1. No - it's all about backlinks 2. Should get fast approval/rejection, payment should not guarantee inclusion. 3. A paid directory may have high PR or it may not. Once included in a directory you could try to ping or tweet the path to the directory to pick up the backlink faster. Why is it expected that directory owners work for free. A genuine review of a website takes time and time is money. If you are proud of your website then you should have no fear of rejection.
Google is mainly looking for link coming from quality site. A quality site should have to have a good link sharing. If one is really serious about sharing links then only he will prefer a paid listing. In a paid directory there is a less chance for black hat seo links. This may make the link a reputed one and google weighs more.
There are paid directories that will list anything and everything thrown at them and should be avoided at all cost just as the free link farms should be. There are some good free directories around but one must dig through a lot of bad neighborhood trash to find them. I run a free one where every submission is reviewed and only accept around 10% of submissions. Now, what should one look for in a paid directory. 1. Pay no attention to pr. 2. Look closely at the directory contents. Do they have a good percentage of details pages indexed in the search engines? Are nearly all category pages (specifically the category you are submitting to) indexed in the search engines? Do a copyscape test on a random selection of details and category pages? Paid directory owners should rewrite titles and descriptions to ensure (as close as reasonable) that content is unique. If unique website content is king then directory content (listing titles and descriptions) should be no different. 3. Are the links SEO friendly? If not run for the hills. 4. Do you get multiple good anchor text (follow links). 5. Does the editor(s) add quality websites to their directory to supplement submissions? Don't be afraid to ask? If the answer is no check them closer for quality content i.e. good neighborhood. 6. Check their backlinks for quality. 7. Is their design unique or are they using a default template? Can tell you loads about the dedication of the owner(s). 8. Do a whois and see when the domain expires. That is all I can think of right now. With my current paid (built as paid from the start) project I am providing something I have seen in a couple places. In addition to the title one can provide 2 descriptions; yes 2, a short and extended. Before you ask why let me explain: The short description is limited to 190 characters, written in the 3rd person and not promotional in any way. The extended description is limited to 450 characters and can be more detailed as long as it isn't a sales pitch or good old and ever crappy comma separated list. In other words well written with complete sentences. Now the reason for this madness. The short description is used on the listing block AND and as the meta description on the details page. Quite often Google will use this as the 'teaser text' in the serps. The extended description is listed as 'detail description' on the details page. The intention is to provide a value added feature for those who pay for review. FYI, I do decline submissions and do not provide refund payments. The fee is for time spent reviewing submissions. My goal is to provide both value to those who have their sites accepted and a pleasant visitor experiences. Bet that is overload but so be it...
Very thorough Harkster. [Sadly I spent all my green for the day (sorry, that's what I get for reading P&R).] Contains a lot of the items Matt Cutts mentions he's looking for in the video listed earlier in the thread, so kinda hard to argue with it.
It can only you to fast link approval and backlinks generation thats it... These days directories dont generate such traffic so to expect any kind of traffic is useless
If you pay for a directory, the by far most effective is the yahoo directory for $299. I wouldn't pay for any others.
Can you site some specific reasons as to why you feel Yahoo Directory is a good investment at $299. Can you also site some specific reasons as to why you feel that other's are not? Thanks.