Of course it is worth submitting to paid directories. Paid diretories are usually well looked after and well promoted.
I'd stay away from anything less than PR6. Just submit to the BIG BOYS if you want results. What do I mean by results? The BEST advantage to being listed is that a) you are being listed from a quality respected site and b) since this site is so respected and preferably STRONG then if you optimized your submission you will get traffic via the sites details page. Most of my directories traffic is via random searches on google where my site comes up front page because of the relevant listing and the strength of the domain. If some of the PR5 ones have sales go for it but if you have a limited budget and want serious benefits go to big dogs. They are big for a reason.
Exactly. I have nothing against free directories but instead of a few, they usually accept every kind of website and are full of spam. A directory is paid, because of it's quality. At least this is how I think about paid directories.
Like some said, there are better directories whose backlinks can help your site rank higher in the SERP. Many directories still help your site PR, so if you want to increase PR, almost any average directories can be a help. Better directories are simply more quality in the eyes of SEs, not in the eyes of people or based on their opinions. People can say anything they want, but SEs often think differently. The best way to know which are quality sites, check up on their major keywords besides their domain names, and see how high they are ranked. SEs rank them in order of quality. If I want to know how SEs think a directory in terms of quality, I would check up on page source to see what keywords they are targetting. Or you can use backlinkwatch tool to see what anchor texts they prefer. Type those keywords and find out if they rank high. I would consider those directories that are in top 50 in Google, top 30 in Yahoo or top 20 in MSN, are not bad though it's all depending on how competitive those keywords are.
This is a very good point that I had never thought of — that is, traffic coming via search engine results that bring up directory links to your website. So I just experimented and typed in my daughter's website keywords into a Google search. And sure enough!... although her site itself was #1, there were seven more first-page listings of directory links to her site. Needless to say, these listings were from the better directories. Seven of the 10 front-page search results were from directory links to her website. The directories' PR ranged from PR6 to PR4. Some were directories by DPers — another good reason to support DPers' paid directories. This has opened my eyes. I had never really believed it when someone posted and said they got decent traffic from directories. My thinking was wrong; I had incorrectly assumed that they were suggesting that web surfers went to their directories and followed the links to the websites. But my little experiment with my daughter's website was a revelation to me, showing seven of Google's first ten results to her website coming from directory links that came up in the search engine results. So there is indeed traffic sent from the directories when those directories show up in the search engines' top results for a search for your keywords.
the keywords you used are probably not competitive. High competitive ones don't bring a result in G from a directory unless the keyword has a similar niche to the directory + the directory itself is ranked high.
My friend --why do you always look-down at others? Certainly you just can not rank high enough on SEs listing on Alive/Aviva/DD/GII/Romow which rank high on almost all search terms. You need more listing from other reputed directories which might not rank as high as others. As per as competitice keywords -and directories ranking --try some on GII like Celebrity directory/business directory/Travel directory and many others and you will find GII ranking within top 50 even if it is only a general directory. By the way what is the competitive benchmark for ya? 50 millions?
Negative impression if I gave, I apologize, but that's not my intention. I'm simply saying that's more "common" as oppose to "absolute". I don't really compete with those big ones except GII with the same/similar keywords, started about few months ago But I can not compete with them in terms of the amount of investment they throw into theirs. But one of my dirs rank well with very popular keywords, which is off topic of course Competitiveness can not be measured simply by how many web pages are indexed in SEs For example, any keyword combination with "free" will get you lots of results, but not all web sites/pages are SEOing for that keyword. So, being ranked high with your keyword + "free" doesn't always mean your site is stronger than the rest. I usually see more than just how many pages are indexed. Some of these indicate how competitive a keyword is; Used in Title. Rank of anchor text.
To the contrary. I have a keyword for which my site comes up #3 in Google, and a directory link to my site comes up #9 in Google. That keyword, according to Overture, receives about 15,000 searches a month. Most would consider that fairly competitive.
In general, the frequency of searched keywords show how competitive the keyword is... but in religion niche, it's not that competitive. Even though the term is well searched, those websites are not SEOing. I seriously doubt that many websites in that niche know about SEO. Even if they do, how many are promoting with the very keyword of yours? and how many are, can you say your very competitors? So, the numbers can be a good indication, but not always reflects or main factor to draw a conclusion.
Ah, and that's the positive side of the equation for me. 15,000 searches a month (per Overture) is just that — 15,000 searches. My job as a webmaster is to get as many of those to my website as possible. And, (as you noted) unlike many religious webmasters, I do know SEO. So I have been able to draw a large number of those searchers to my nonprofit website. Having a directory listing at #9 on Google for that term is certainly a help in drawing traffic.
Thats called clever positioning You have certainly did your homework. The best thing from SEO point should be to find the most popular yet less optimized keyword so that you go right up there quickly
That's the case of Jim's. It's not because of high competition he won, but it's the niche and keywords he selected That's a good SEO indeed. One of the sites I own rank top 5 in all SEs just because the niche is not targeted yet. It's way too easy to rank with a little effort of SEO. Competition has nothing to do with it.
Very well said SasaVtec.... If they wish to use directories for reaching Top results in google and other major search engines then they need to be choosy as well as have a game plan set up. I myself have someone whom submits my directories to new directories and im usually out looking for a good inner PR value or directory that has deep links available as i know that that individual directory owner is not kidding when it comes to his directory. Traffic isnt what it used to be for directories and only a few actually offer the submitter traffic in rare cases though that will soon be changing for the better with all the new mods as well as coders and people in general with fresh new ideas. the web directory is evolving and i dont think anyone can say otherwise if they pay attention to the market. thx malcolm
Looks like everyone is after PR, and not recommending the Paid Directories which has NO PR. But just wanted to mention, if the directory is a new one and the owner is working hard on it ( you can understand this from the mods and designs, all those means he is spending money on his directory), you should buy links from those kind of directories while the PR is 0, because once the PR is up, the prices go up as well. In my new paid directory I allow permanent now, but I wouldn't allow permanent after the PR.