Paid For Directories

[wba1968]

Hi,

I'm currently in the process of link building. Currently, I'm approaching broadly related sites and requesting reciprocal links.

However, during this process I have noticed that some other sites have listings in paid for directories, which are showing up in the Google Backwards Links.

Does anyone use a paid for directory and have any experience of the results produced? Some of them seem to offer 'deep links' whereby they will link to sub depts, which seems useful to me.

I'd be grateful for any comments and if they are used who has produced results? I'm keen not to get fleeced!

Thanks,

Dan

[Mike Hughes]

On a scale of 1-10 I'd rate links from directories in the 1-2 range (poor).

Google do use links as an indicator of a site's importance but they aren't daft. Clearly, the best links are those from pages that are relevant to the search term and google uses lots of factors to evaluate the quality of links and what importance to assign to them.

Links from directories are never going to do that well and aren't really worth paying for. Better direct your efforts elsewhere.

Mike

[wba1968]

Thanks...

Hi Mike,

Thanks for that, that was certainly my initial thoughts. However, when I saw the same paid for directory, with a high PR, being listed as backwards links in several other sites, also with decent PR, this prompted me to think again and add this post.

I'll see if there are any other replies, would be particularly good to hear from anyone who has used a directory.

Thanks again,

Dan

[PatchworkRabbit]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for that, that was certainly my initial thoughts. However, when I saw the same paid for directory, with a high PR, being listed as backwards links in several other sites, also with decent PR, this prompted me to think again and add this post.

I'll see if there are any other replies, would be particularly good to hear from anyone who has used a directory.

Thanks again,

Dan

Well, I haven't used a paid directory, have no PR to speak of, yet still manage to get onto page 1 for my chosen keywords.

Links from relevant sites coupled with relevant content on your own site are your two most important tools for SEO. There are no tricks or gimmicks. Literally, "build it and they will come".

[AdieB]

Would you consider paid for CPC Shopping Engines like Pricecheck etc to be considered as "directories" by the search engines?
i.e. do they rank your use of them as low?

[Mike Hughes]

In terms of SEO yes. I doubt very much if the search engines would consider any links from product directories to be important. Particularly if paid for by CPC etc.

Displaying your products on other web sites also runs the danger of your own website pages being seen as duplicates. ideally you'd want to use different product descriptions for the directories.

This doesn't mean don't use shopping / product directories. Just, use them for exposure to customers who aren't going to find your website in other ways, not for trying to boost your position in the serps.

Mike