I do think there needs to be a distinction made between "free general directories" and "free niche directories." The vast majority of newer free general directories are spam fests while the vast majority of niche directories are quality sites which offer free listings. I so wish those of us running free niche directories would not be, by price alone, lumped in with the numerous crappy free general directories popping up all over the place. I cringe every time I see all of you talking about "free directories" as offering no value. I know of many 'free niche directories' that are very well-run and provide submitters with quality advertising. Generally, there are far fewer folks launching niche directories on dropped domains, accepting every listing and not keeping their categories on topic.
There are a lot of free directories out there that actually help in the SERPs. The problem continues to be finding them. YMC is right that you have a much higher probability of finding a good quality niche directory than you do of finding a good quality free general directory. However, there are some of those too. If you take the time to do the research you'll build a list of quality directories that you can use in the future.
I have a new free directory. At this stage it needs to be free until it starts to fill. No other reason. I instituted banning control within an hour of announcing the directory and I have received approx 2000 submissions in 2 weeks. Of those probably 1500 would have been rejected without review simply because of the EXTREME low quality of the submissions. Of the remaining 500 about 200 have been approved. Of that 200 - 198 have had their title and/or descriptions changed because they failed to adhere to guidelines, used keyword stuffing etc. I have placed a wait time of 6 - 8 months before activating links simply because I want to review the submissions again to see if excessive Adsense has been added, content has been changed etc. There is a distinct lack of trust on my part for SEO companies. To recap - TWO (2) submissions out of Two thousand (2000) were submitted properly. That accounts for an incredible waste of time on my part as no payment is received. I have 3 directories utilising shared hosting on the same IP. They are not using a shared database, two are niche and one a general directory. That does not make me a bad directory owner, simply a realist acknowledging that until the directories build then I will be out of pocket and I need to cut costs. Please judge each directory as you find them. If you want quality directories, then create quality websites and write quality submissions following directory guidelines.
As I am getting the best results from the directories. And mean while if you have the high PR directory than I think that there is sure benefit to you because the Page Rank means for any of the website.
I never understood the free directory crazy.. I would rather my site never be mentioned on an unrelated spam site.
I read this a while back and it seems pretty true (and a bit funny also). Also if you ever get a listing in a free directory you will likely be on page 1,2,3,4,5,6.....103 so good luck getting indexed.
well some of good high PR directories have stopped accepting free links submission they charge minimum amount of 4-5 $.It is really very hard to find out some good free directories.
Yup, so here goes. I own a free general which is starting to age and I keep resisting the urge to take it paid. I check each and every submission and in addition to strict submission standards the bottom line is that if I don't feel the resource would benefit me it gets dumped. Also nearly every title and description gets rewritten to some extent but even if the submitted site looks good but the description is a mess it is dumped as I ain't going to write completely new descriptions for free. I do a 'quick scan' daily (gets easier as the regular spammers submissions stand out) which gets rid of 70-80 percent and then the review process results in maybe 20-25 percent being added. I also have a new paid directory where I concentrate my efforts but I still try my best to get all free submissions reviewed in under 30 days (usually sooner). All in all I end up accepting somewhere between 8 and 10 percent of submissions. I complement you in trying to clean up your free list. BTW the link in my sig is not the free one.
I think we must go for human edited directories, not bothing about the page rank. And for me submit your site to relevant directories, you will get good result.
Search engine have a high weight age For one way link and the link worth is increased many folds when it is listed in a high page rank directory.
Good negative feedback on a lot of these new directories but what can we do to bring those rates down?
must agree with most of you that are saying that free directories area waste of time. Only if you get lucky and find a quality free directory that will in short become a payed directory is a good investment of time.
I think we should all work towards improving the quality of general directories. The point I was originally trying to make is that you should not just look at the high PR directories. Sometimes the new directories (not dropped domains) can be much better. P.S. I am sure if we somehow eliminated automated submissions it would go a long way to making free directories a viable business.