I have a touristic web-site, which is very important to me. The entire content of the web-site is totally unique. The web-site has been working since November 2007, which is almost two years now. The web-site is commercial. I've analyzed back links of other sites of the same theme. I noticed that several very popular touristic web-sites (well, they've been working for a longer period of time, more than 10 years) have a lot of back links from directories of a very poor quality. I mean totally unknown directories which don't even have the Page Rank of the main page. Too many links on one page and stuff, which I didn't like too much... The most important is that among my competitors there are web-sites that have more than 85% of back links, they are links from similar directories of pretty low quality. As a rule, prices for adding your web-site in such directories range from 5 to 20 U.S. dollars. After that, I'm asking myself: is there any use NOWADAYS of such directories? Can they do harm to my web-site? Is it generally worth registering my web-site in such directories? If there is still any use of it, could you please tell me, what the best way to register your web-site in such directories is, so that you don't do harm to the web-site? I am very aware of sanctions from search engines. P.S. The web-site is very important to me and I am very afraid to do harm to it. I am a supporter of White Hat SEO.
Can a directory do harm to your web site? Not that I have seen. Linking to ONE bad neighborhood is not enough to cause an issue. You'd really have to have a larger series of links into your site from either bad neighborhoods, or a collection of irrelevant links in rapid succession. The reality is having exposure from a directories is still rather crucial when it comes to generating traffic, getting indexed and promoting your site's existence. If the intent here is to achieve nothing but Pagerank,then your expectations are a bit presumptuous. If anything the directory will pass NO benefit to your site's PR and or SERPs before it ever passes something bad unto it.
Backlinks won't do you any harm, as in theory you have no control who links to you, so SE cant mark you down. Directories vary in quality, but they are still an effective form of your SEO strategy. Instead of auto submitting to lots of low quality directories, try and stick with manual submission from SEO friendly directories, which will give you much better medium to longterm benefits. A good list of these which is reguarly checked and updated is http://info.vilesilencer.com/
Sanctions? were talking web directories here, lets not exaggerate. By a great number of directories, how much are you referring to, roughly?
If your concern is about quality, then you should look into submitting to paid review directories which only accept sites that meet their quality guidelines. Since your site is in a travel niche, you should be submitting to niche travel directories. There are many travel directories which can be submitted to, such as this or this, for example.
Thanks for your responses. I don't have a goal to increase my PR. I only have one goal: to move up the positions of my web-site in SERP at certain requests. I don't even think of PR right now. I am ONLY interested in increasing visitors' attendance on the web-site. What do you mean when you say "bad neighborhoods"? Just one low-quality directory? Or a range of low-quality web-sites that link to me? "Many" - I meant about 200 directories. And the last question: Could you please suggest the basic rules that one needs to follow when registering their web-site in directory? Will there be any problems if the web-site has a period of time when it will have back links only from directories? Which is basically the back links of one type. I'm going to register my web-site manually in directories, and choose the directories I like and pay for listing there. I don't see any other way, because if they add for free, nobody knows when they are going to list your web-site and if they are ever going to do it. I want to increase visitors' attendance of the web-site as soon as possible, I don't have time to wait and rely on free listing.
Hello... My suggestion is do a few good paid review directories rather then thousands of new free directories as you will see the results sooner as well as get your site reviewed faster and by a quality directory... thx M1
If you are finding sites that are ranked above you on directories I'd say its part of a successful SEO company by these other sites. If you are finding the links its likely helping them but doing just directory submissions likely won't make your site rank above them.
Start with directories in your niche because they'll carry more weight with the search engines. Once you've got your niche covered then you can branch out to some of the better know general directories.
You mentioned that you want to stay “White hatâ€, some people might argue that paying for back links is an attempt to manipulate the search engines which makes it black hat. I think the color of your hat is determined by where you are sitting. In other words all is fair in love and search engines. But to answer your question, I don’t think directories are as important as they used to be. However, I will not go without at least a few hundred on any given site, just in case. Remembered we are all just guessing. Stick to great content and lots of it and you will be a great success. If you want to get that hat a little dirty though get yourself a good quality link wheel and watch the magic happen.
It just depends where you focus your time. I never focus any time on submitting to directories for backlinks because I get better results doing blog commenting to gain backlinks/traffic. Completely up to you, you are the internet marketer after all
No harm but will also be no use for them anyway they just need to be careful not to submit links on a blacklisted site