I have $300 that I need to spend to optimize my site. What would be the best use of that money? I thought it would be buying links from paid directories, but that method is getting a lot of negative review. So what do you think would be the best thing to do?
Save it! Because $300 is not going to get you far. Focus on on-page optimization and link building, which none cost any money if you put the effort in yourself. If you want to spend money then spending money one-time isn't worth the investment...you will need an ongoing budget (weekly, monthly, etc.) to get the best bang for your buck. Good luck!
Buying links from directory is totally waste of your money, you can hire SEO for onsite optimization and purchase some quality blog post from relevant site. PM me your website URL with other details if you need any help
I agree...don't spend it on directory listings. Spend it on a freelance employee to write you articles or get you links some other way. Try elance.com or rentacoder.com...both great sites to outsource work cheaply.
I still don't understand why paid directories would not be effective. If I get links from PR5 and PR6 directories, that should logically help me out. And last time I did it, I did see some results.
If you are in a relatively large niche, you should offer a very low price per link. $300 is nothing when spending on links, if you are in a large niche you will easily be able to spend it all (and get more links) offering next to nothing - enough people will take it. You'll just need to contact enough people!
Let me clarify this for you; just because the homepage of a directory has a PageRank of say 7, the page where you get your link nearly always has less than this. (although it is some use, its better to get a link on a Page itself that has PageRank). Take for example BOTW: http://botw.org/ The homepage has a PR of 6. But when you pay your $70 to get included in the directory, you're going to get a link on a page like this: http://blogs.botw.org/Business/Marketing_and_Advertising/Internet_Marketing/Affiliate_Marketing/ Which often has No PageRank. So when submitting to a paid directory search through the URL you site will be placed on and make sure it has a high internal PagRank, otherwise its really not worthwhile. (that's not to say its no use at all, it just a common misconception with link building) Instead I recommend you try some other SEO methods; article submission, on-page SEO, Do-follow commets, buying links etc Cheers
It seems many people don't agree to spend money on directory list. Maybe directory list is suitable for long term site, not for short and mid term sites. According to my experience, directory do bring PRs, some ranking.
Pay someone to write some targeted articles for you. Make sure you research keywords, and use several in each article. Submit the articles to directories.
Try to get diversified links like from article directories and various other sites. But make sure, you are targeting keywords in your pages. Getting a backlink to a page named "kyeowrd 1" is going to help but to a page with <some random phrase> won't. Just an example, but I think you have got the idea....
Believe me, I have been search engine optimizing for awhile, I do know a lot. The thing about article submission, blog commenting, on-page optimization, is that I do it all myself. I don't need money for that. Therefore, I have to find something to pay for, and paid directory submissions is one of the few things I can think of, in addition to buying links on sites related to my niche and such. I won this money, and I am kind of required to spend it on my business. If this was my own money, I wouldn't just be blowing it like this. Last time, I got my site ranked well spending much less than $300, but now I have the money, so I'm just trying to use it as efficiently as possible.
Buying links from directory is totally waste of your money.. is this right..? if yes then from where we can get the links...?
You can get links for free from article submission, forum posting, blog commenting, social bookmarking, free directory submissions, and link baiting. However, I need to spend money, and I feel the best way to do so would be on paid directories, since they have high PR and are relatively exclusive.
Get links from sites similar but not competing with yours (ideal, in context links maybe avoiding the use of banners)...better if those sites have the highest traffic possible, this way you get backlinks and traffic.