Directory Submissions - Waste of Time?

directmarketingadvice · Apr 20, 2009

I got an email from Jerry West saying "Most directories aren't worth the time to submit to" and linking to his article:

http://www.webmarketingnow.com/tips/directories-recommended.html

Aside from Dmoz - which is rarely updated - they're all paid directories.

Are free directories almost all a waste of time?

(except stuff like freeindex which gets lots of p1 rankings and can provide traffic)

Thoughts?

Steve

fisicx · Apr 20, 2009

Remember the good old google adage: 'build sites for people not for the search engines'.

It's the same with directories, if you feel a directory listing will be useful for people then it's not going to hurt. But spending hours and hours submitting to all the free directories you can find is a waste of time. All you are going to get two lines of promo and a link along with all the hundreds of others all doing the same thing. The number of visitors you will get from these directories is going to be negliable so no advantage there. Equally, google will view the directory and consider if it adds value to the visitor, if the answer is no then the link juice that passes is going to be negligable. And even worse if google notes that you have submitted to hundreds or thousands of spammy directories then you could even end up going backwards.

Subbynet · Apr 20, 2009

Both paid and free directories are spammy... Why paying for a spammy link is better than a free spammy link I don't know - it doesn't really make sense.

Ultimately its not really worth targeting directories anyway, you don't gain much traffic even from the "better ones".

DanHarrison · Apr 20, 2009

Sometimes it's worth targeting well-managed directories that are in your niche. For example, I run one in the green niche (www.bigecodirectory.com). But I run the directory to help others find green related sites, not for backlinks.

Dan

AndyBlack · Apr 20, 2009

A link is a link, but really.... any value these links have are of very little value. They're just sites which house a ton of outbound links, many of which are spammy and keyword heavy.

YODspica · Apr 20, 2009

agree with latest posts.

SEO Positive · Apr 20, 2009

I actually think that directory submissions are well worth doing, and links from directories will help your optimisation campaign.

Here is a link to the top 100 directories according to the info vilesilencer website.

http://info.vilesilencer.com/top

Hope this helps.

OldWelshGuy · Apr 20, 2009

There is a simple system for finding directories that are worthwhile submitting to, I use it, and it works. getting listed in lots of lower quality directories also masks your high quality links from your competition

aidan1980 · Apr 20, 2009

OldWelshGuy said:
There is a simple system for finding directories that are worthwhile submitting to, I use it, and it works. getting listed in lots of lower quality directories also masks your high quality links from your competition

any chance of pointing us in the right direction please mate?

An Oasis · Apr 20, 2009

OldWelshGuy said:
There is a simple system for finding directories that are worthwhile submitting to, I use it, and it works. getting listed in lots of lower quality directories also masks your high quality links from your competition

LOL very good, you get the tart of the day badge!

UKSEOAgency · Apr 21, 2009

I have worked with an awful lot of directory submission companies - and to date have only found one company which provides us with a great service, time and time again - but the directories are as relevent as possible and do provide some traffic (stats show its around 2% of my sites overall traffic)

However there are a lot of companies out there which provide the poorest of poor quality directories and make me want to cry about wasted money. Luckily it was on test sites and not clients sites.

SEO Positive · Apr 21, 2009

Which one was the good one?

An Oasis · Apr 21, 2009

I've been tracking some directories for about the last 12 months and one of the biggest issues seems to be that a huge % of them set off with good intentions and indeed do quite well but then fade into obscurity. The RIO for directory inclusion is in the main very poor.

That said I've never bothered going for inclusion in the larger directories, with the exception of a Dmoz entry, which brings in no traffic whatsoever.

Kneoteric_eSolutions · Apr 21, 2009

OldWelshGuy said:
...getting listed in lots of lower quality directories also masks your high quality links from your competition

Decoy. Never thought of it from that perspective. You always have something different to say.

SEO Positive · Apr 21, 2009

Oasis,

That is a good point to make.

fisicx · Apr 21, 2009

Kneoteric_eSolutions said:
Decoy. Never thought of it from that perspective. You always have something different to say.

Decoys are fun, try adding lots of poorly converting keywords in your meta tags.

Apr 21, 2009

Any visitor that buys is a good one.

Who cares where they come from.

Earl

driansmith · Apr 24, 2009

SteveGibson said:
Aside from Dmoz - which is rarely updated - they're all paid directories.

Are free directories almost all a waste of time?

My view is that all directories can have a positive effect, its a matter of whether you have the time/budget to submit to them.

PrettyPaws · Apr 24, 2009

sirearl said:
Any visitor that buys is a good one.

Who cares where they come from.

Earl

Disagree, ones why buy something, returns it damaged and expect a full refund are not good. I could live without them

driansmith · Apr 24, 2009

Que? I do not understand.

PrettyPaws · Apr 24, 2009

PrettyPaws said:
Disagree, ones who buy something, return it damaged and expect a full refund are not good. I could live without them

That's what I ment

iyereoboite · Apr 25, 2009

Wow. Im quite disheartened by the comments im reading about directories being a waste of time. I just finished making a uk business directory website and to see al the negative comments makes me feel like i was wasting my time. I should have gone to my lectures instead.

The site is directlisted com -

When i made the site i made it with the businesses in mind. It wasnt meant to be a waste of time for businesses and its free and its being constantly updated. Yell is a good directory, so is gum tree

BdTS · Apr 26, 2009

Again though, many people making what they think are qualified assessments based upon the results they achieve with a free-line entry.

