Thread: Web Directories...are They Relevant to SEO?

Just found an old post in Aaron Blog

Planning to buy some links in Dir as promoting my sites, so was just searching for something and found this

http://www.seobook.com/archives/001583.shtml

Most directories offer good backlinks.
The ones I avoid are those that use the default templates (shows owner does not care about the look), no follow attributes (waste to submit), and where the owner never or damn rarely takes care of the backlog of submissions (have seen directories with thousands of links waiting for approval or rejection).

Now this part, I am finding out more and more that visitors do not like to see this:
What is the ad ratio? - Are all the listings paid? Or will they list some useful sites without payment? Does the site look like it aims to serve end users? Or does it look like it exists just to get AdSense ads or affiliate ads indexed?

Again, if the directory comes up and the first thing you see are large adsense blocks, banners and more, then the directory was built to not server the visitor or the submitter, but to get people to click on ads.
In fact, I see a lot of directories advertised strictly to get the ad revenue!

My directories do not have adsense, some have another ad service, and some sell sponsor links.
Found so far that the ones with no advertising on the site get more visitors and submitters.

You can make use of web directories to get that good anchor text for SERPs.
A lot of directory owners don't care what title you use, they just approve.

So what would a good directory consist of?

Remove of the nofollow attributes. Approve good anchor text, good looks, no ad's... what else?

directories helps you improve your link popularity and it also helps for your SERPs..use your targeted keywords as anchor text and it'll helps you...

If you have the time, search for

your keyword and add url, or submit site etc.

If you don´t have the time, submit to maybe a handful of good paid ones and then a few free ones to start. I would not recommend mass submissions to free directories for a new site though.



- Mike

Originally Posted by iowadawg

Most directories offer good backlinks.
The ones I avoid are those that use the default templates (shows owner does not care about the look), no follow attributes (waste to submit), and where the owner never or damn rarely takes care of the backlog of submissions (have seen directories with thousands of links waiting for approval or rejection).

Now this part, I am finding out more and more that visitors do not like to see this:
What is the ad ratio? - Are all the listings paid? Or will they list some useful sites without payment? Does the site look like it aims to serve end users? Or does it look like it exists just to get AdSense ads or affiliate ads indexed?

Again, if the directory comes up and the first thing you see are large adsense blocks, banners and more, then the directory was built to not server the visitor or the submitter, but to get people to click on ads.
In fact, I see a lot of directories advertised strictly to get the ad revenue!

My directories do not have adsense, some have another ad service, and some sell sponsor links.
Found so far that the ones with no advertising on the site get more visitors and submitters.

I have to disagree a little on a couple of point in your post, or atleast get a discussion going on it
First of all, nofollow attribute is not bad at all, if it is used correctly. I use nofollow on one of my directories, and this is 100% used for the "health" of the directory itself, which benifits both the submitters and me. I give people 4+ outgoing links from my directory pr. site, and have put nofollow on (x-1) of them. People do have a direct outgoing link from their detail page. (this rule is for standard listings only) and please feel free to read my thoughts about it at: http://www.clausheinrich.com/webmast...ll-bad-28.html , before swearing me down

Secondly. Backlog of thousands is pretty darn impossible not to get if you have a popular free directory, and dont want to spend 14 hours a day reviewing. I review every day but its impossible for me to get it down to 0, without doing it paid for a time period, and thereby removeing the possibility for quality sites to submit freely.
So I wouldnt deem a directory with a big backlog for bad at all, just a place where you should have a little patience

Thirdly: Directory owners do like to get something for their hard work, and if the directory is free in submissions, well, then they have the Ads factor to give some earnings. Its not like ads will lower the quality of a site on onsite SEO terms.
I do agree with you there are many "suspisious" directories with flooding of ads, but it still may be a quality inbound link to you, and wouldnt deem it worthless, until I have done some crawling/indexing checks on it.

Actually DF you bring up some good points and it would be nice to have a good discussion around this. I know that a while back Matt Cutts said something along the lines of ensuring you have nofollow in your DIRECTORIES and then a little later indicated that if you are going to use nofollow on your sites, that you should not be linking to the SITES at all.

So there may exist a couple strategies for normal sites and then some for directories.

As per backlog, its very dependent. I can tell, as most seasoned people, by looking at a site if it is MFA or good directory. Both MFA and quality directories get flooded with unwanted and poor quality submissions. The key is filtering through the crap. One way is to make all submissions paid and subject to admin's approval - I've seen your directories and can say you are very deligent and take pride of your work. Its show that its more about quality than money.

