How effective are paid for listings in Directories to improve a site's rankings?

[Drn55]

I'm looking at known directories with a good page rank. Most of these directories accept paid submissions for $30-$100 a year. I'm wondering how effective these links are in terms of SEO and boosting a site's rankings.

 

[amhsolutions]

I know yahoo directory will have a great impact on your rankings. $300 for 1 year.

 

[fisicx]

Google suggests that inbound links should be natural which means paid for links will not necessarily help improve ranking. Plus you need to remember that the PR score you see for the page where you will be listed means nothing. It is the relevance of the page that matters. If you are listed with hundreds of others all offering the same service then it probably isn't worth the investment.

On the other hand, if the directories bring you hundreds of converting visitors per year then the ROI is positive.

 

[amhsolutions]

fisicx could be right about google seeing it as a paid link... will have to read up on that.

The annual fee only applies to commercial categories. If you submit to a non-commercial category using Yahoo Directory Submit and get accepted into that area, the fee is charged only once, not on an annual basis.

 

[RedEvo]

There's little doubt paid links will improve your site's authority. It's unfortunate but true, although Google constantly try to improve their ranking system to give more weight to merit based links. Sadly there are very very few merit based links as people rarely link without an incentive. What a mess it all is

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[eventdomain]

Ahhh, the oldie directory questions, but a goodie!

Basically, this boils down to if said directory can deliver traffic en-mass or give you exclusive contact with the right suppliers - most unfortunately cannot.

Reason: most cant focus you effectively, also they dont get enough traffic-flow to send you (which should be the point of using websites - eg: value.

Directories are primarily used to assist ranking positions within search, and so there will be spam, fortunately with new technology, dir scripts can now prevent spammers from even being listed. This works by 'holding' every submission, for moderation, so the company/spammer thinks they got in, when in reality, they will never be visible for various reasons

So its now pointless to go about spamming such sites, as the majority will review you. For serial spammers its their worst nightmare, for timewasting suppliers its a nightmare - which means if you take the pee, you lose your links. Brutal I know, but this is what its come down to, the web has basically screwed itself and the free link ride is over!

 

[eventdomain]

Ahhh, the oldie directory questions, but a goodie!

Basically, this boils down to if said directory can deliver traffic en-mass or give you exclusive contact with the right suppliers - most unfortunately cannot.

Reason: most cant focus you effectively, also they dont get enough traffic-flow to send you (which should be the point of using websites - eg: value.

Directories are primarily used to assist ranking positions within search, and so there will be spam, fortunately with new technology, dir scripts can now prevent spammers from even being listed. This works by 'holding' every submission, for moderation, so the company/spammer thinks they got in, when in reality, they will never be visible for various reasons

So its now pointless to go about spamming such sites, as the majority will review you. For serial spammers its their worst nightmare, for timewasting suppliers its a nightmare - which means if you take the pee, you lose your links. Brutal I know, but this is what its come down to, the web has basically shot itself and the free link ride is over!

Sure you can chase freebies for life - but its a crazy life to lead, and many sites are so armed, even the naff ones! The point of good link-building is to pick your placement very carefully - but this means an insane amount of research, but if you want the gold, the best, then you cannot avoid the effort needed. Its so worth searching the web to find these links, their out there.

 

[Drn55]

I wasn't refering to freebie listing. I'd already worked out how worthless they are. I'm refering to paid for listings, eyeballed by a human being before it goes live.

General consensus seems to be that they do/can work, even though they shouldn't.

 

[Prestige-SEO]

If your going to use paid links, I wouldn't use directories.


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[Drn55]

If your going to use paid links, I wouldn't use directories.

What do you suggest then? We already advertise online, but we're looking to improve our organic position.

 

[Clarkjackson]

I'm looking at known directories with a good page rank. Most of these directories accept paid submissions for $30-$100 a year. I'm wondering how effective these links are in terms of SEO and boosting a site's rankings.

Only high quality and authorized directory can help in SEO, like Yhaoo directory, business.com etc

go with business.com they will charge you about $300 per month.

 

[Prestige-SEO]

$300 a month? - no thanks.

If your going to buy links get a expert to make sure you don't waste your money.


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[eventdomain]

If your going to use paid links, I wouldn't use directories.

Not much choice as inserting keywords is a must to be clickable for those keywords. Directories are one of the limited options that allow proper full descriptions, tags, as well as a host of other services that others will charge a fortune for!

