Directory Submission advice

[xhale2007]

Morning all,

Im looking to start a link building campaign, one of the things i have set out to do is to submit my site to as many directorys as i can find over the coming months.

Im new to it all, so excuse my ignorance.

I notice most directorys offer a free listing with reciprocal link, or a paid listing.

Would i be ok to add an extra page in my store (that wont be linked to from the main site, so customers will never see it) then add the reciprocal links there? So that i can get the free listings?

I do not have the budget to be paying for links at present, but i want to do something rather than nothing.

Thanks for your advice

 

[aidan1980]

dont waste your time mate, you'll hardly get any benefit from them. Instead look for a few industry related directories and get listed on them. Also look at other sites similar to your industry and try and get links from those, what is your sector?

 

[xhale2007]

I sell just a few different items in the Lubricant / Condom range, mainly on ebay, but trying to get a few customers via my website.

http://www.protectyourpiece.co.uk is my site.

Im not out to make huge ££, im doing it more as something to fill my spare time and learn alot of interesting things, like building sites (i did mine all myself), seo, marketing etc etc.

 

[herodigital]

the best piece of directory submission advice you will find: don't do it

not that it's BAD, it's just pointless. Unless you can find a high traffic directory that doesn't link out to a million crap websites. You can find a few diamonds in the mountains of coal, but again, you need to decide if the time searching for these is even worth it.

 

[eventdomain]

There are 2 types of directory:

1. General (all-purpose) dmoz, ufindus, yellow pages etc

2. Niche (vertical, specialist)

They can be stand-alone, which the majority are or can be part of a larger portal-style website, where the searches are pulled from its own database, which are hand-built by the webmaster owners.

The common word is that the majority are worthless and a waste of time adding links to. The majority of the 15'000 that exist, have non-memorable names eg: a1cashextractor.com and you'll end up in a pending queue of 1000's, most likely or at best on something that'll never be promoted, the page you'll end up on will be pointless, no-followed, get no pagerank and heavily devalued by Google, with the very large fact that the owner is out to make some fast cash.

Not to mention these will get practically zero to very low traffic using them, and the ones that do are used mainly for backlinks, or some link strength to push their sites up the rankings of search engines.

These never get any significant traffic, and people only use them for link-building purposes, (off-site SEO) or an ego-boost by way of link capture for bragging rights within webmaster social circles. Most are run by youths/young adults who wrongfully believe this will make them wealthy and these are not usually run to serve anyone, but the owners.

The only directories worth paying for are established, niche or specific subject ones. That said there are a few decent general directories out there, but the well-known ones won't be cheap, and ones that are will be choosy who they accept, as they want to maintain integrity, subject matter and targeting for their users.

Expect to pay from £5 to anywhere upto £400 in directory fees for 12 months. Directories aren't usually famous, any that do get media attention are worth using, probably part of a large group with other web interests and/or with possible investment/backers behind it, thus worth paying to get in.

 

[xhale2007]

Thanks for your advice.

What should i be doing then? Writing articles and submitting them to numerous sites?

This is one part of my learning process im really struggling with.

 

[eventdomain]

Only use articles that are original (Google likes this), and never, ever put them on article banks/databases as you'll just be giving away your work to someone else's benefit.

If you go the content route, put them on your own site, so you get the benefit and links in the SERPS. And never, ever rip off someone else's articles/work, its automatically copyright and protected.

 

[herodigital]

Only use articles that are original (Google likes this), and never, ever put them on article banks/databases as you'll just be giving away your work to someone else's benefit.

If you go the content route, put them on your own site, so you get the benefit and links in the SERPS. And never, ever rip off someone else's articles/work, its automatically copyright and protected.

don't really agree with this - are you suggesting that article marketing is worthless?

 

[RedEvo]

What should i be doing then?

Create something worth linking to. It's hard and most people don't do it but the whole reasoning behind links promoting websites up the rankings is based on the premise that people link to good content.

If you have a site that simply sells stuff you are always going to struggle to secure decent links, it's hard enough when you have stand out content.

d

 

[eventdomain]

don't really agree with this - are you suggesting that article marketing is worthless?

Do you not know? Their used to link-drop urls mate and their devalued, very few websites are set-up with a database to house them and those that do, will just no-follow them.

So anyone attempting this has already got limited promotional options, before they even start. The only value would be to put them on your own website, so the articles act as content/info for your visitors, but your going down the publishing route and a website with just articles will look strange, and unbalanced to the eye, so more content options will be needed to make it look less strange, which costs more time and money.

You'll need thousands of em, to give you thousands of rankings positions, which is the aim of these article banks, and supposedly where their power is.

 

[terryuk]

Diversity is the key to creating a good link profile for your website, don't get thousands of this, instead get some of this and bit of that without going into much detail heh.

