I used to pay for Directory Listings in batches of 50 - 100. Well the service provider did quite a good job. But I heard that directory listings are now more of a bane to Google and other search engines. Is it true and if yes, any references from Google?
I don't think directories are dangerous as much as they could be a waste of time/money. If google was going to strike out at us for using a directory, all our enemies and competitors would be busy listing other peoples' sites in the directories just to be jerks.
Good idea, if that is the case, I will start paying for my competitors sites to be listed , just joking.
May change in future but for now it's ok IMO. Continue to submit to quality directories and do some quick research before submitting.
Directory submissions are ok and useful. I wouldn't suggest submitting to hundreds of free and mostly not-well-maintained directories though.
Saying that getting a directory listing will harm your site is a current myth being propagated by some SEOs. It is true that if your site is listed in a bad directory, your site could be affected. But to say that this is applicable to all directories is an unfair assessment to make.
It all depends. If you have a new site and it has only directory links, it may set off an alert. Established sites with a lot of natural looking links seem to be immune from such penalty.
It all depends on the directory you're submitting yout site to. You should always do a research on the directory. don't do the bulk submissions services that many offer. it will likely get you penalized.
paying for submission in batches of 50 - 100 will give you a bad linking profile with Google. You need to list only in high quality directories and presently there are only a handful that can be considered high quality.
If you're doing manually submissions and following their guidelines then I don't think it is dangerous.I prefer to submit to 10 authority directories then submitting to 100 low quality directories.
dont do bulk submission after google update it will harm your site , get your website listed in only human edited directories like Dmoz.org, selfgrowth.com etc
In my opinion Dmoz has become a waste of time. As for selfgrowth it is not a web directory from what I see.
There will be good directories and bad ones, this thread has been posted many years ago,and google has not killed diretories.
If PA and DA of any directory is greater than submitted website then this will beneficial otherwise it may harm your site.
Directory submission is as useful as it was in the past, so i am still trying to find anything bad about it.
I've never submitted much to directories. The one thing that would concern me is the quality of sites listed. Even if we all have good sites to submit, what other kinds of sites are offered there? For instance, is it one that offers illegal services (i.e. gambling or p*t paraphernalia) or adult dating sites and p*rn? In other words, is listing a site in a directory enough to possibly consider me associated with "bad link neighborhoods."