But if you want to shell out £6k for a link on Lycos, please be my guest

 

[Drn55]

Business.com is showing a basic listing at $300 a year. Now, we'd be more than happy to pay that to move up even 1 position in google for a key phrase. Does anyone here have any direct excperience with business.com, or with the Yaho directory, which also charges $300 a year?

Are they worth the money? This is what I'm trying to find out.

 

[Websitehandyman]

The is no evidence that paid listing affect ranking at all, as far as I know as fact Google only related to sites charging for listing, this too is fine if it is stated on the site. If you charge for listing and don't clearly state it then google may not rank you at all.

As for paid listing themselves, in SEO terms the are the same as any other if they aree full follow that is. But bear in mind where your link comes on the page and how many others are on that page. Higher up the better.

As for on the page impact it depends on the site you paid for. If it's a well used site on the theme of your own site it can be very productive. Not only could it bring traffic it would be targeted traffic. A high ranking directory also gives you a two pronged lead from search engines to your site if the directory indexes well.

Top listing in my directory have had over 200 clickthoughs since the last update about 2 months ago. So My site is send about 70-100 targeted visitors a month. Don't know if that enough for you but my members are only small sites.

 

[eventdomain]

Does anyone here have any direct excperience with business.com, or with the Yaho directory, which also charges $300 a year?

Not used them myself, but there's the usual arguements that having a minimal link/listing pays for itself.

I dunno, I used to speak with another top authority portal owner via messenger, he has a Yahoo link, but says its not great. Mind you, he likes Business.com and so do I, but the fee might be a tad too much, yet they DO have the domain Business.com, so I bet it gets some traffic, and it is established....

I guess I'll never truly know unless I go with them. I think I'd have a link if it was £100 say - for 12 months.....

 

[OldWelshGuy]

That sums it up, Business.com is ok, but @ $300 it is a hefty chunk.

 

[eventdomain]

I do like Business.com, and wouldnt mind a link on it, but $300 is a lot for an ordinary b2b marketplace - even with its traffic potential taken into consideration.

And Yahoo directory doesnt have that old, kind of magic appeal for me that it once had. I allocate a certain budget for links, and like to stick to that.

Gone are the days, unfortunately, when you can pick up decent links for £10 a time - this ended when MS Small Biz Dir closed its doors - £35 for 12 months, ahhh, now that seriously sent me traffic.

Directories have got to get real now, the new ones must be free until their established, and the older ones must lower their enhanced listing fees to a reasonable level.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

I do like Business.com, and wouldnt mind a link on it, but $300 is a lot for an ordinary b2b marketplace - even with its traffic potential taken into consideration.

And Yahoo directory doesnt have that old, kind of magic appeal for me that it once had. I allocate a certain budget for links, and like to stick to that.

Gone are the days, unfortunately, when you can pick up decent links for £10 a time - this ended when MS Small Biz Dir closed its doors - £35 for 12 months, ahhh, now that seriously sent me traffic.

Directories have got to get real now, the new ones must be free until their established, and the older ones must lower their enhanced listing fees to a reasonable level.

This is the problem in that they have clients on subscription via paypal etc, and if they drop their rates, they are likely to see a massive loss of revenue, you are right though freemium is the way forward now, it is a model I have always liked. let people taste it for free, then charge them. Our Florida rentals sites works like this and it works well. Nothing like an email saying 'you have 5 enquiries, please upgrade your membership to access the contact details

 

[eventdomain]

freemium is the way forward now I like that thinking and yep, its about giving a taste, as advertisers need to see what their getting for their cash.

Problem is, when you give that taste and it comes round to invoicing them - many suddenly develop amnesia, and claim 'No knowledge' of their acceptance of the online contract with directories - tis a problem...

As far as I've seen, experienced and done, any successful website is built on that difference/extra service, that goes that little bit more, and this all takes time. Trust isnt an instant thing.

 

[Codefixer]

fisicx could be right about google seeing it as a paid link... will have to read up on that.

Didn't Matt Cutts say that there was a distinction between paid links and directories that offer a paid review process before inclusion.

The payment is part of the expense of running a directory.

It's a distinction, though not sure how much it stands up to scrutiny in most cases.

Anyway to answer the the original question, doesn't matter where a link comes from whether it's a blog, a directory, or whatever. If it's a quality link then it'll help your rankings particularly if there's anchor text related to you landing page.

 

[eventdomain]

If it's a quality link then it'll help your rankings

That aside, Ive always wondered if one of the main SE's 'croaked it', how many businesses will suffer from lack of quality links.

I mean Cuil died and that had what - $33 million from venture capital, so anything can go bust.

