Hey guys, couple of quick questions... 1. A buddy of mine told me that directories like botw.org and joeant.com are good directories to submit my e-commerce site to. they are $50 and $40 to submit, respectively. Is it really worth spending that much money to get a link on these directories? I would think they would back that price up with some web traffic metrics or something. 2. There was a guy on this forum that said "submit to my PR4 directory for free!", which I did but...only the first page was a PR4, the actual subcategory I was submitting to (http://www.shirtfight.com/) was PR0! Does google treat this as a link from a PR4 site or a PR0 page? much thanks! -Jud El Presidente, ShirtFight.com
1. I've never paid for submissions, that's maybe why my PR is still 1 xP But I don't think I ever will pay. 2. Google will treat it was PR0.
1. $40 and $50 is a lot of money for paid directories. It's debateable whether or not it's worth it, and it often depends on the type of site you're submitting and into what category it will be placed. 2. As above, this will be treated as a PR0
PR comes from the page with your link on it. Don't concentrate on PR - it carries very little, if any weight anymore for SERPS anymore. What you need are links from authority sites that are relevant to your business. $50 is very little to spend on a business you are serious about, but you should look at a directory listing as a good back link rather than a link that is going to bring you much traffic. BOTW had or has a free offer for a two month sponsored listing at the top of the page. In two months I never got a single visitor from it. On the other hand, BOTW is one of the oldest directories and isn't known as a mere link farm.
If it is 40-50 one-time review fee,I think it's reasonable. but in fact it is $149.95 one-time review fee for botw.
Often, even the largest directories provide negligible traffic for listings, but directories can be a useful tool as part of even a modest SEO campaign. As far as the PR of the page, it's important to keep in mind that the PR you can see in a toolbar or other PR tool, is not the same value that is used in ranking calculations. My point being that the page might be new, without a visible PR, yet Google will likely assign it a working PR value long before they let us glimpse it in the toolbar. This is why a strong link from a high PR page can soon lead to increased visits from Googlebot...
If you consider your website a actual business, investing 40/50 USD or even 150 USD for lifetime advertising is not much at all! It's actually very cheap if you'd ask me. Botw gives you much advertising exposure on the internet and a highly respected backlink; Let's do quick math.. - 1 Year lisiting at botw: Cost 50 USD - You are listed in a category of your business, (note this is just general, not to be taken for real, just an example) let's say botw sends you 10 visitors a week. These visitors are really targeted visitors for your business. Meaning Botw send you 520 visitors a year / 50 = 0,10 per visitor. - Let's say your convertion ratio for a sold product is about 2%, meaning on a year basis 520 visitors will convert into about 10 sales on your website. - Now it's up to you if you want a listing at botw, but let's look at it this way, advertising in a local newspaper is probably more expensive and you can never trace the click ratio. - Note: This figures can't be taken for real, just an example. Traffic from botw depents on targeted niche.
Good points WhatiFind. For those that are serious about their website from a business perspective, paid directory listings can be beneficial. Some will certainly send you traffic as their owners market them at extraordinary lengths. It does come down to your budget and what you can afford. My suggestion would be not to get over keen and submit to a huge chunk in a month, but to work out what you can afford to spend, then factor that over 12 months and break it up between the paid directories that are available, and spend a designated amount each month on those listings. Also, think of paid directory links this way. If you and your competitor both submit to all the free links available, then the one that also gets the paid directory links, will have the subtle edge.
If a web directory is a few dollars I often consider it, but some of them are very expensive and it is not exactly brain science implimenting someone elses directory script on a website is it It is hard keeping up with all the new directories, surely most of these go against googles terms of service ( the ones with adsense on) they don't exactly contain original content!
You can submit sites for free in JoeAnt.com after becoming an editor. Just sign up and you're in. Hugo
My thinking on buying listings in some of the big directories like BOTW, Uncover The Net, Joe Ant, Site Sift, yada yada...is this. Think longterm. You are buying permanent listing, so do you think you will get $40, $50 or (in BOTW's case) $150 worth of value out of that listing; value in terms of visitors, pagerank, potential sales, etc.