Does submitting to free directories help search engine rankings?

I've never really bothered to submit my website to free directories, but I found the thread "List of SEO friendly Free Directories [2006]" with tons of directories listed and have been thinking about submitting my website to many of them. Two ?'s:

1. Does submitting my website to these free directories really help with rankings?

2. If I do submit my website to them, should I submit my home page on all of them, or link to different pages?

Thanks for the advice!

 

I would stay away from them. I don´t think that those spammy directories gives you any link juice at all.

Best of luck

 

With new panda update by Google, things have changed. I don't think you need to stay away from spammy directories. You can do more harm to your reputation than good.

 

I'm confused because you contradicted yourself there... First you say it's OK to post in spammy directories, then you say it can do more harm than good?

 

I have submitted to many directories and they are a waste of time unless they are sobi directories.

 

submitting and link building is a good way to increase your earning potential

 

They help your site to get indexed.
but apart from that they are very weak, you would need a lot of them to have an effect.

 

OK, thanks for your advice everyone. Sounds like it's not worth me spending hours posting to directories, then

 

I would only post on the top 5 of each type. Blogs, forums, twitter, FB...and so on. After that leave the rest to work itself in. Not just directories themselves.

 

If you are talking about reputed directories such as DMOZ, then they would help a little. Don't expect much from them as afterall they're all link farms. There are thousands of outbound links from those directories, due to which, A specific link is not given much of an importance.

However, if you've got some free time, isn't much of a pain to submit.

 

I am sure you've heard; "focus on quality than quantity'.

Directory submission was effective so many years ago when people actually use to search those directories. But in recent times, it should not be your only strategy for getting ranked in search engines.

1. You can submit your website to web directories only to get backlinks but most of the backlinks aren't worthy at all (no quality), but still, you are getting links to your site.

2. Submitting homepage & subpages both helps.

Good luck,

 

obviously, directory submission is help in search engine ranking.

 

Yea directory submitting (especially the free ones) do just about nothing for you. Focus on quality backlinks from authority and aged domains.

 

I also think directory submission is a waste of time. I think article submission and forum posting in better then that.

 

You may do it in preliminary stages of linkbuilding. It help site's trust.

 

Yes it helps. But I'd STAY WAY from directories as they take a long time to get your backlinks indexed. Forum posting, and blog commenting works the best.

 

Here's an experiment that I did with link building from only free web directories. The end result is that they do work...but should only be a part of your link building.
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=2172178

 

It wont give you traffic but will help you in Search engine ranking..

 

It is kind of worth it- you want links from a variety of sources and directeries are one of the easiest ways of gaining links.

 

Why not... submit your directory in dmoz.org.... In result if you get link from there, you will get a valuable link and many search engine index your site in their data base