Do Directories really improve rank?

He's right i'm afraid

 

of course they does,you see any other reason for people to submit to them?
i wonder why 7 people say no,in wich planet they live...

 

I wish i was prepared to show you my sites so that you could see how well they help.

I think i know what you mean though, as i have other sites that wont do so well with directories.

And thats when you come to the conclusion thats its nothing to do with directories, its all the hundreds of other factors that will come into the picture, like competition, the list is huge.

Its pointless me saying it though, lol

 

I just love threads like this. Funny that those telling us all about the benefits of directories are directory owners. The reality is that the vast majority of directories are selling a worthless product that is of no use to the either the webmaster or to someone trying to find information on the Internet.

 

A year before i ever owned dirs i saw the benefits from submitting to them, i still do, and will do.

Its funny how the people complaining possibly have trouble ranking, im not saying you do, but maybe some do.

 

Is that your best arguement?

Why do you think those of us who have a quality directory put the time and effort into building one? Obviously because we believe in the benefits they give to visitors and submitters.

Jeez that is like me saying the only ones knocking directories in this thread are those who are knocking them.

See Jim here in another thread ? He does not own a directory and is happy with them...

Or check out Google here saying to submit to directories.

 

The simple answer is it depends and it requires some research. There are a ton of directories out there after your money and even more free ones, so how do you evaluate them to work out whether it is worth submitting your site and parting with your cash. I have cut and pasted this from my blog:

# Does the website look professional or would a visitor hit the back button immediately?
# Is there evidence of editorial control? Are there typos in the entries or even worse irrelevant or inappropriate sites?
# Is the site indexed by Google and the other main search engines?
# Check some of the listings and see if any of the backlinks are being picked up by the search engines. e.g. use link:www.domain.com in Google.

Read more about evaluating web directories

 

Directories are a good way to improve your SERPs for long tail keywords because you target link text to terms that aren't too competitive.

 

Directories are a nice tool to help out a website but are not worth paying for. Only submit to free directories, IMO.

 

Its opinions like this (which are completely stupid btw as most free directories are loitering in bad neighbourhoods) that are destroying the directory industry. If your going to give an opinion, which of course your entitled to, at least back up that opinion with facts.

 

I doubt that anyone here knows for sure. We can only guess.

 

Some of us have said that we have tried getting 'good ranks' for decently competitive words just by directory submissions. And we have got good results. Is there any doubt?

 

It's actually quite easy to know for sure as jitendraag noted. I have multiple sites with backlinks from only free directories. They are PR 4's with a good amount of internal PR as well. They rank good for their niches.

Directory listings alone are not going to give you great ranks for competitive niches. But they do help and are part of a well balanced backlink profile.

 

I could never reach beyond PR3 with 'just' directory submissions. I will try and reach PR4 too

 

Sites are under one year old, and the first PR update went from PR NR to a PR 3. All top level internal pages were PR 3's as well. The next PR update they went to PR 4's with all top level pages PR 4's as well. Also on the second PR update, the first level deep directory page got a PR 4 and some of its 50 pages got PR 1- PR 3's (most of the 50 are still PR NR).

It's too bad I don't have more time to devote to these sites. They could easily become PR 6's or 7's.

 

Directories help in ranking. Your sites will move up in ranking after you submit them to directories. They also increase your page rank.

 

for me..of course 'they' did help to increase the rank..as they 'speaks' your site to public..just look for well-known directories site n feel the traffic flow..as long as there is a good content provided by us..

 

i belive in Directories really improve website page rank. it is useful that submitting links to directories.

 

I just promoted directories heavily for the first time. I used to only submit to a select 5 general and 5 niche. I am running an experiment where I submitted a site to over 200 directories of varied quality. I will let you know if it helps, hurts, or doesn't do much.

My theory: Since bots can't crawl directories quickly there will be benefit in the long run. Bad neighborhoods can't hurt a site, because if it was true it would be too easy to use link farms to knock out competitors.