If you dont want to listen to someone moaning and cry like a baby then stop reading now cos I have given plenty of warning about what is about to be said. Right now to the point what has happend to all the directories of late? I am finding it real hard to find what I call a deasent directories anymore they all charge money your site to be added to a page which is not even listed in search engines, gone are the days where the directories are free unless they have pages which can offer you a deasent PR. Yes I know PR means nothing but at least it gives you the most important info right away wether the page is even listed in Google and also gives an indication of wether the page has been around for long or not. I just dont get it they are all charging what use to be premium rates for the big name directories to be added to a site they have just made with no pages even listed or a home page with PR and no inner pages listed. As far as I can see directories are now totally pointless in wasting your time with, due to the fact you have to pay money to be added to a page which the search engines dont even know exists or dont care. Either way thats useless to me, I do come accross the odd good directory now and then but they are few and far between and I end up wasting so much time trawlling though pointless directories which have no worth at all. Is it just me or has everybody found this? Whats even worse is when you are looking for link exchanges and you get an offer to be place in one of these directories if you will add them to you home page, making out like they are doing you a favor cos they normally cost $20-$50 to buy, even though they are not worth a cent.
Crap reply as well, OP, yes there is a lot of rubbish getting around, this also affects those who want to present good quality directories and service as we are tared often with the same brush. It's something we will just need to work through, but the end game will bring the cream to the top.
The issue of quality has long been a bone of contention around here. There was a while where there was this push that only paid directories had value. Funny, we're not having that conversation any more since Google cracked down on paid links. There still are quality free directories out there - but many of the better ones are for particular niches. If your photography is "art photography" or "pet portraits", check out the 2 directories in my signature - they're both free.
Yep unfortuantly so, well kind of, it not that I think all of them are useless just I dont get anything like the same return from submitting to directories as I used to, simpley as I spend more time wading though crap than I do finding useful directoires which will help my sites do better. Yeah the Photography site, he does sell pictures of London and stuff too so I would have added the site but would not have a clue what to put as a crafty tip.
I believe that the good directories are still exist.... You just have to search a little more... And yes are some good and free ones... (I try to make mine one of them )
I agree with the OP, there's lots of web directories that work so much, put all efforts on less important factors, some don't even bother to work on their web directories and improve it after the users' needs; this is what makes a web directory corrupted one way, another. Whilst there are many web directories that aren't even worth submitting to, there are individuals everywhere that do think about their customers, users so I think you should still have faith in some directory owners. I believe the web directory industry has been overcrowded by users with basic knowledge (very basic) and they work on so many factors, one of them happens to be PageRank. The issue here is that some web directory owners put lots of efforts on something that isin't worth putting your own energy on, for example; in order to gain a high SERP you must have some kind of content and good SEO on your web directory, and 90% of the web directories seriously lack content. Whilst some may lack content, I've seen lots of directory owners that are taking this into consideration and adding unique content for each page, definitely worth it! I mean, have a look at the DP directory announcements area, I can guarantee you that at least 80% are quick-made directories that aren't even worth looking on, but once again there's both paid and free web directories that offer quality. Always put quality in front of quantity I've said enough for today - Meti
I am sure it is connected to a way how you submit and where you submit. If it doesn't help your sites, just don't do it. After all, it is your opinion and you have all rights to enjoy it
I don't think those two things have anything to do with one-another. One of the ongoing problems with free directories is that the business model does not make money and folks will only run in the negative for so long before giving up, going paid (usually erasing all free listings), selling it (usually erasing all free listings), or letting it just sit (huge submission que). I recently got some approvals for free directory submissions I did nine months ago.
there are some good directories and there are many worthless directories, it is up to you to choose where you add your sites
This might look like a shameless plug but I have created my directory, www.alternativefront.com, because of my aversion with the recent run-of-the-mill directories that are sprouting everywhere. They all look the same with nothing but a bunch of annoying ads. And so I said to myself that I have to create an alternative directory that is useful enough for the end users and to the webmasters as well.
One cant help to think the editors picks / affiliate ads are more ads than based on quality or other factor. Over all a nice directory though. well done.
johneva just one thing that i would like to point out is that again there seems to be a tendancy that when someone complains about directories they bundle them all together, rather than saying some directories and owners are annoying. Were not all connected, we dont all operate the same way, as you can see from last night we have various different approaches and pricing. Because there are so many, and because you already express a frustration with wasted time, i cant see a solution to saving your time, you have to shop around to see who offers a better deal. Im pleased to see that you did actually check things and not just throw money at a bunch of directories. More than ever a number of us are working at improving and moving away from old habits, if you can, do give that a chance to take root.
Content has always been king for directories, without content you have no cached pages. Somehow in the past couple of years Page Rank became the only important factor. Webmasters have been swarming to directories raved about as being the best and submitting to topics that are not even cached by the search engines. But the directory had a great Page Rank on the index page and that seemed to be all that mattered. Fools and their money are soon parted
So does no PR means no indexing? My free directory is pr0 but it has 12500 pages indexed. I agree it takes much longer to be approved in free directories, I don't think someone will spend extra extra time on a free directory. In order to keep it quality free directory all submissions need to be reviewed one by one which takes time and for free. And 50%-%60 doesn't follow the guidelines with many spam which makes it even longer. IMO, the difference between a quality free directory and quality paid directory is the payment and review time, free directories get hundreds of submissions a day which makes it slower to approve. There are still many directory owners who care about their directories. So there are still many quality paid directories(even if they are pr0).
PR has nothing to do with indexing. Content however does have a lot to do with indexing as well as a multitude of other factors.
Na my bad I was not clear when I said this not that it has PR0 but it has a greyed out PR bar and then when you go to check for pages indexed on diffrent searchengine find it is not even indexed. As I already said I know PR dont mean crap but for a directory to ask for $20-$50 for me to get added to a page which aint even indexed is a joke, which I am seeing more and more of. I dont mind paying small amounts to get into directorys but for large amounts of money like that I would expect something great like the old Microsoft SBD or something that was $50 for 1 site or $100 for 3 sites. Thing is with that was the index page of the directoy was like PR6 and inner pages were indexed right away and soon got some PR, more importantly than that you got you normal link in the directory and then also a dedicated page to your site when you click more details where you could have another 5 deep links to diffrent sections of your site. Now that was well worth the $50 unlike what I see from most directorys kicking round ATM. If there is one thing directorie get lots of it is visitors (From people wanting to submit sites to them) now I should think they should then be able to convert that into some use to them, be it from Google adsence Banner advertising whatever. So just cos its free for basic submissions dont mean the directory carnt make money for the owner if they are running it correctly. I think the big problem come is everybody is out to make quick money and people have seen that people will pay to get listed in directorys, even if the pages the sites are getting added to are not even indexed. But as a general rule from what I see most directorys have little to no use anymore, not all there is the odd good directory still about as previously said just not sure its worth spending my time trying to look for them anymore unfortunatly. I assume it is as some of the others have saaid and it is due to the search engines changing how they index sites and if a page just has loads of links on all the inner pages and no content then they dont bother indexing it or even if indexed hold little to no value at all to the link on there. As some of the others have said there are just way to many now I think and owners charging more than they are even worth in most cases due to the market being way overcrowded.
It is very difficult to earn any money by running a free directory and it is almost impossible to earn enough that it actually pays decent for the time you need to put in.