Using Directories for SEO and Web Site Traffic
I was reading earlier a post at SEOmoz about the value of directories. Rand made a point that many people think that directories are not important anymore, but that he disagrees with that statement. I must agree that directories are important for search engine marketing but for a slightly different reason.
Many directories such as the one at MasterMoz allow you to list your site for free and input your site's title and description. While the page you get listed on may not have great page rank, I believe there can be value in these type of links for the anchor text that a link like this provides you.
I have been watching very closely in Google Webmaster Tools at the links that they are reporting to my sites. One of the interesting things I have found is that I have some nofollowed links in there as well as some from splogs and other low ranked pages. Some of these have showed up higher in the section where it ranks the anchor text pointing to your site. I do not believe there is much weight in these terms, but I do think it can better help you to diversify your anchor text and increase your likelihood for showing up for more of the related long tail terms due to the fact that Google will see the terms pointing to your site. No, I don't think they are as valuable of a link, but I do believe that they can contribute to your overall marketing efforts and shouldn't be overlooked.
Most of these directories only allow you to submit if you have a reciprocal link and I frown on those. The cool thing I found about the MasterMoz directory is that it allows you to register and then maintain your link. I know many times that I have submitted a link to a directory only to later see a mispelling or inaccurate info that I cannot change without an act of Congress it seems :)
Don't forget about directories when doing your search engine marketing, but also don't devote all of your time to just this one task and make sure to diversify your marketing efforts.
Comments
I am always in a debate to whether or not submitting to directories even help at all. But I guess sometimes we will just never know.
Thanks for the Mastermoz link :)
Posted by: Web Presence | July 22, 2007 10:01 PM
I think it's an important part of your marketing. Submit and it will help overall. If it's their it can help and everything matters when it comes to ranking!
Posted by: Todd Harrison - LA Headshot photography | July 30, 2007 11:59 PM
Well as for directories they are indeed a great tool to at least get the SERPS. And sometimes it does gets you traffic. Well whenever i launch a site this is generally one of the first thing i do.
Posted by: info@datingsmatches.com | August 18, 2007 04:20 AM
It seems mostly webmaster submit their sites to web directories is to only increase their Page Rank.
I had some positive experience with open directories, but don’t know how good are these paid directories. Of course paid directories like Yahoo Directory are worth it (not for traffic, but for PR)
Posted by: Clarks | August 21, 2007 06:43 AM
I think web directories are important but the free ones and cheap one definitely don't carry much weight. The Yahoo directory is an absolute must but is pricey ($299/year) - DMOZ is good but impossible to get into, and botw.org is pretty good but very few inner pages have any pagerank.
I've been noticing that a lot lately with directories... how come their internal pages don't have more pagerank?
Posted by: Snizzap | May 9, 2008 03:27 PM