Anyone else?

I personally don´t like using no follow and am trying to avoid it by any means necessary. Even if Matt says it should be done. It goes against Google´s initial recommendation that suggests to do everything as if search engines didn´t exist. It´s too much of a double standard for me, and I believe it´s their job to figure out which sites to give a boost in the SERPs and which ones not.

- Mike

Originally Posted by Mike Dammann

It´s too much of a double standard for me, and I believe it´s their job to figure out which sites to give a boost in the SERPs and which ones not.

BRAVOOOO! This is sooo true and this is what I was refering to when I said that the Google PR/BL system is flawed.

Originally Posted by Mike Dammann

I personally don´t like using no follow and am trying to avoid it by any means necessary. Even if Matt says it should be done. It goes against Google´s initial recommendation that suggests to do everything as if search engines didn´t exist. It´s too much of a double standard for me, and I believe it´s their job to figure out which sites to give a boost in the SERPs and which ones not.

- Mike

I agree with you there also! That would be the perfect world scenario

Originally Posted by LaCabra

One way is to make all submissions paid and subject to admin's approval

I ended up having to pretty much go that route, the amount of spam submissions I got when I had my directories 'free' was insane! The same couple of people submitting crap site after crap site!

Originally Posted by grim

I ended up having to pretty much go that route, the amount of spam submissions I got when I had my directories 'free' was insane! The same couple of people submitting crap site after crap site!

Yeah, its also breaking my heart to see and use my time on junk submissions. Been at it a year now daily, but in my "dream world" I'd like to give the chance to quality sites to get a free listing.
I might cavein one day also and abandon the free option, but I hope not

Originally Posted by DirectoryFreak

Yeah, its also breaking my heart to see and use my time on junk submissions. Been at it a year now daily, but in my "dream world" I'd like to give the chance to quality sites to get a free listing.
I might cavein one day also and abandon the free option, but I hope not

Well your directories DF are all custom. You even make specific thumbnails and profile screenshots of everyone's site you approve. There is lots to be said for that type of commitment.

Originally Posted by LaCabra

Well your directories DF are all custom. You even make specific thumbnails and profile screenshots of everyone's site you approve. There is lots to be said for that type of commitment.

hehe, thanks LaCabra.. Though I do not take screenshots of every listing anymore. But all those that stream of quality gets one.
Lately to get through the backlogs, I have skipped screenshooting the poor designed sites, or those sites that seem to change design often.

Originally Posted by DirectoryFreak

I agree with you there also! That would be the perfect world scenario

Matt is only in charge of certain parts of Google, the spam patrol. He says whatever he thinks makes his job easier. Problem is that the audience of his blog really doesnt care what he says and tells him what he wants to hear. he could make a post called

The world will end in one year, 3 months, 5 days, 2 hours and 24 seconds

and the comments would be


thanks for the info, Matt ... Thank you for the warning, Matt ... great post Matt ....

Originally Posted by Mike Dammann

Matt is only in charge of certain parts of Google, the spam patrol. He says whatever he thinks makes his job easier. Problem is that the audience of his blog really doesnt care what he says and tells him what he wants to hear. he could make a post called

The world will end in one year, 3 months, 5 days, 2 hours and 24 seconds

and the comments would be


thanks for the info, Matt ... Thank you for the warning, Matt ... great post Matt ....

I reported spam to him and through the spam form and I am still waiting for any action this was at least a year ago. 3 sites owned by the same organization running the same exact content on the 3 sites. Only difference is the URL other than that they are the exact mirrors.

Originally Posted by LaCabra

I reported spam to him and through the spam form and I am still waiting for any action this was at least a year ago. 3 sites owned by the same organization running the same exact content on the 3 sites. Only difference is the URL other than that they are the exact mirrors.

What I am always wondering is how a company like Google can´t seem to find ways to find those with one of their scripts.

Originally Posted by Mike Dammann

I personally don´t like using no follow and am trying to avoid it by any means necessary. Even if Matt says it should be done. It goes against Google´s initial recommendation that suggests to do everything as if search engines didn´t exist. It´s too much of a double standard for me, and I believe it´s their job to figure out which sites to give a boost in the SERPs and which ones not.

- Mike

Excellent point, Mike.

