Are link directories really worth it and do people use them?

As above really...

Is it worth my time submitting my URLs to link directories and do people actually use them or is it purely for search engine spiders and SEO?

 

Though I am not very sure about the effect of directories, I still submit my sites to them.
Far more, I paid some affordable fee to some submitters get my websites listed on hundreds of free directories.
It's too boring to submit websites to directories for me.

 

Did that have a noticeable effect on your rankings?

Too much too soon can be spamming in Google's eyes cant it?

How much did you pay out of curiosity?

 

Give them a try, you wont know for sure how well or not they may do for you without using them and seeing what results you get.

 

I am, so far i have noticed it is very time consuming!

 

Spend 15 minutes a day pounding through one of the various lists out there. You won't notice the time gone, but in 6 months you'll notice a difference in your PR and SERPs.

 

Yes i suppose it would build up nicely.

I will keep persisting.

Thanks

 

I found a site with about 200 links to free directory submission portals, and although time consuming (I listen to a buisness podcast while I do it) I have submitted both my website and its blog sub domain. Technically two seperate sites which can be legitmately submitted in this fashion. I'm hoping that it affects my PageRank in a positive way. Naturally, I ALWAYS ensure the link submission form I'm going to fill out is as close as possible to my website catergory, otherwise I don't bother as Google may not like it.

All I can say is, use a disposable email account!

 

I hate directories! I doubt very much anyone will see much traffic (if any at all) from them, as your site will effectively get buried. For this reason too, I think that you will see little PageRank benefit. To sum up, directories take too much time to submit to, offer little in the way of PageRank and visitors and I'm not so sure Google likes them so much! Except for the obvious few of course...

 

Your doing it wrong maybe.

 

i would get a 500 or 1000 manual submission order here on DP and leave it at that. Spend your time actually improving the site and adding content (IMO)

 

If you can submit to directories fast (or outsource it for cheap) and get approved then you should do it.
These backlinks while not high quality will help you diversify your link profile and boost your SERP a little bit.

 

Well it depends on which directories you submit to. If it is a high quality directory that actually gets reviewed, then in my professional opinion, it is well worth it. BUT DO NOT use the tools that submit to 1000 directories at one time, you will get penalized, if not banned. So look for directories that are high quality, like Yahoo, dmoz, botw.org, business.com, etc.

Craig
http://www.IndianapolisSeo.com

 

Do you use those yourself?

 

for my new sites, yes. but after the site has been online and indexed (couple months) i dont put time or resources into submitting to free directories

 

I use a semi auto submitter, and maybe spend a few hours submitting manually to ranked directories, after that, a little article marketing, and selected link exchanges.
I don't see the need to submit to thousands of directories, if your content is good, people will link to it naturally with a little help from social book marking.

 

Plenty of food for thought! Thank you all

 

That's absolutely not true. Register a new domain and give it a try or try to penalize your competitors and you will see.

 

There is your answer ^^^ Couldn't have said better myself.

And yes, be careful not to do too much to fast. Couple a day is all you need. And of course start smaller then more, don't add to a hundred directories on the day you make the site then forget about it.