Importance of free directories in Search Engine

Hi Guys,

Paid directories provide quality backlinks and they are worth, in the meanwhile what is the mere importance of submitting to free directories? Is it worth spending time on free directories?Need your suggestions

 

The only free directories worth submitting are

1) the old and established ones
2) the directories that are some sort of a university project
3) new directories started by people who're well known directory owners

 

From My Side, Yes Free directories are still works like a charm, because if done properly it gives great authority. I ranked some of my client sites by doing only DS. Below are some points, how free DS worth:

1. As MIA said "the old and established ones" Find minimum 10k High Pr(min PR1) old Directories. Filter them with Class C.
2. After filtering you will get 3k-4k unique directories. Submitting now to 3k free web directories with the same description will hurt your website guaranteed. So don't do it. Don't use same description on more than 1 web directory. It will help your website get some solid authority.
3. Best is to link to the root domain (no inner pages and without anchor, even if the directory allows you).

 

Hi tricomax you said about changing the description while submitting it to different directories.can you please elaborate on that?

 

I mean write 1000 description about your website or you can hire a content writer locally. One description in one directory.

 

Directories are important tools in building link popularity and as a result help improve search engine ranking. They are an excellent source of inbound which are the most powerful types of links to help build link popularity.

 

Thanks for the clarification.
When the editorial sites check for the content in the website page it should match with the content submitted..hence by giving different description will the editors allow the site to get indexed?

 

Buying links from paid directories can be harmful to ranking of your website, as it violates Google's webmaster guidelines:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356

 

Did you read those guidelines? Directories are not designed to manipulate page rank or search rankings. There's a huge difference between buying a link that is specifically designed to manipulate rank and pr and listing within a categorically organized directory of websites.

 

Yes I did - the guidelines mention links affecting pagerank, which means those having no rel="nofollow" attribute.

 

There are some well established directories such as DMOZ, which are mostly run by volunteers and which do not sell links - getting listed in those is certainly very beneficial for website's ranking, as for search engines this is a trustworthy quality indicator.

 

So if I read this correctly, all links should be NOFOLLOW in order to adhere to Google's "guidelines"? I believe Google's intent was to avoid using links for the SOLE purpose of passing PR, and that is something that a directory is NOT intended for. The kinds of links they are referring to (and they can be found in a directory) are those links that are specifically placed in locations on pages that they hope to pass PR from. In a directory the deeper the link, generally the less PR will be passed, and they more links per page, again, the less PR will be passed.

So, using Google's own guidelines. Let's say I have a directory and there are 10 results on that page along with internal links for the web site itself and all these links are FOLLOW. Every link is sharing an equal amount of link juice and importance across that page. This is not a violation of their guidelines, even if those links required payment for review and inclusion into a particular category.

Lets say that same page contained ALL that I just mentioned and ALL the links were NOFOLLOW. BUT, I had ONE PAID link, into footer as an example. That link had NOTHING to do with the page, the category, etc.. essentially no relevance what so ever to the content on that page and was a FOLLOW link. That my friend is what would be in violation of Google's "Guidelines".

Google is after the people who are specifically sculpting PR through the use of both the NOFOLLOW and FOLLOW attributes.

 

free directories will also help you. but paid is good i suggest..

 

Yes! Directory submission is really great way to generate huge visitors on our websites and it may rank well in the major search engines if we do correctly but most of web directories are not so good for drive traffic on your web pages, So we should be careful to choose high quality and most relevant web directories where should be high PR and high web authority..

 

Yep it will and btw by doing this they see you as a self promoter. Who is promoting his site by himself. This is one of my strategy show yourself as a owner not a SEO'er who is promoting a website to gain SERP's.

 

I personally believe that free directory submission have never worked for me. Its better to avoid them if you have some other alternative.

 

I'd add to that list established niche directories.

I guess it's a matter for interpretation. I take it to mean something else entirely. By your logic, every time you link out to an external link, you should nofollow it, which is a ridiculous suggestion.

 

I think it's your interpretation of my suggestion is wrong - of course you don't need to noffollow every link to every site you find valuable, just use common sense!
Creating a page or a whole website with a single purpose of 'voting' for other pages or websites is meaningless, and even can be harmful to the 'voted' sites.
People arguing this are mostly owners of paid directories.
There are some exceptions, of course - directories like dmoz, Zeal and few others do improve ranking of listed webpages, but this is because they have a reputation which was built over decade. These directories are run by communities of independent unpaid editors, therefore listing there is FREE.

 

Follow your mind not others words.

 

Some free directories are also good if they have good domain age and PR.