My Test: Are Directory Submission Services worth it?

11/22/05: Google Results. Mid Page on Page 3.

 

Looking good M man!

 

Yeah those results are impressive so far.. (Goes off to find this "Alfredo" character )

 

Thanks guys. I am really amazed at how much a 200 Directory Submission service can do. -Ivan

 

I think over time the directory submissions will do even better. I have noticed even if they don't directly effect your PR they can still move you up the SERPs and that is really what it is all about. I could care less what my PR is as long as I am getting high amounts of quality traffic. It would have been interesting to watch your SERP in other engines like Yahoo and MSN because I bet the effect was even greater there.

Good Luck and keep us posted.

jg123

 

Google notoriously underquotes the number of links. Check with Yahoo for a better estimate.

 

11/23/05

Search term (used throughout this entire test): Northern California Mountain Biking

Search Engine Results (also attached below)
MSN: #1
Yahoo: #6

Yahoo Backlinks Results:
4,790

FYI, Great Firefox Extension to check backlinks etc...SEOpen

Cheers,

Ivan

 

And all this was done through Directory submissions? Nice work.

 

The site was established back in 1999 and was sloganed as "Bay Area Downhill and Freeride Community". No SEO or any advertising was done at all, just word of mouth. It was recently when I discovered this site that I wanted to be more proactive with my mountain biking site. It was a month ago when I revamped the site and changed the slogan to "Northern California Downhill and Freeride Community" to capture a larger audience and not just the Bay Area scene. Using a "keyword suggestion tool", I decided to focus on getting on top of the search engines as "Northern California Mountain Biking". So I changed my titles to reflect that as well as paid for a 200 Directory Submission. The results have been posted since the submissions were completed. Hope that helps clarify your curiosity.

Best,

Ivan

 

11/25/05: Google Mid-Page 2 -I

 

very nice results, wait until age of link kicks in.

 

Is this a service where one person goes out and guarantees 20 keyword back links? For $20?

My thoughts are that short cuts will alawys hurt you in the long run, but if these are hand submissions, it could turn out well.

I am interested to see what happens...

 

I reckon this fella actually sells directory submissions and has poured a whole bunch of money into buying links for his site. I mean look at his results... he goes up 10 places every day! lol

just kidding by the way!

 

I'd be amazed if a site that is under one year old would be as successful. It looks like Google really does take care of the older domain names.

Brandon

 

You can do a lot quickly with an older domain that really just needs a few on page tweaks, especially if the keywords targeted are not that competitive. I would still recommend doing a couple press releases and/or exchange with bike shops to strengthen the authority of the site. You definitely need to consider a well rounded strategy for the long term.

 

Hi

Not sure you will see any difference in results

Looking at the marketleap report http://tools.marketleap.com/publinkpop/


total google hotbot msn yahoo
www.msdhw.com 3,058 4 3 841 2,210

Site has a PR of 4

Regards
Brian
www.bestrealincome.com

 

Site is still trying to climb to the top of page 2 on Google. DS brings up a very good point "well rounded strategy for the long term". This test was strictly a fun little test and a long term strategy is defnitely something to work on. I plan on doing a Test2 on a new site and to track its results. That might give a more fair evaluation. Anyway, I will post back when my site hits page 1 . My rough conclusion is that Dir. submissions are worth a shot. The sheer curiosity and anticipation is worth it alone .

Best,

Ivan

PS. If I start a new site, how can I see which result page it is on when I search Google? ie. if it is on a far back page

 

Ivan, new sites will be put in sandbox for atleast 3-4 months. Hence during those times, you will be ranking under in hundreds under 1000. You will get exact ranking position using McDar's tool.

 

Use the keyword analysis tool on http://www.mcdar.net. This wills earch through the first 1000 results. Many new sites won't show up at all, or will show up than disappear again. I recommend doind a regular PR campaign for a new site (way before doing link building a directory submissions). Let it grow via natural linking and be sure to link out to relevant sites as well.

 

Thanks. You guys are great. Thanks for the analysis tool link Cheers, Ivan