I submitted my site to a few (10 or so) free directories. They had a pagerank of at least 4. Is there any chance my site can be penalized (my site is a PR4)? Is there anything I can do to prevent penalization? Am I needlessly worrying? Thanks!
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention one thing. My website is meant for local residents in a city in Virginia and I generally submitted to a the regional sections of those directories. I didn't submit to random sections of the directory.
u should just edit your post if u need to say anything but for 10 submissions? i doubt lol, they dont really penalize for directories, well i think but dont worry what you did isnt even noticable lol
Inbound links (links into the site from the outside) are one way to increase a site's total PageRank. Where the links come from doesn't matter. Google recognizes that a webmaster has no control over other sites linking into a site, and so sites are not penalized because of where the links come from. More PR info
links that point to your site from sites other than your own. Inbound links are an important asset that will improve your site's PageRank.
Submitting to directories should not penalize you infact it will increase chances of maintaining same PR as you submitted to PR4 directories.
Directories submission can increase your link popularity and improved your SERP. This can't be a reason to penalized you as long as your submission is natural.
i also agree backlinks are improve your site PR score or traffic. how can we build backlinks on legal.
Submitting a regional site to regional directories is a good thing. Those are very topical links for your site, and they won't hurt you. The fact that they are paid (which seems to be what you are worrying about) is not likely to be a problem as long as the directories are managed well and sites don't get listed in categories where they don't belong. One of the directories that Matt Cutts has advised people to submit to in the past is the yahoo directory - and it's paid. The worst that can happen is that the links don't do you any good. They won't do you harm either though.
How can I create legit lnks? : Create articles, submit them to article sites, submit to directories, use directory submission service which (I provide too). Create a template release it free. There a many legit ways to do get backlinks.
directory submission is one of th best ways to improve your serp results. it's not punishment reason lol
what if a directory ur link appears on also links out to bad neighbourhoods, such as porn? will that hurt my site?
Free directories are fine and will normally increase your PR unless the directory is banned which is rare. I did nothing but free directories and my site jumped from PR0-->PR3. It is a month old site. The penalties will come, if Google follows through, from paid links. Right now they are going by people reporting paid links. In the future, I am sure if they think it is paid, then they will not count it, with Google it rare to win an appeal of a decission they make.
I dont think your site will be penalty. just keep submitting to directory the free ones are fine. if they really banned any site, you will know here very soon. ^^
You have no control whatsoever about who links to you, plus, many of the directories you'll find here on DP are properly edited internet reasources, Combining those 2 points suggests that Google is unlikely to penalise you for getting listed in directories, Getting listed in directories has been the way of the internt long before google Yahoo started out as a directory, Anyway, 20 directories is minuscle , do more