How effective are directory links?

Hi, in terms of SEO and getting higher PageRank, how effective are free web directories?

I was going to submit my site to every directory on this list http://www.directorycritic.com/free-directory-list.html, but then I thought I'd make sure I was spending my time approproriately, and decided to ask this question.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Ben

 

I think submitting to a couple dozen free and a couple dozen paid directories is a good strategy. Get featured links on as many as you can because those will be on the best pages to get you indexed and might also bring you a bit of traffic.

 

I agree with jg123, it is really nice to have a lot of links from such a directories.

 

Ok, thanks for the tips guys.

 

You cant go wrong with free...
I have a PR5 site that was only promoted with free dirs...

No, I wont share the url

 

Directories havent' worked for me... at least not yet.

 

That may be because you are not submitting to the right ones!

 

If I submitted to say 600. Would the good links be cancelled out by bad ones?>

 

How will "little g" know you submitted them all?

 

You can't have a 'bad' link, the worst a link could count for is zero.

 

Oh thatsgood, there is no such thing as a negative link?

 

Only if YOU link to it....
Incomming links will not harm you... (someone will be along to disagree soon)

 

nah, no such thing....just a myth. If they did that then all competitors would hire full-time staff to submit links to 'bad' sites so their competition would lose rankings in the search engines.

 

To gain PR, directories are the best IMO. But those links may not help much in ranking high in the SERP. Possibly links from high PR and well recognized directories in Google can help your site push. It also depends on how competitive your keyword is.

I have few sites that rank easily with directory links (all free). It went up from 15 to 5. But with more competitive keywords, links from directories don't help too much for the ranking in my experiences. They can help increase your PR though.

 

linking your website to top directories will help like Google, Yahoo, Business, Botw etc....

 

Until we know the stand "The God of www"

We can not say the effectiveness of directory links.

Only time has to say.. (now a days god do not speak- in any religion)

 

Ok, what should you not link to, lets say from your own directory site, that could harm you??

 

You need to submit to as many as free directories

If you submit to 1000 free directories the chance of getting listed is very low(10% and less within a short period of time due to various reasons)

So Submit to as many as Free directories as possible

 

I have a list of 2,600 free directories I am working on submitting them right now

the thin with free links is it takes 2-3 months to get approved so it doesn't show up right away