Most directories will go out their way to make sure that you DON'T get new work from your free-line entry.

Freeindex and UKSMD are the only exceptions I'm aware of.

driansmith · Apr 26, 2009

An Oasis said:
Ive been tracking some directories for about the last 12 months and one of the biggest issues seems to be that a huge % of them set off with good intentions and indeed do quite well but then fade into obscurity. The RIO for directory inclusion is in the main very poor.

That said Ive never bothered going for inclusion in the larger directories, with the exception of a Dmoz entry, which brings in no traffic whatsoever.

I would make the following observations:

1. I agree with the point about directories disappearing into obscurity. However, some of them go on to bigger and better things. You do not know which are which when they start, but if you are submitted to all then you need not worry.
2. DMOZ sends me a lot of regular traffic, and I do get a steady stream from a wide variety of lesser directories.

Overall, I would recommend using these directories as part of your link-building/marketing strategy.

Maslins · Apr 26, 2009

Noob here so be nice. Yell.com has PR7 from what I've seen, and I think paying £90 will get me a link from them for a year.

If this then counts as a really high value link & makes me appear much higher in Google it's perhaps worth the £90...will it?

Maslins · Apr 26, 2009

soz, double post

aidan1980 · Apr 26, 2009

Maslins said:
Noob here so be nice. Yell.com has PR7 from what I've seen, and I think paying £90 will get me a link from them for a year.

If this then counts as a really high value link & makes me appear much higher in Google it's perhaps worth the £90...will it?

what you have to remember is the PR7 is on the homepage and not the page your link will be. But what you have to think off is the £90 going to repay itself by you being on Yell. For example, if you get one sale in your first moth that is £100 then job done, its paid for itself. I know i've probably single handed paid for my local chinesse's listing this year on yell

Coderea · Apr 27, 2009

Most of the directories would count as supplement results in google and might effect the rankings..but some are important and is good to index your new site..
Don't go for 1000 directories submission in a week..no point..but it's better to submit to few of them and you are good to go..!
Our guys do directory submissions for our clients but we make sure that we are not submitting to junk directories..like in .ws or .info ones..Sorry but these sites are nowhere to stay long term.

fisicx · Apr 27, 2009

Maslins said:
Noob here so be nice. Yell.com has PR7 from what I've seen, and I think paying £90 will get me a link from them for a year.

If this then counts as a really high value link & makes me appear much higher in Google it's perhaps worth the £90...will it?

Won't make the slightest bit of difference. All outbound links from Yell are no-follow which means they will be ignored by Google.

fisicx · Apr 27, 2009

iyereoboite said:
Wow. Im quite disheartened by the comments im reading about directories being a waste of time. I just finished making a uk business directory website and to see al the negative comments makes me feel like i was wasting my time. I should have gone to my lectures instead.

How often do you use a directory to search for a product or service? I suspect then most of the time you use a search engine. Your site is just one of hundreds if not thousands of directories and as a result will just get filed in the Google dump of low value clones. The search engines want to see sites that offer something unique and new, full of informative and interesting content not just another directory.

driansmith · Apr 27, 2009

fisicx said:
Won't make the slightest bit of difference. All outbound links from Yell are no-follow which means they will be ignored by Google.

I agree. And I have never had a client that has had a positive response to these listings on Yell. But, I would be interested to hear of anyone who has/does experienced value-for-money.

BdTS · Apr 27, 2009

drian,

I've had plenty, equally, some bad ones as well.

Depends on the product and in particular, the coverage a client takes out with a directory.

It's more often than not a waste of money to go on with the cheapest product.

BdTS · Apr 27, 2009

....and I'm still lost as to the importance of no-follows on Google.

Yell optimise their advertisers, and most of Yell's traffic comes to them directly anyway so not sure what the issue is.

driansmith · Apr 27, 2009

BdTS said:
drian,

I've had plenty, equally, some bad ones as well.

Depends on the product and in particular, the coverage a client takes out with a directory.

It's more often than not a waste of money to go on with the cheapest product.

Would you be willing to explain a little further? I would like to be a little clearer in my own mind when it might be worthwhile to go with Yell.

driansmith · Apr 27, 2009

BdTS said:
....and I'm still lost as to the importance of no-follows on Google.

Sorry [FONT=verdana,geneva,lucida,arial]BdTS[/FONT], which aspect of 'no-follows' are you unclear on?

fisicx · Apr 27, 2009

BdTS said:
....and I'm still lost as to the importance of no-follows on Google.

Maslins was under the impression that the Yell link would be a good inbound link and may help their ranking. A no-follow attribute tells Google to ignore the link.

It's got nothing to do with the use of the directory or the traffic it generates for your site.

driansmith · Apr 27, 2009

Gotya! I agree. Thanks.

SEO Positive · Apr 27, 2009

Although I did say earlier in this thread that directory links are (in my opinion) good links to gain (in general). There are directories that I would not waste my time with.

For example - Thompson, Yell, ETC, ETC, as these links will do almost nothing for your rankings.

fisicx · Apr 27, 2009

SEO Positive said:
For example - Thompson, Yell, ETC, ETC, as these links will do almost nothing for your rankings.

On the other hand, if these directories bring some good quality traffic that converts well then there is a definate finacial advantage to these listing.

It's not about links and ranking, it's about making money.

SEO Positive · Apr 27, 2009

Have you ever had an advert in these directories?

I know personally (again, from my experience) that no business comes from them.

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