Originally Posted by Mike Dammann

What I am always wondering is how a company like Google can´t seem to find ways to find those with one of their scripts.

Yah and the funny thing is this company's site1 is 2 or 3 on the serps, then when you look at the sponsored links above the top listing you see an ad for site2 which is the same company (different URL) and site 3 is floater appearing mysteriously when ever it wants to.

Yeah, I have seen some blatant crap like that, some of those sites have been up there like that for over a year. I bet it also ranks for some pretty nice keyterms, huh?

Originally Posted by Mike Dammann

Yeah, I have seen some blatant crap like that, some of those sites have been up there like that for over a year. I bet it also ranks for some pretty nice keyterms, huh?

Lets see ... #2 for 142,000,000 results for the most competitve keyword.

Originally Posted by LaCabra

Lets see ... #2 for 142,000,000 results for the most competitve keyword.

LOL I´m sure it got reported before. I should email Matt and see what happens. Maybe the whole report url thing is more or less just a way to scare some owners of websites like these. Not a very well working tactic though.

Originally Posted by Mike Dammann

Matt is only in charge of certain parts of Google, the spam patrol. He says whatever he thinks makes his job easier. Problem is that the audience of his blog really doesnt care what he says and tells him what he wants to hear. he could make a post called

The world will end in one year, 3 months, 5 days, 2 hours and 24 seconds

and the comments would be


thanks for the info, Matt ... Thank you for the warning, Matt ... great post Matt ....

True true Never said anything about Matt though. I rarely read his blog, and his thoughts on the nofollow is not my reason for doing it.

My use of the nofollow is based on own thoughts, many pieces of scattered notes on paper and simple co-testing on my sites. I can clearly see a benifit in my architecture to do this.
Makes it possible for me to get decent serps for my listings like:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...mann+Directory

Cooool DF!!! #3 right behind Mikey's page and ahead of DP.

That is definitely a sign that Google likes your directory. Unless of course you´re secretely buying links with the anchor Mike Dammann Directory somewhere. Just kidding.

(Just learned a few things looking thru the results, very interesting stuff actually )

Originally Posted by Mike Dammann

That is definitely a sign that Google likes your directory. Unless of course you´re secretely buying links with the anchor Mike Dammann Directory somewhere. Just kidding.

(Just learned a few things looking thru the results, very interesting stuff actually )

He actually is ranking high for some of my keywords too .... .... outperforming me in some actually. hehehehe I suspect DF would have won or come close to winning directorycontest.com, if it wasn't for some of the contestants turning the contest into a SEO contest and pushing sitewides and the sorts.

I can tell you that I am still able to improve rankings for key phrases and increase pagerank through directories, so clearly they are still very important.

Originally Posted by LaCabra

He actually is ranking high for some of my keywords too .... .... outperforming me in some actually. hehehehe I suspect DF would have won or come close to winning directorycontest.com, if it wasn't for some of the contestants turning the contest into a SEO contest and pushing sitewides and the sorts.

Webby is coding a tool now which will make it easy for people to use the directorycontest.com results in order to find the really good directories. Whatever people are doing with the contest, this is the url that is indexed by more directories than any other, so we will work on creating the biggest naturally built directory of directories out of it.

Originally Posted by Mike Dammann

Webby is coding a tool now which will make it easy for people to use the directorycontest.com results in order to find the really good directories. Whatever people are doing with the contest, this is the url that is indexed by more directories than any other, so we will work on creating the biggest naturally built directory of directories out of it.

Fantastic Mike! Look forward to seeing the results! Psssstt.... hey webby can you put my directory at the top?

Heh Webby has been sworn in by the Oath of Directoctaris to keep everything pure.

Btw. the Google results are showing now for link:www.directorycontest.com and when you ignore the blog, forums and other non directory results, it´s quite interesting.


http://www.google.com/search?q=link:...=&start=0&sa=N

Originally Posted by Mike Dammann

Heh Webby has been sworn in by the Oath of Directoctaris to keep everything pure.

Btw. the Google results are showing now for link:www.directorycontest.com and when you ignore the blog, forums and other non directory results, it´s quite interesting.


http://www.google.com/search?q=link:...=&start=0&sa=N

ummm looks like ... ummm .... there are no results for that query!

are you kidding me? Must be geospecific

Originally Posted by Mike Dammann

are you kidding me? Must be geospecific

Your search - link:www.directorycontest.com - did not match any documents.

I'm in Canada.