Hello guys, I have a question - how does URL submitting to directories effect your business? Do you get real traffic or only backlinks?
Only backlinks I can say, there are more effective ways to get actual traffic + good backlinks than directories but I guess directories became a SEO standar.
A shameless plug here. I own a directory www.alternativefront.com and most of the submissions were for the free basic listing but later on they have paid and upgraded to premiums or sponsored reviews because it does not only gave them backlinks but real traffic as well.
listing in directories usually doesnt provides much traffic, its the backlink which is valuable and more backlinks = higher rankings in search engines = traffic
I've never met anyone who used a web directory to find anything, have you ? The only case I can think of is if a web directory page was returned in a search, and the directory entry was relevant enough that the end user clicked on it.
It's not even helping too much with backlinks. quality is the key and webdirectories links wont help too much. It's much better to have 5 quality links then 1000 web directory links.
Yes, several of them - coming instore, contact via phone and e-mail as well as direct online orders - from Yell.com. Which is exactly what a directory owner should be doing - having their details pages ranking, through a lot of hard work, to give the submitter a reason to upgrade their listing. Or for potential submitters to see their competitors listings and the benefit they would potentially receive from submitting.
General directories won't send significant traffic, it's been said time and time again. The facts are: Only webmasters buy from them Webmasters only search them to locate more directories Little to nothing to entice the user Fees can be very expensive, only to deliver debatable results The same directory arguments get repeated again and again, and will change nothing. A very difficult business model to make work Many only ever achieve very minor success Too time-consuming, and much effort needed for little to zero reward Few are promoted Usually set up for Adsense The owners are young, inexperienced and have no operating budget Directories get set up to boost pocket-money allowances, and are not real businesses. Secretly, there's no money in this, directories won't make you into a millionaire, and it's largely a waste of time, money and effort - also too many doing the same thing - so zero uniqueness to sell the directory concept.
I actually do get quite some amount of traffic from directories. It's just a question of having the right content in the right directories. Good ones are hard to find, bad ones are easy to spot (anything charging for a listing should be avoided). In general, I agree with event king.
Isn't it obvious? You do not know what directory will drive traffic to your site. Experience tells you however, that a lot of directories won't. So why throw money at them? In general, a good directory depends on you to supply them with content, so a listing is a "I scratch your back, if you scratch mine" thing. Directories charging money are pretty much a case of: "You scratch my back and after you are finished, you scratch a bit more". Only desperate webmasters fall for this kind of scheme and hence the content of charging directories is typical low quality, paid for links junk. Google is not fond of that and neither are normal users.
Nothing wrong with charging, but I wouldn't pay for a general dir listing. So many think by owning the same script as the other 50'000, wll make them rich, but not when the remaining 49'999 are taking the tiny amount of submissions available from the newbie fools out there. Not a great idea to join the herd, but if you can be totally unique, brand new - to do something others cannot - then it may be a winner. The winning formula/secret isn't in the directory script, it must be invented. The directory database isn't the issue, see about 90% of databases are the same eg: same categories, same script, even the fees charged are the same. But it's the website idea, theme, creation - that is built around the search that matters, that's the key to success. Get that right and a directory will do way better than the crap that's out there.
And it's still not worth paying for the listing . In any case, all I have is the word of the directory owner when it comes to his userbase and seeing sheer number of crap and countless false promises out there, I would not risk investing any money. Good directories do not have to charge their content providers.
I actually get decent traffic from some niche directories. If you can find a nice directory related to your niche then you will likely get traffic from it. I agree with others though. A general directory is not likely to generate much traffic for you.
Yes, directories are useful to get only backlinks but its steel wise to do directory submission with targeted keywords and description. It may helpful to improve ranking in SEs.
It may be wise, but it won't work because the clever dir owners will charge. They know webmasters will spam them to get the free ride, and it's their webspace at the end of the day, so have a right to charge something. All that will happen is webmasters being forced to pay if they want in, don't pay, they don't get in. No decent one-way links from free directores anymore and their sites go down, as many cannot afford advertising to drive visitors. No choice but to pay these days.
If you want hits from a directory you usually have to find niche directories that have traffic from the search engines. Start with directories in your niche that have a high Alexa traffic rating, then Google for some of the text in their pages. If they come up you've found a directory that will probably send you some hits.
So you think good directories wont have to spend any money in order to keep being (good as you say) and also you think that a webmaster that spend some hours a day to review submmited sites and edit some errors on submmisions will do that without get payed for his time?Also you say that you would not risk to invest money like you are saying that you have to spend xxxxx $. From my side all this things u r saying shows a freebie that have not ever invest any money at all on his site and trying to convice his self and others that invest some small amount of money for their sites wont have any results because you dont have the money to do it. Maybe i am wrong about this observation and i dont take it for grand it.But it sure look like this.