Do you get penalised for using directories for back links? I know that one with relevent content carry more weight, but does using directories actually have a very small affect on your PR? If it doesn't already I don't think it will stay that long, PR through directories is essentially fake PR so google will put a stop to it then. At that point what do you think will happen? Do you think link exchange programs will become much more important than they currently are or do you think other mediums for getting relevent links will come available? Any ideas what these will be?
It may become less and less significant but Search Engine will not penalise sites with backlinks from directories..
I dont think that you will get punished for having backlinks in directories, as there are very big players in this game like dmoz and yahoo directories, etc. So I dont think that this will affect you. It's a great way to have a backlink structure.
I think Google won't penalize you for something another person can easily do. Nor will they reward you though.
I think directories may be a source of traffic also which most of us want. Of course, there is not so much traffic from directories as we expect. But if some directories survive after some time they should deliver some traffic also, I guess...
The only way that directories can do "harm" to you...is if Google classifies them as "bad neighborhoods". They may or may NOT do good for you..but innocent listing in a clean directory probably won't hurt .
One way directory submissions has helped my site a lot. What the future holds for directory submissions is anyones guess, but for now I will continue to submit my site.
I work for a company that specialise in generating backlinks for websites. You CANNOT get penalised for backlinks. If you could we would have a situation where everyone links "dodgy" websites to the people that already acheive high rankings in order to move them down the listings. There alots of variables with ragards to the value of links, however any inbound link will have a positive impact. How much of an impact relates to a number of crucial factors firstly PR secondly Relevancy. There are other factors that come into effect however in genral you can improve your rankings by generating inbound links from relevant sites with high PR. If you would like information about the value of links and how they can impact your business please visit www.itscoldoutside-marketing.com or call me on 0161 928 6999 Chris McLaughlin.
I agree with the above poster, regardless of what you think the value of directories are pesonally it is basically impossible to punish the links in them because competitors would just buy your site 1000 submissions and knock you out of the SERPs. I also think that down the road the cream of web directories will rise to the top and most of the fly-by-nighters will go offline.
Directorys are a very good method of getting co-citation for your website. For example a site about insurance will be on the same page as 10 other sites about insurance so the search engines believe it is about insurance. Conversely if your link is about insurance and is next to a poker or porn link then search engines think its about porn or poker.