thought that was great advice but that's because I actually said those words a couple of months back: http://www.v7n.com/forums/web-directory-issues/256820-paid-directories.html Thanks for the complement.
Most free directories, with the exception of a handful, lack any financial resources to employ quality editors, add features and promote the listings within their directories. Those that only submit to free directories are missing out on being linked to from the most respected and authoritative domains in the directory industry.
Depends on the directory policy. For example my directory allow only original content, the description of the site must be original, not copy from meta or somewhere else. And my directory is FREE!
These days no one go to a directory to find a web site they are looking for. People just google it... Niche directories appear to be OK for traffic.
My first preference is to submit website to big players like yahoo and business.com After that i prefer to select niche directories with good pr and check if Google is crawling the web pages of my niche. If yes then go for paid submissions. I have read some good points mentioned above and thanks everyone for sharing the info.
I think submitting our websites to some paid directories are much more useful than that to some free ones, but maybe not every company is willing to invest in that~ For some free one always have a very ...very long review time and they can't make sure that our website can be listed on these directories, while those paid ones are always quick respond and give our website a wonderful ranking on their sites...
I must say paid directories are worth for link building than free directories. Because there is very big difference in both. When one create paid directory, you must take dedicated ip for it and you try optimize it so well that it doesn't loose it's pr. But when one create free directory there is no such IP restriction so hundreds of directories got set up on one ip and creates just a hell.... For well optimized Paid Directory list check this thread - http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=2315553 Cadio