Caveat Emptor — Let the Buyer Beware!

Just for kicks, I went back and looked up 38 paid directories I submitted to in April, 2007.

The results? —
• As expected, some had been sold and were no longer directories.
• Of those that were, not a single one had my link on a page with any PageRank.

38 paid submissions ... essentially zero value received. That's something to think about.

 

What did you think you were "purchasing" when you made those submissions? When you mention "essentially zero value received" are you talking about PageRank again? Are you suggesting that since 2007 there has been no benefit to your listings?

From looking at the directories ranking for keyword phrases related to your site, I'm not sure you can claim essentially no value. I will give you that the values may have diminished since 2007 and this is something that a submitter should take into consideration. I seem to remember you making mention of a number of directories which have provided you with some benefits; were all of those directories mentioned free directories?

I think the biggest problem may have been the choice of directories to begin with.

 

A good point, and very likely true. For some time I did get modest traffic, for example, from 2yi.net. Very little from most others, per Analytics.

Of course, it's not easy in advance to pick the right directories. Looking back, I can think of a small number of paid directories that would have been well worth the price, if I could have known in advance which ones were going to prosper. But alas, if we had such accurate foresight, we would all be billionaires!

 

I know you submitted to mine, unfortunately as most things online its hard to predict what will happen and where best to invest.

Do those healing prayers for the sick actually work?

 

It might be not the best criterion but age of directory is something that should be
taken to consideration when choosing paid directories and never PR as determination.



fastreplies

 

Without going into the debate on the merits (or lack thereof) of PR, it is clear nowadays that directories rarely if ever are passing on any PR.

Keyword-rich anchor text? A plus.

Traffic? I just checked my analytics. Of the 80,000 unique visitors the past 30 days, the most that came from any one directory was 10. Another directory, which used to send a decent amount of traffic, sent only 4 UV's in the past 30 days.

 

Is it possible that some of your search engine rankings are the result of the sum of the directory listings? I wouldn't expect too much traffic from a directory like you were seeing a couple of years ago; seems G has devalued directories a bit - especially those with few merit based citations. Most of the inbound links to directories are not merit based and I think that's hurting their rankings and in turn providing you with fewer visitors.

If a directory can be found in the top 40-50 results of keywords you're targeting, I'd be inclined to think that directory may be providing you with some value, even if it's not visible or green.

 

Jim you want search engine traffic, not directory traffic, surely you dont want a visitor to somehow land on a directory either from a search engine or even a list, then find their way back out again from the directory by visiting your site?

Why would you want that? Why would you want pr?

Some directories send fake traffic out to encourage you to submit another listing there.

Are your sites doing badly in the search engines now and your looking for traffic from the directories?

Off topic: Im sorry to hear of your loss.

 

Thanks, Pipes. My wife was a wonderful companion for nearly 38 years. That's her photo in my avatar. A great lady.

You are certainly right about the priority of search engine traffic. That's where I focus my efforts and is where I draw 88% of my traffic.

I still submit to directories. In fact, I peridocally scan "Solicitations and Announcements" and submit to some. That is primarily to get keyword-rich anchor text pointing back to my pages. I used to be a directory-submission fanatic (1,000's of them). Now I continue to do it as a relatively minor part of a broad-based SEO effort.

 

Hope you are coping well, it will take quite some time to adjust i can imagine.

Although im a directory owner myself, i have calmed right down with regards to how many i submit to, i still try and steer people away from the quantity approach.

I see good results from concentrating on adding quality content, you would think that i would realise the simple fact early on that many backlinks to a site that lacks in content would be of limited use to visitors, but no i was so focused on backlink building in the past that i try to avoid thinking about the amount of hours wasted submitting to poor quality directories.

Us humans tend to like consistency and pattern and routine and i think thats why so many get caught up in endless directory submitting, because it takes little effort as far as concentration is concerned and gives a false feeling of doing the site good somehow.

On a weekly basis i glance at one of the directory lists, see the new low quality ones, the endless .info ones and often dont even bother looking for a few new real ones in the list, occasionally il submit to a couple for one of my sites then stop straight away.

I guess that i have finally taken on board, to an extent, the advice from Matt Cutts.

 

I agree with pipes. I used to do the "lottery ticket" form of submitting to every new directory I could find. It worked o.k. and didn't require any thinking. However, once I started noticing which directories actually got me traffic and were also ranked in the SERPs for some of the text on their pages I changed my strategy. Now I spend time looking for directories in my niche that rank in the SERPs. Those seem to give my new sites the most link juice. It's about the same amount of time...but with better results.

Jim, I too want to let you know that I've got you in my thoughts. Sorry about your loss. You've always been one of the people in this forum that is always glad to help others and give good and interesting advice. Hang in there and know that you've got a lot of virtual friends that care about you too.