I been buying domains like crazy in the past and for a while now after buying them I would conduct a test. Back then I would develop them right away and submit them in places that I could, then all this talk I been reading about web directories not being effective and all, when, then I did not take notes of the results and just did it for experience. Well 5 months ago or so, I purchase a domain, but just let it sit there with an empty wordpress blog. When I search for http:// mynewdomain , com/ no results from the SE, until I decided to make a flickr account about a month ago SE picked up my flickr USERNAME that is the same name as the domain name of my blog. Today (actually at 11.58 pm lastnight, G found the site at 2.59am and Cache at 4:44am) I submitted that domain to one of my directory (not a self promotion) and SE (Google) listed it at #1 just above my flickr photostream in just hours from being live on a directory. Where am I going with this? Just proving a point to those people that say directories aren't as effective like the way it use to be. Web directores still count in helping to achieve one goal to reach higher in SE placement. I have check with the other SE's (Bing/Yahoo) and have not been found by those two as of yet and as always those two will come around later, I have been doing this type of testing for a while now and I figure I would make a post this time around just to let every one know that web directories are one of the ways to to achieve a better search engine ranking.
Interesting how a post about directories being effective has been virtually ignored when the useless "do directories do anything" posts often generate several pages of conversation.
LOL .... you nailed it YMC!!! even if u talk about traffic, most of the incoming traffic at my web Directory lands on details pages,,, so basically the objective of submitters is achieved!
Yes its like that alot... Ive always felt that the older more trusted directory domains wether paid or free can definitely have good effects on any site that submits to it.. thx M1
I've always said to the people claiming that "directories don't do anything~!!@!~!~" that if they did some actual research (rather than just pretending they have) they'd find otherwise. Nice to see that someone's done just that.
WWWs you made a very good point of directories, however that is only one of the advantages of quality directories.
I mean this is an of course they still work answer. Directories continue helping in the SEO overall, I mean they are not the big force, but they count to the final SE placement and SEO
The amount of crappy threads about "do directories carry any SEO value?" or "do directories work?" or "is X Directory worth the money?", etc are just overwhelming and they borrow threads like this. I think people should use the search feature more often and only open threads that add value to the directory community. YMC, rep+ added.