How relevant are directories these days?

Hi everyone,

I'm reluctant to submit my websites to directories for fear of being penalised by google. I heard that a recent change in google's algorithm now means that most directories, bar a select few high quality directories, are ignored.

How true is this?

Thanks for any advice/input.

 

There sre many reasons why google may penalise your website. One of the reason is your linkbuilding practices. Remember linkbuilding is not limited to directory submissions. There is absolutely no reason why you should not submit to web directories. Identifying good and bad directories is your concern.

 

if they are authority directories then there is no risk.

 

Thanks for your replies. What exactly defines an authority directory?

 

I would say a directory like http://www.dmoz.org

 

Can anyone list other high quality directories besides dmoz.org?

 

+1 for a list.

There should be a sticky of the best directories - if there isn't already.

 

The thing about directories is, they're just all so different and complicated to submit to.

Are there any really good and trustworthy services that do this for a cheap price? I'd imagine they'd have to submit to a bunch of directories, but more importantly, over a course of at least a few months (to be effective).

 

If there are any services that do it they won't be cheap. You always get what you pay for.

 

There are some directories charging for removing links now, thats how crazy stuff is getting

 

Haha I noticed that but didn't understand why people want the service.

 

And what about paid directories are they low quality backlink activity, they also penalized ?

 

It would make the most sense to me that you look for a directory with hi PR. After all, you are looking to better your rank with Google and one of the main ways Google gives their blessing is by increasing the PR of a site. It wouldn't make much sense for them to penalize you for posting your link on a site that they themselves rank high on their quality scale.

 

Chasing directories or any backlinks with high PR is a bad strategy. Start getting a whole bunch of links from only high PR sites and watch how quickly Google penalizes your site for gaming their system.

 

I think also yes catalogs are loosing authority for linkbuilding

 

Good point. But what about submitting to all types of directories but being sure to include the occasional high PR? I would hope that Google wouldn't hurt you for doing that.

 

Historically it wouldn't hurt you as long as the anchor text varies. Of course, here lately, who knows.

 

The big question is..which directories other than Dmoz would be considered authoritative? I think directory submitting can still be useful, but don't expect traffic from many of them. As some of the others have said, small directories with no PR and such could probably be ignored..You won't get much credit or traffic from those.

 

They are those directories which are sidding with the new scamer SEOers, they are doing sort of blackmaling ... No link can harm you that easily because if it could than this trick would have been used by many competitors for da same interests and hence they could drop each other ....
Just submit to quality web directories which on just one look deserve quality and you will never feel sad about it geting listed in one such.

 

You better get current on what Google is doing lately. They are sending out thousands of notices via Webmaster Tools to sites where backlinks are indeed hurting their sites. And, the obvious, and predictable response has happened in that competitors are trying to obtain links to hurt each other.

It would seem the main culprit is too many links with the same keyword phrase.