Anyone that knows about SEO will tell you that it’s important to link to your inner pages. So why do most directory owner disallow deep linking? I have lost count of the times that I have seen NO DEEP LINKS on submit pages. Loads of directory owners have lost my cash because of refusing deep linking. Why do you do this?
Its called cutting your own throat, im a directory owner myself, some owners forget they are offering a service and insist that its theirs, wrapped up to the point where they will barely let anything in. It shouldn't be a problem for anyone though as theres plenty of directories (free and paid) that will take deeplinks, without having to choose a more expensive listing option. Infact i think you will find that in these current times many owners are loosening up a bit, if their not then im unsure why. No deeplinks No keywords in title No refunds No bulk discounts They all put people off.
I agree that you should offer deep links, on my Directory I have the option to add up to 6 deep links in one submission.
I couldn’t agree more, so many rules and so little business. I’m meaning as a main Url I.e.: mydomain.com/the-page-I-want-to-add I see lots offing extra deep links, I only want to add 1 inner page to a directory.
As a general rule I won’t accept them and it hasn’t hurt business at all. It has however kept my topics from becoming a total mess of duplicate content, monopolized by large web businesses and grossly overcrowded.
How do you know it has not hurt your sales? I’m confused about the duplicate content issue, what has deep links got to do with duplicate content? As for being overcrowded, that depends if you are building a resource for the directory visitor or trying to make cash. Thanks for your answers.
depends on the amount of content on the deep link if it has enough content there is no reason not to list it accepting deep links has nothing to do with your directory turning into a mess if done correctly imo some reference sites deserve to have more than one deep link listed if they have content not easily found elsewhere for instance
With over ten years experience in the business I would know if I’m losing money. I get crap load of webmaster wanting to submit nearly every page in their website, many are nearly the same content and all for the same topic. I have never sold links, but overcrowded topics are of no use to anybody.
I allow them on some reference sites when the content can't be readily found. It's not an iron clad rule just a general rule to be at the editors discretion.
my opinion is that if you own a free directory you should not allow deep linking, doing so can cause you a major headache as everyone and the their brother would most likely submit every page they have. If you have a paid directory this can really help your business. I would not worry about dup content because it is almost impossible to have a dup content category since every directory will most likely have a different set of links, the only way this is possible is if you are using a mirror of some sort, which of course is not recommend for directories.
Something worth thinking about is that most websites do not have most or all of their content on the homepage and by limiting a submitter to only submitting the homepage its not allowing much for the website to be promoted in the way they need to, in order to successfully promote the website. In most cases a submission to a directory is part of a combined plan to rank for keywords and phrases. If part of your plan is to currently promote your site in directories to rank better for "fancy widgets" but the keyword phrase fancy widgets does not appear on the homepage but has a dedicated inner page on that then if you come up against directories not allowing an inner page to be submitted its often lost business for the directory. Either that or the submitter just wastes money submitting the homepage when that may not be part of their promotion plan.
very well said, if site owners would set a goal first and focus on which part of the site or product they can benefit from the most then climbing the search engines and selling products would be so much more easier.
Well if you respect people taking the time to answer you it's better not to entitle your thread in a disrespectful manner: Directory owners whats up with you! Code (markup): That said, in a nutshell deep links are usually for the benefit of the submitter, some directory owners want their index to be primarily for the benefit of the user. I may accept a link to an internal page if it had good niche content which was relevant to the submitted category, but unfortunately most are submitted for seo purposes which aren't helpful for users.
But isn't the solution to that kind of spamming simply to offer only a few deep links (perhaps 3 or 4)?
But id say that 90% of directory use is by webmasters, directory submitters, so looking after the users would mean appealing mostly to the webmasters. This might be different with niche directories, but again id imagine the vast majority of people using many niche directories are probably webmasters. Seo is a primary reason for most directories, of whatever type, so without an seo benefit theres not much other benefit for the users. Im a little bewildered that some directory owners would react like they cant understand what reasons their directories are used for. There will be a few exceptions to this where the use is by non webmasters but i imagine its extremely rare.
Its a nice option to have all of ours have them installed ...havent regreted it yet so.. to each his own laterz malcolm
To clarify: by 'users' I mean people using the directory to find a website, not submitters. And yes, I understand why many site owners submit to my directory, that's why half are rejected and most of the others are edited by one or more of title, description and category. Obviously 100% of submissions are from site owners or their agents but 95% of the sites in my directory are editor-added. Fortunately I'm not in it for the money, it's my hobby.
there has to be a balance between how far you are going to go to please submitters with practices such as multiple deep links and featured links may ultimately go against the directory when google decides to penalise your site. don't be under any illusion that a lot of submitters want to squeeze as much out of you as possible without thinking about what is best for your directory in the long term..