Are Directory sites are Dead

That by itself does not stop unpaid spam submissions from being submitted to any directory.

 

It doesn't? I've not had a spam submission in 6 years.

 

Amazing that you dont get any submitters that visit KingBloom, fill out the submission form and then not complete the payment process...

 

I did not say that. What I said it is I don't get any spam.

 

I just noticed that is now a PageRank 3. I have submitted hundreds of sites to hundreds of directories. For sites at the lower end of the quality spectrum, I simply would not submit them to JoeAnt, because I knew they would not list them. Many of those same lower quality sites were accepted in other directories like Business.com and the Yahoo! Directory.

 

I guess the same could be said of the "forum industry". I'd like to say I don't get them either, but the stark reality is they still fill a "niche'"

The popularity will never be the same as it was a decade ago for either "industry". That does not mean that the relevance and usefulness are moot as well.

Social media has opened up a much wider audience in terms of communication than any web forum. However, what it still lacks is the specialized or niche' areas and more organized discussions. I don't see nearly as much usefulness out of forums as I once did, but I still do find value in them.

As to your question of explaining the "value in a directory"? There's no denying that very little direct traffic is derived from a directory. And few if any sales or leads are generated from a link in a directory. However, there is INDIRECT traffic that is immeasurable. That indirect traffic that can come in the form of your site and or pages of your site being picked up by a search engine from that directory listing. I've had customers mention cases where indirect traffic from search results that yielded a competitor site listing that led someone to the directory category and another site listed in that category. No, people likely do not come to my directory to search for a web site, but search engines do pick up the listings and do index people's pages that are listed in my directory. I've never pimpled my directory as a place where one can derive a boost in SERP's or PR. That's just not the point of a directory. It may have been at one time when people were all about that short term boost, but the reality is, TRAFFIC trumps PR any day. If you're goal is to have high PR you're not going about this correctly. You're over all goal should be a linking strategy that generates traffic to your site, awareness of your brand and indirect traffic which is what generates those sale/leads. I like to think of a directory as an encyclopedia. You're looking for something in particular, but always seem to stumble onto something else that distracts your attention as you flip through the pages. People do stumble into web sites, and I am of the opinion that directories play a large role in generating that indirect traffic that causes people to stumble from one result to the next.

As to DMOZ, I am not certain that an SE indexes anything from the ODP anymore. I could certainly be wrong about that. I could also be wrong about my assertions above. All I know is I am not running around screaming to the masses to list in my directory, nor am I promoting it as a way to get PR, better SERP's. etc, yet people continue to list, I have a very large retention rate on repeat listers and continue to get feedback about traffic and indirect traffic. What I've mentioned above has come from the feedback I've been given over they years from people who list in my directories.

I've also kept my rates low, consistently low in fact. High enough to cover the time involved and keep spam and crap listings away, but LOW enough that my customers receive VALUE, not empty promises of high PR.

It is what it is my friend... I'm still doing it, still keeping the site up to date and don't miss a day updating. I fit updates into my daily routine. You keep up on it, there's little work involved to back up.

Sure would like to hear what others think on this subject as well.

 

Aren't unpaid submissions the same as spam if guidelines are not followed? To me it all falls in the same class - spam.

 

Most unpaids generally end up paying. The ones that don't I never see.
Helps to have good software do most of the work for you. I don't use a commercial script. We modified a good script that disappeared off the market years ago. We've made a tremendous amount of custom modifications to it.

 

Directories ARE NOT DEAD, bad directories ARE DEADLY

 

Since its being managed by human in a selective manner, search engines consider it a valuable source. Majority of directories reject spammy, adult etc submissions and those are the ones you might want to add your website to.

 

No, they are still alive and working but don't know why!

 

Not dead. But if are still interested in selling them let me know. PM

 

Not dead completely, but it is much less efective to google than before. Just the high pagerank work well now.

 

Directory is not dead 100%

 

It depends on the ranks of the directories you own. I know of a person who own PR 6 directory, and still he is getting a good amount of listings per day.

 

Directories had higer value few years ago. They are not dead, but simply your backlinks have less seo juice.

 

What exactly is 'SEO juice' ?

 

I suppose you are taking about the page rank, if this is the case i am sure the directory owner is investing lots of time and patience in building the directory which every directory owner should do

 

You wouldn't happen to have a link to that directory would you?

 

Any chance you or someone could share that list of directories with me ?