I can think of the benefits of directories. But what are the cons? Thank you, Rick at www.Flatdoor.com
The only cons that I can think of is that you may spend some time or money for a link that doesn't mean much. Do your research before paying for a directory listing.
well be aware of bad directories - penalized or so ... then an important MUST to avoid being penalized is to select your category we are slaves of SEO and aim for the blessing traffic from G Y Live etc... submission is a tedious work
Many directories won't send traffic and you won't get much linking benefit if they're spammy or empty.
Only real major prob i see is when someone is creating one or more to flip it. I have no probs with most other types of sites being flipped, but taking a load of submissions and charging for quite a few then selling the directory a few months later is not cool.
There's many directories that accept ALL the submitted links, looking like a spam directory. So avoid the directories where submitted links are not verified.
spammy I can understand but empty? sure empty directories do not sound appealing but even DMOZ had a launch date yea know?
All of the older directories were developed first with a good number of quality websites before going public including DMOZ. No good reason for empty directories except for a simple lack of understanding of the business. Operating a directory is different from operating a directory script; one requires content and the other doesn’t.
Most directories are just hovering on the internet space waiting for paid submissions....I'm so000 guilty of that
Thankfully Stoner helped clear this up. You wouldn't launch a restaurant with no tables and chairs. You wouldn't launch a supermarket with empty shelves. So there is no reason to launch a directory or get a directory a nice PR6 when it's empty. That's why Google probably penalised so many.
If you read the dmoz forum you'll read endless posts asking 'why can't I get my submission approved' and endless replies from editors explaining that they have no requirement to approve links, only to populate the directory. Most commercial directories need to be more appreciative of submissions, but you should look for directories which are actively adding good quality content which is correctly categorised and has clear and concise descriptions.
those directories become spammy from software submitters who bypass the capcha and php - so they end up full of spammy links, these are not human edited directories. SOme people like these directories because they can get instant approval - and it looks good fron the side of the person you pay for directory submissions, but the links are worthless