Do Directories Offer Value Anymore?

The point of directories back in the day was for when social networking and the power of the internet was still in it's early days, "1.0" some may coin it. However these days, you can share links on sites like Digg and Reddit and get better results than submitting to 100s of directories. I feel as though the trend is dead and gone, but do you think there's still value in marketing through directories?

 

Digg and most other social networking sites put a nofollow tag on all outlinks. Most blogs and forums now also do it too.

 

Not really, I mean.. I'm not building my websites to gain pagerank or I'm not a believer of getting better SERPs because of directories. Instead I'm thinking that if I could get my article high enough in websites like Digg, my visitors will like the article that much that they'll spread it on forums etc.

So instead of doing a lot of effort to get a backlink and some traffic from a directory, I prefer getting much more backlinks and much more traffic from social bookmarking sites

 

The point of directories (1996-ish) was to list useful websites in one central place to make it easy for users to find what they wanted (either niche directories or bigger ones like Yahoo).

Directories were the easiest way to find related sites at one point - but obviously search engines took over that function for the most part, and people switched to using search engines for most of their search needs.

I still think niche directories can be very useful for the user.

As for links, I do feel that they help seo - but I personally think that Google would rate links on more targeted niche directories far higher than on ones where anything goes (unless it knows its a popular site - Yahoo/ODP).

 

well one thing if you are having a blog or a website and still want to get good and directed traffic, social book marking sites whould be much easier given that the article is so appealing that the readers want to spread it around. Directories you need to write well researched article on top of creating post content for your websites.

However, in seo perspective that's quite advantageous given the fact that you get quality back links where as social book marking sites have their dreaded <nofollow> tag attached with you site URL>. So it's Directories might not yet be totally obsolete

 

Directories might not yet be totally obsolete, I think so.

 

For sure they do. Some of the more popular directories still have some weight in searches.

 

Marketing is not just about sharing links...As far as Digg goes, I happen to believe that a 'well dugg' page gains pr over time. Good directories, both general and niche, help your site get "categorized on relevancy"...There is no doubt that directories are nothing when compared to the volume of traffic that you can obtain if your have a good SERP, but well promoted directories do offer targeted transient traffic too...

When it comes to quality and relevant link building goes, directory listings alone wont get help in anything the same way bookmarking alone wont either...

 

It depends on where you submit your site. There are still quality directories out there that can be a great source of one-way link. I don't think it's obsolete and ineffective when it comes to SEO.

 

DMOZ used to be pretty useful few years ago, but it seems like Google doesn't respect it that much anymore.

 

I don't think so

 

I think directories has still a major if you want to improve page rank.

 

But if you consider sites like Digg, isn't that really just another type of directory? It's a huge one, similar to Yahoo!, but with smaller Pligg-based websites there are tons of Digg clones based on specific niches - just like SB sites.

 

Not really in my opinion. Every website has the chance to add his website with even all pages. Another major thing why social bookmarking websites are much better is that you get to see what others think about stuff -- on a directory it isn't always known which sites are really useful and which aren't.

But that's just my vision, I might be wrong

 

Sure, but you can't simply cut and paste the same information. Google will consider it duplicate content. Since many SEO folks take short cuts and re-use the same content theses links are nearly worthless. It takes time to build a good link building campaign.

 

I think they are. But it also depends on your market. Sometimes is also good to submit to new directories when they are still free. Some of them will later become paid and hopefully with high page rank.

 

You really believe that the social bookmarking sites genuinely represent what "others" think about others' products and services? mmmmm Since when the net has become spa#-free? I must have missed something

 

In my honest opinion, Directories are still worth it SEO wise. There are a bunch of directories I find that are spidered frequently, and In my opinion, worth the submission.

But, my choice in directories aren't your typical free for all kind of directories...

 

IMHO, this is the single biggest reason to submit to directories, especially for a new website. The major SEs need to determine what the site's relevant topic is. It can not rely solely on KWs in content. Confirmation needs to come from multiple sources. Seeing the site in a specific category in numerous "trusted" human edited directories goes a very long way in establishing the SE's confidence that it has identified the site's topic correctly.

That said, getting listed in a thousand junk directories will IMO do no good at all. I think you want at least 7 good directories and any more than maybe 15 probably does not provide any greater benefit.

/*tom*/

 

Speaking of directories, how come you removed the sponsors links in that theme u are using? I sponsored this theme long time ago? I don't own the site no more but i paid to sponsor that template you are using. http://www.freephpldthemes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=50&Itemid=42

Add the links back please. Sorry to hijack the thread everyone, this just ticked me off.

Let's get back on topic, i got my rant out.