Directory Links, Are They Crap

Posted by Pixelhead

Have you submitted a site to lots of directories lately? Go ahead go on over to DirectoryCritic,com and submit a site be it a favorite of yours or an ecommerce site. Go ahead I will wait.
Ok, your back. While you were out getting links, did you experience deja vu quite a lot. Directories can be easily created using a directory script, and often times the owners make little to no alterations to make the directory unique. As if it is not bad enough that the few templates are everywhere, the category database is everywhere as well.

Its not only me that sees this problem. In a DirectoryCritic Blog post Link Farm Clone Directories

says that characteristics of Clone Directories include:

Loads of directories on the same IPs
Directories that have obviously had no effort at all put into them (some donâ€™t even have a template or donâ€™t even have the logo changed – how hard is it?)
Category clones (basically cloning a populated directory)

Directory Uniqueness

What I look for in a good unique directory includes but not limited to changes to template if it is a popular template.
Categories should also be edited, especially if the directory starts out using a category database.
Add other features to the directory like articles, advertising opportunities, about us pages, contests, a directory blog, a directory forum, etc…
Add text to the sub-pages as well as the home page. I have just started doing this to Pixelheadonline. Adding text can be as simple as adding a little paragraph of text to describe the category. It can also include the adding of articles.

Future of Directory Links

With all the clones out on the net, I believe that quality directories will become something that will be sought after. This will include directories that have not only a home page that is indexed in the search engines, but also has the majority of its sub-pages cached. When site owners start to have their site rankings hurt by using these bad linking neighborhoods, good directories will be in even higher demand.

Am I right? What do you think will happen to directories in the future? Will they go the way of the FFA (Free For All) pages?

Written by Pixelhead on July 9th, 2007 with 17 comments.
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17 comments

Read the comments left by other users below, or:

lizziebean
#1. July 12th, 2007, at 12:51 AM.

I think the power of the directory link is a thing of the past. The market was totally glutted by those looking to cash in on the SEOs searching for the perfect link. There are so few reputable directories left – and the few that are good, cost a fortune. Far better links can be found through other sources – it just takes time to find them.

Emperor Anton
#2. July 12th, 2007, at 1:13 AM.

Would you care to elaborate on some of your favorite link building resources?

Alex from Science of Identity Foundation
#3. September 19th, 2007, at 11:25 PM.

Well, I put some links to paid and best directories (with high PageStrength of seomoz.org) and I saw increase in ranking for my niche keywords, but I don’t think it will help in competitive keywords. I read a lot about that directories are mainly thing of the past.

Pixelhead
#4. September 20th, 2007, at 1:51 AM.

Yes, don’t look for huge gains from any directory(except for maybe yahoo or Dmoz) for really competitive keywords alone. For these you’ll need a lot of high pr relevant text links like the ones you can buy from a text link broker. The directories can add some link juice if the pages your site is listed in is cached, but I am really seeing less and less deep category pages that are cached in Google.

Mitesh
#5. October 6th, 2007, at 7:46 AM.

yes you are right i too have noticed – most of directories are ame and are on same ip’s — i too feel those links are of no use and it will not help much.. try to get listed on dmoz its best and will help in increased rankings

Scott Demaret
#6. December 13th, 2007, at 3:25 PM.

This is quite an old issue now…

Mike Brazil
#7. February 26th, 2008, at 5:29 PM.

There are a lot of high page rank directories which I feel are worth submitting to, but then there are a lot of directories with almost no page rank so there probably isn’t much point submitting to these. You are much better off spending your time doing something which is much more rewarding no?

Scoop
#8. March 21st, 2008, at 5:12 AM.

You are spot on with your analysis. Excluding Yahoo and DMOZ, link directories are garbage.

The template has destroyed this sector of the Internet, because any idiot can purchase the script, execute it and walla they have a directory…no creativity required and no intention to add value to the Internet. To be honest, I hate these types of people. The type that seek to take from the Internet and add nothing to it. They are leeches.

Sorry for the rant, but that’s how I feel.

Judd
#9. April 7th, 2008, at 7:20 PM.

Agreed – you really need to dig around to find a relevant ones anymore.

Instant Fundas
#10. May 1st, 2008, at 2:36 PM.

Directory links aren’t crap if you know which directory to submit at. Checkout this

Pixelhead
#11. May 1st, 2008, at 4:09 PM.

Thanks for letting us know instant Fundas. Looks like a nice list. I’ll have to go through it and submit my blogs to the ones I missed.

Rick
#12. May 4th, 2009, at 4:50 PM.

I agree that directories are less and less valuable. Some of the larger ones will always have value… like DMOZ, BOTW, Yahoo!… but submitting to thousands of smaller directories will probably hurt your site’s rank.

T. Scott Clendaniel
#13. August 6th, 2009, at 10:12 PM.

I spent a lot of time submitting to directories, and several months later have found that the majority never either accepted nor rejected my submissions, and many more accepted my link but Google never picked it up. What a frustrating waste of time!

faydaliweb
#14. November 19th, 2009, at 1:57 PM.

Directories may be useful. But you must choose very carefully that which category will you add your site.Because the category must be related content with your website.

Atlanta Lawyer
#15. December 6th, 2009, at 4:07 AM.

I haven’t had overwhelmingly great experiences using directories. Many required reciprocal links or payments. The ones that did not have left my submissions in limbo by neither accepting nor rejecting. Of about 60 I submitted to only three actually had immediate posting.

design
#16. January 29th, 2010, at 1:40 PM.

Thanks for this Great Article. Directory submission really is a good way of getting traffic but the problem is I submitted my website in 200 Directories but only 50 directories accept my website and all 150 directory was a waste of time. Does any one have any idea what type of mistake i have in this?

Pixelhead
#17. January 31st, 2010, at 1:39 AM.

That is the problem with free directory submissions, you don’t know how many will review and aprove your submission. Try looking for ones that have a low submission review cost to insure inclusion.

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