Directories can be good if they are related to your site, free directories are generally worthless nowadays same as other methods used for mass submissions. Paid directories are better because the quality ones will actually review the site before clicking accept hundreds of times to lower the que. And I wouldn't bother with reciprocal links with a free directory unless it has value which most don't.

 

[eventdomain]

Why dont you use banner exchanges instead? Its zero effort, and you end up on networks of upto 100'000 members, all promoting your banner.

There's some excellent ones including Bpath, which I've used, and its pretty good, and best of all its free!

Bpath is a huge organisation:

http://www.bpath.com/

http://www.hypersubmit.com/hypersubmitsite_api/company.dbm

 

[Codefixer]

Good links are good links. Doesn't matter alot whether it's from a directory or not.

That being said, most general web directories that were set up to sell page rank and anchor text a good few years ago aren't worth it.

There are other directories that can provide value, niche directories that will also send you direct traffic and boost your rankings, and some free ones including the freeindex can work so don't dismiss a directory simply because it's free.

Judge a directory and whether it's worth it on it's own merits, by looking at the page's authority and properties.

 

[happyoutdoors]

Good links are good links. Doesn't matter alot whether it's from a directory or not.

That being said, most general web directories that were set up to sell page rank and anchor text a good few years ago aren't worth it.

There are other directories that can provide value, niche directories that will also send you direct traffic and boost your rankings, and some free ones including the freeindex can work so don't dismiss a directory simply because it's free.

Judge a directory and whether it's worth it on it's own merits, by looking at the page's authority and properties.

Being in the field of gardening, I find that there are quite a few gardening directories.

How do you assess which ones work or are worthy?

 

[herodigital]

Do you not know? Their used to link-drop urls mate and their devalued, very few websites are set-up with a database to house them and those that do, will just no-follow them.

So anyone attempting this has already got limited promotional options, before they even start. The only value would be to put them on your own website, so the articles act as content/info for your visitors, but your going down the publishing route and a website with just articles will look strange, and unbalanced to the eye, so more content options will be needed to make it look less strange, which costs more time and money.

You'll need thousands of em, to give you thousands of rankings positions, which is the aim of these article banks, and supposedly where their power is.

why not do both? and why not deploy an intelligent approach - i.e. link to articles from your site that are relevant, cross link articles that link to further reading and build links to the articles respectively.

i think there is a lot of weight, still, in article marketing. i've seen good results from it, and i certainly haven't published thousands...

 

[eventdomain]

You may have got some SERP ranking value from articles, but not traffic.

Articles are not traffic drivers.

 

[xhale2007]

To be honest, serp improvement is what im after. Im currently focusing on the 2 terms, one is at position 4, the other 12. I get 2 or 3 hits per day from the one ranked 4th, Id love to get this to no 1. the other term i get no hits/day from, but its not on page 1. I need to move these up the rankings.

I have check back links to other sites above me, and they all have literally nothing, so im hoping not to much is needed to beat them.

 

[xhale2007]

I have been looking at a load of sites that are in competition with me, and notice alot of these are using LinkEX.

Does anyone have any advice on this? Seems like a bit of code you put on your server, then add a line of php to your site to show links that you get a link from.

Is this type of thing ok? One of the top rated BIG companys in my market is using it, and ranks very well.

Thanks!

 

[aidan1980]

I have been looking at a load of sites that are in competition with me, and notice alot of these are using LinkEX.

Does anyone have any advice on this? Seems like a bit of code you put on your server, then add a line of php to your site to show links that you get a link from.

Is this type of thing ok? One of the top rated BIG companys in my market is using it, and ranks very well.

Thanks!

like i said mate, dont worry about thngs like that. try asking suppliers etc for a link first.

 

[headshotlondon]

Work on your content first as well as on site SEO. Also make sure your website does not have any spam or hidden links. It is important to get that right. I would not waste my time either on reciprocal links, they take so much time and would not really bring any customers to your website. There are plenty of free and relevant resources available on the internet today that do not require useless link exchanges that could get you penalised because of your hidden pages. Google can see that by the way and will deduct some point for that.

 

[Probafix]

Directory submissions are probably one of the best and easiest ways to obtain back links to your site. Your site will be picked up by the search engines and help your rankings. Plus human visitors can search the directories to see your listings.

 

[fisicx]

Sorry but that's just bad bad bad.

SOME directory submission may be helpful but 99% of them are just a waste of time and effort. A simple check of most directories will reveal that most of their deeper pages (where you will be listed) don't even make it into the main SE index.

 

[diggs11]

its really very difficult to find your perfect search but you must waste time to get this ... may be any 1 can give u list where you can submit your .. site .... Best of luck ...