is directory submission losing relevance

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cathiejones

Joined: Jun 27, 2006

# Posts: 9

Posted: 08/06/2006 11:50 pm

In the recent google update, I could not see much instances of direcotires in the backlinks of my website. I found same with some other websites too. Is directory submission losing relevance from search engine point of view?

[ Message was edited by: bhartzer 08/07/2006 09:19 am ]

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bhartzer

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Joined: Jun 08, 2000

# Posts: 7033

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Posted: 08/07/2006 09:23 am

The problem is that in order for a link to be "worthwhile" the page that links to you needs links. Most directories' internal pages (where your link appears) only have links from their own site.

In order for a link to your site to be "worthwhile" it needs to meet several criteria:
- the page where your link will be located needs to have links going to it not only from its own site but from other sites
- the page where your link will be located needs to have more incoming links than outgoing links
- the page where your link will be located needs to be on-topic to your site and the page its linking to
- the links on the page where your link will be located need to be regular text links and not redirected links or links that go through a CGI or PHP script or javascript.

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SportsGuy

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Joined: Aug 30, 2002

# Posts: 3550

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Posted: 08/08/2006 05:29 am

To what Bill said above I'll add the following:

Given a directory gives you one inbound link, it's unlikely that even a group of directory links would seem like a high number when weighed against the rest of the inbound links a site gets.

I mean, I have a site listed in about 12 - 15 directories. That site has roughly 1,500 inbound links week to week. The number of links attributable to directories is pretty small when compared against the whole.

Do they have value - yes. Are they worth it - yes, IMO.

Should folks be pursuing building inbound directory links by th ehundreds? No - there are about 20 - 30 directories worth being listed in (see the post in the "Directory & Link Building section for the list), the rest are simply not going to provide you any value and might just be link farms.

Directory links are still very relevant, but then again, here's an example for you:

One of my sites has yet to be included by Yahoo in it's directory, despite numerous tries over the last 2 years to get the domain included via their "free" inclusion process (which we all know is a sham, but still...). So, no listing in Yahoo, yet the site still performs well.

Do you need to spend the $299 for Yahoo specifically? Ah, I personally don't think so... wink

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bhartzer

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Joined: Jun 08, 2000

# Posts: 7033

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Posted: 08/08/2006 08:00 am

Do you need to spend the $299 for Yahoo specifically? Ah, I personally don't think so...

But it helps, tremendously. If your competitors are there then you need to be there, too.

Keep in mind, though, it's just one link to your site. So, if your budget is $300 than it wouldn't make sense (it's wiser to spread that $300 out over several sites).

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SportsGuy

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Joined: Aug 30, 2002

# Posts: 3550

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Posted: 08/08/2006 09:12 am

Very true. I have actually proven the "other side" of this equation.

It takes a long time to build traffic by avoiding Yahoo. Who knows if I may have had more traffic, sooner, had I actually paid Yahoo back in the day.

I will add this, though - now that the website is generating the money it is, I'll be adding my listing to Yahoo shortly. wink

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