It would have been great to find out from some one who had similar websites. Then create 100 backlinks to one site just from Directories and 100 backlinks from regular websites to the other website and see which one performs better on search engines. I know I have one of my sites that I have submitted to every free directory I could and it is doing fantastic with search engine ranking. Obviously I have lots of quality backlinks from other website, so I cannot say it was just directories.
That just proves it again. Directories are only one of the ways to build backlinks, and one of the easiest too...
Not all free links from directories are worth. Editorial integrity is low in most of the web directories which results in low quality sites getting listed there. Getting your site listed along with many spammy sites does not necessarily help in terms of SEO.
I understand what you have said there. I often tell people to look for quality links in terms of: Links from authoritative sites (ranked high in the Google SERP) High relevancy for the link (website or web page that has the same theme) # of total outbound links on the page (fewer the better for PR point) While quality links are rather hard to get, links from directories are easier, like aspidov said. I also tend to think there are directories that are not so worth spending time to submit links on them. But then the quantity of backlinks counts too, not all of them are wasted either. I honestly am not sure if Google can judge so well to distinguish between quality directories and bad ones. I know they can at least know spammy sites, including spammy directories.
I think google may be able to decide spammy sites based content (in case of directories, ubmitted sites). Bad neighborhood certainly can hurt other sites listed along with it.
Not sure what you meant by BS I know you are selling homepage links on your pet directory. Now tell me what are you not selling?
It's true I sell advertising on the pet directory - it's not about PR, it's about exposure. At the moment, no one on the front page of that site has actually paid to be there - one site is mine and the other was the first submission to the site (and her beautiful painting works great with my color scheme and site design). A listing is free, it is reviewed, and quite often I do rewrite the descriptions. I also will not accept crappy MFA sites (had no idea how many of those there are in this niche), affiliate sites (way too many of those out there), and other similar sites. I think many paid directory owners have jumped on this "paid review" concept so they can say "I'm not selling links". While there are some here that say they do review and rewrite descriptions, we all know there are many more who are just going through the motions and accept anything as long as it's paid for. There are so many here that proclaim "I'm not selling links, I'm charging for a review" and then in the next breathe they talk about their site's PR - so, yes, for the most part "paid reviews" are BS, IMO.
i love directories you know why? cause they love me too they hug my site and put it somewhere good spot and safe hehehe kinda feel a wierdo yayayayayayayayyyyy
Directories are used all over the web. Look at Yahoo, ODP, etc. Also don't forget that not all directories just list a bunch of sites. Some will give much more and detailed information about a site which can be very useful or some directories are niche directories like affiliate directories for example. A directories or website may not be useful to you, but to someone else it can be.