So a few scared businesses me thinks.... I mean not everyone chases links, they just buy adverts, so if their main source of SEO'd stuff is removed, a lot will be hurting without a decent link presense. You got to have a major back-up plan in place.

 

[dneveu]

Paid links, may not always improve your organic ranking, but may give a positive ROI (read what fisicx said on page one of this)

Google for example, now penalizes for paid links, they've even been penalized themselves - Google chrome no longer ranks for a few keywords, because they used a form of paid link.

I'm not saying that the paid link would be useless, as you may gain traffic from the link, but if the sole objective is to boost organic rankings, paid listings may not be the way to go.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

freemium is the way forward now I like that thinking and yep, its about giving a taste, as advertisers need to see what their getting for their cash.

Problem is, when you give that taste and it comes round to invoicing them - many suddenly develop amnesia, and claim 'No knowledge' of their acceptance of the online contract with directories - tis a problem...

As far as I've seen, experienced and done, any successful website is built on that difference/extra service, that goes that little bit more, and this all takes time. Trust isnt an instant thing.

Yep, our Florida site send a data pull that lists the dates and instances of contact. people are then faced with having to consider how many sales they made from the contact requests they got, and those who got no contacts will obviously not renew, and we wouldn't want them to anyhow as they are not gaining from membership

 

[Andy Miller]

freemium what is the url please

 

[Sophia Myles]

I know yahoo directory will have a great impact on your rankings. $300 for 1 year.

Is Yahoo still updating these days? We heard that DMOZ & Yahoo, as well as some other large directories are no longer accepting applications (no matter paid or not). Is that true?

 

[RevaxMedia]

I'm looking at known directories with a good page rank. Most of these directories accept paid submissions for $30-$100 a year. I'm wondering how effective these links are in terms of SEO and boosting a site's rankings.

Yahoo is very good for two reasons;

a) It's price is very high so spammers will not spend that much ($300) under normal circumstances

b) after paying that $300 there is no guarantee you will get into the directory, there is a pretty high quality standard which is why it's so popular with Google.

Google do say natural links are best but second best to these are links which are hard to get and can only be obtained after you have been deemed worthy such as forum posting, if you post your link on a forum which is spammed up to the high heavens then it will have no impact, you place your link on forums which are highly moderated, low outbound links and regular deleted posts, it will have more value.

If you choose a directory, don't go for just pagerank, look at how hard it is to actually get into that directory.

 

[eventdomain]

as well as some other large directories are no longer accepting applications (no matter paid or not). Is that true?

There's a lot who have like 10k of links still pending, so you'll never get in basically. Found one with 35'000 links still not been listed yet , many are dormant and clearly not operating (still shelling out hosting fees though), but proves links are so tough to get these days, even half decent free ones.

Actually, you'll never get into the best directories (or any good site) without paying, and the general dirs content is so basic, the link space cannot ever get that status. But these are authority websites which now your getting into a different game compared to the £200 knock-up dir jobs, and those production line efforts just dont measure up to a quality site.

So think quality links, link space, authorities, portals - and this where search needs to be working towards, to find the best advertising.

 

[adventurelife]

Paid for some links in a niche industry directory last week. First time in a very long time I have done so, just testing the water again Links went live 3rd Jan. 20 pages with 20 descriptions and links. £80 a month

Results so far 430 page views and 36 click throughs, zero conversions. Will test for a few more months and then bin, stay, or upgrade to more depending on results.

 

[Websitehandyman]

Call yourselves business people ?

I would have thought that even one on here who had half a business brain would know that the directory model lends itself to giving a free trial period. The fact none of these do just tells you they are not worth £300.

I would say £50 is worth it for some, in shopping directories a lot more because they can effect the bottom line and you can get you money back quickly in some cases.

 

[unet]

directories dont have 1% of ther weight they used to have. i see yell as a directory and they charge businesses that dont no any better hundreds or pounds. better off spending your money elsewhere

 

[eventdomain]

I would have thought that even one on here who had half a business brain would know that the directory model lends itself to giving a free trial period

Sounds great, I doubt it will happen as every dir wants to make money (or assumes it can). For instance, Yahoo could easily offer a free trial, without losing any profits as their dir isnt the main cash driver - yet they choose not to.

Greed perhaps, but something tells me many would pay something to get in the Yahoo UK dir, me thinks its just too pricey an option at $300...

The one who got it right was MSN sbd - £35 a year - brilliant it was. So what if Yahoo did that - I'd be in it like a shot!!

 

[logicfusion]

Interesting thread.

