Paid directory usually used for backlinking but not for traffic and for me its not recommend because aside from expensive it gives only short term duration and you need to replenish your account in the paid directory site due to limited time of exposures.
If the online directory have high PageRank and give a do-follow link on their paid listing, and you provide high quality content to your listing, then that's very good for SEO. A paid directory that's providing a permanent or longtime do-follow link, specially if they have high PageRank, is very useful to make your site on top of a search engine results page (SERP) where you can get huge traffic.
Paid directory listing is really good only if the directory have high ranking and has good traffic on it and if the directory belongs to your business niche then nothing like that
There is an old saying, "you get what you pay for." The theory behind this is that generally the quality of service increases as the price increases. There is an element of truth to this idea. Most paid directories charge a fee to offset their costs. What you're paying for is not some shady or false high PR "link". You are paying for an individual directory owners time to both review and properly categorize your website. That said, YES, a paid listing is generally better than a FREE one. The problem with most free listing directories are they generally have no filter. There is no one reviewing the sites. There is no one checking for the accuracy of the category listing they have chosen. There is no one proof reading the URL, description, title, anchor tags, etc. There is no one editing these items. And worst of all, most free directories just automatically list you. Paid directories have an approval process. Your listing does not go live until a stringent set of requirements are met.
Paid directory is a good resource for link building but here you need to be smart while selecting paid directories. Don't do much submissions select only few sites with high page rank and must be relevant to your website. It is also a instant way of generating backlinks for the website.
I get confused. What is wrong with paying someone to maintain and administer a directory? As I understand it any link is good for SEO unless Google devalues the directory or the site you submit your site to. The problem with free directories is that they get devalued and fall over or they simply fall over because they are unsustainable.
Google doesn't like link buying and selling activities, that means it should be nofollow (according to google's guidelines). But many people still buy links through paid directories. It will not harm you unless you have backlinks from lots of paid directories. It is better to have just a few paid listings (if you really want to buy, otherwise avoiding them is wise decision). More relevancy means better SEO benefits, and don't forget to judge the quality of those directories.
There are many people believe that "paid directories are not Good" There are few questions for them: 1) How do free directory owner brings traffic to their (FREE) directory to share it with (Free) advertisers? 2) How do free directory pay for their hosting? 3) Do you think owner maintain their listing to check if they have dead links or not? 4) There are many top directories (don't want to name here), is it easy to get listed on those free directories? 5) Those top free directories corrupt editors approve sites? Please don't take personality, but some top company (you know) said that paid directories are not good it has meaning that "those directories are not good who just buy dead domain with PR 6 or 7 and starts directory to sale links. Also, many directories were selling links from the top level category even those category does not fit the advertiser's website. You may search for "google's 200 factors" or "google's new factors for 2015". Getting valued link is require those factors. How would you get valued link for free unless site owner is advertiser's relative. Who like to work free for advertisers?
This is what I do not understand. Why would Google penalise a web site just because the web master wants to pay to submit it to a directory that is properly managed and turn a blind eye to sites being submitted to free directories that are not?
All the paid directories has not been penalized. Some sites and free directories has been penalized too.
Paid directories are pointless. Look out for free ones, preferably community based ones. My site is a blog, so i've got it listed on a dozen blog categories.
Don't submit your site to every paid directory you can find. A good portion of that traffic could get passed along through that paid review and over to ...
Google has no problem with quality paid directories with editorial integrity. Most of the older directories are just fine with Google but difficult to get into with anything but a very good website with original content.
You should only submit to 3 or 4 quality directories and thats it or you could get penalized by Google.
Not good for seo, in some cases you will get Google penalty also for the paid backlinks. Try for manual free backlinks.
You only get penalized when you submit to a lot of directories free or paid. SEO services still use high quality directories.