There are thousands of directory sites, many based on generic PHP scripts someone has just downloaded and thrown up, with the idea of making money from submissions.

I'm pretty certain there are still several that Google trusts and are worthwhile getting links from if you can afford it. I have no issue with the paying element. Mr Cutts has already said that a fee to cover the review process is acceptable.

There are still the odd decent niche level directory around (some free), but you need to check carefully the outbound links, last cache date etc, etc

I see directories as just another tool to assist with ranking. I think the better quality directories are still probably worth while (i.e Yahoo, Best of the Web etc) - although you will need to spend some money. The fact that some of the decent directories cost hundreds of pounds, tends keeps the low life out; and Google knows this.

They are not the be all and end all, but the links can help add a bit of extra trust to your site and in a few situations, I've used them to get ranked ahead of competitors that haven't made the investment.

Just my opinion.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

The magic phrase is ......

Editorial integrity.

If your listings are not reviewed, corrected, rejected etc, then the link is not going to be that worthy (unless the directory has done some things to get it to a point of power).

Editorial integrity is the golden key. I have a few niche directories, some make me money through ads, others make me money through subscriptions, but in ALL cases i write the titles, I write the descriptions I write the keywords, or at the very least, I evaluate them before publication.

If you are going to use directories, use different titles or use the same generic title "name of business".

 

[eventdomain]

Bestoftheweb? that's not a directory for business people types - its full of webmasters and directory owners. Its the wrong traffic driver.

 

[RichApplegate]

Surely the key to a Directory listing is the ranking said Directory holds within Google? As long as the content is fresh and new and the links/meta data all correct, it can only help a website?

 

[Websitehandyman]

Surely the key to a Directory listing is the ranking said Directory holds within Google? As long as the content is fresh and new and the links/meta data all correct, it can only help a website?

Well if you go on what Google say, they seem to suggest that a directory should make all link within it nofollow. There by no passing on any ranking credit to it's members. They go as far as to say you should avoid directories that use full follow.

Wonder who's interest it is in that directories are only used as page promotion then ? if you can't buy ranking via a directory you would need to buy more advertising - google own 44% of all online advertising.

Luckily for us that so many people ignore that Google guideline that Google themselves find it impossible to enforce it, till it suit their needs that is. Upset them in another way and they use that against you as some big guys have found out in the states Pennys I think it was.

 

[Websitehandyman]

Sounds great, I doubt it will happen as every dir wants to make money (or assumes it can). For instance, Yahoo could easily offer a free trial, without losing any profits as their dir isnt the main cash driver - yet they choose not to.

Greed perhaps, but something tells me many would pay something to get in the Yahoo UK dir, me thinks its just too pricey an option at $300...

The one who got it right was MSN sbd - £35 a year - brilliant it was. So what if Yahoo did that - I'd be in it like a shot!!

That's what I mean, if you have agood product you don't mind people trying it out. My local baker always puts samples on the counter, it's were I get most of my dinner from

If you know something doesn't work, or doesn't work well you have to create a demand. I know if Morrison's stuff is on discount more then normal then odds are they made a mistake. I found that buying donut without jam.

Yahoo never had any Jam and I suspect most general directories don't. If you find a nice niche directory it's worth paying because they are more likely to attract targeted visitors. They then go on to read your page in the directory and click thougth.

I looked at business.com and for a start could find anything but google ads and I know if I had a link on their it would gather more dust then the average West Brom striker's scoring foot !

 

[eventdomain]

If you know something doesn't work, or doesn't work well you have to create a demand

But ideas are not easy to dream up, and is a necessary first step to creating a new, fresh market - only then do you have something to offer.

I totally agree with the fremium model, I use it well, it works as people love a freebie and I'm love my freebies trouble is, without something of great quality, as a new entrant to the directory sector, you're pretty much stuffed, like a grilled fishy.....

1. Create a market or vastly improve what's available/your offering

2. Begin finding ways to draw customers in - this is the bread and butter of ALL websites

3. Then market the traffic-flow to advertisers

 

[RichApplegate]

Well if you go on what Google say, they seem to suggest that a directory should make all link within it nofollow. There by no passing on any ranking credit to it's members. They go as far as to say you should avoid directories that use full follow.

Wonder who's interest it is in that directories are only used as page promotion then ? if you can't buy ranking via a directory you would need to buy more advertising - google own 44% of all online advertising.

Luckily for us that so many people ignore that Google guideline that Google themselves find it impossible to enforce it, till it suit their needs that is. Upset them in another way and they use that against you as some big guys have found out in the states Pennys I think it was.

Deja vu??????????