Free directories, are they worth the effort

Consider this quote:

Aaron Wall wrote: If you are really struggling for links then you might want to submit to the top few article sites on this list but otherwise I would really recommend steering clear of article sites. They are full of low quality duplicate content that never attracts natural links and are joining directories in the webs spam filled wasteland.

From Aaron Wall, a well known SEO expert: http://www.seobook.com/archives/002322.shtml

I've done a little bit of directory submission and haven't noticed any benefit from it. But then, I'm one who believes in quality over quantity

I think the answer to this question depends on what you're trying to achive - if you're just looking to get crawled or to rank for obscure, uncommon keywords then directories might suit your purpose just fine. Otherwise you'll need to find some better ways to build links.

I think that search has really outperformed directories for human traffic over the past 5 years or so. I remember using directories a lot myself back in the 90's, but that was when they were actually good. Now they're either not maintained very well (dmoz), restricted to people who can pay (Yahoo), or just full of crap (most of the rest). If there are good, comprehensive, quality directories in your niche that people actually use it might be worth getting listed but otherwise I wouldn't bother. There are much more effective things you could be spending your time on.

Here's another article from Aaron Wall:

http://www.seobook.com/archives/001583.shtml

This one is more thorough - basically, he says to be selective about submitting to directories. As I mentioned above, good quality topical directories might be useful. There are lots of other tips in the article, especially regarding how to tell if a directory is worthwhile or not.

Note that it is is over a year old - the way SE's treat directories may have changed since then.

I don't the link from free directory have effect on pagerank,
Beacuse there only one link ,even the website have a high pagerank,it will not bring a high point in the calculation of google.
But If you submit your website to a suit directory,maybe bring some traffic for your website.

If they are not worth your effort, You can easily buy some submission packs.

But yes they do work for rankings and traffic.

Here's another quote from another SEO expert, Rand Fishkin:

Rand Fishkin wrote: Directory link building is not dead. There are thousands of resource lists on the web in industries of all shapes and sizes that link out to excellent websites from excellent domains. However, these sites are tough to find, tough to get into, and often extremely selective about who they accept, which makes them less attractive to those seeking link quantity over quality.

Likewise, those built-for-SEO-style directories that so many folks in the search world operate are typically pretty useless. If you run a few searches on domains like that, even the ones that have a PageRank of 4-7, you'll often find that the directory pages themselves rank at the tail end of the results, even for the exact words in their title tags - a very good sign that Google isn't giving them a lot of respect (and why should they?).

(the rest of the post is really about their new premium services)'

Basically, he's saying to go after the high quality sites and not bother with the useless crap. The really high quality stuff being "recommended links" from respected sites, high quality human edited directories, the sort of thing that humans actually use and respect. This is similar to what Aaron Wall said in the post I linke dabove. SEOmoz is offering a list of such directories to their subscribers.

Any!! let me repeat that! ANY link is a good link period. And what might not be a first page website, might be tomorrow? things are changing fast.
The forum links are real good you see me using them here. but after awhile they start blocking the ones from the same sites I have noticed with google.
and the more oneway is alway better.... So it posting time, that were the directories do help. I have back link from no pr, just got a domain sites. If it's a forum like this or your best friend site...posting anywhere you can will help..If you see my links here, the link did it's job!
There will never be a worthless link.
Ps. For those want to have a service do it for you, finds out how many links you will have after there done,Not just submitted!!!!

Can anyone give me a list of good free to use UK based general purpose link directories then?

I have found a monster list, but at first glance I can see I would waste a lot of time trawling through that list... Somebody should make a directory of directories lol!

If the free directories have good PR, which will make a nice effort on your website.
But most free directories only have lower PR, which will only make little effect.
If you have time , you can make some try, they will make some sense after all.
If your time is precious, then buy some links from high PR website or paid directories.

Having as many link backs as possible is worth the effort in the long run. Anyways, these are free directories. I does help in building your PR

Actually i think free link directories do matter. Sure quality backlinks are what your after, however sometimes numbers help out quite a bit, especially if google is trying to decide whether or not to give you that extra number on your page rank. Sure it shouldnt be your only source of backlinks....but there are tons of ways to get backlinks on quality sites with hardcore page rank. ::COUGH:: Digg ::COUGH::

You can also use the tool to predict the future page rank of a directory at iwebtool, to see if it'll be worth submitting in the future.

Yep, that is true! They have a lot of cool tools that can be used!

I like the free directories that don't require a linkback or any personal information. Like DMOZ, but they kinda suck now...

J-G-Ju;221403 wrote: Hi,

I'm kind of new to all this SEO stuff. I been submitting my site to free directories and some did give me result in terms of search engine crawling my site but I don't really get any hits from the directories.

My question is, is submitting your site to free directories worth the effort?

Sometimes, they can help index your site, as well as the traffic you can get from the site.

This is not really true. Search engines look at links generally - doesn't matter if they come from a directory or not, or which directory (although DMOZ could have received some weight in google in the past).

It is also the case that a lot of directories were devalued or dropped altogether in Google last fall. Many of these links don't have much value. This also puts into question the long term value of directory links. If you know that Google already dropped a lot of directories, there's a good chance they will filter out others in the future.

If you're considering a particular directory, check to see how its listing pages rank for related keyword searches. If they're not ranking then it's probably not worth bothering with a listing.

Of course, there is a huge difference between quality directories and many of the free directories that are out there. A human edited directory that is fussy about what it accepts is probably worth getting into. See the SEOmoz posts on the topic for more info.

But that would take some work, and effort to create quality content that is worthy of the directory. Seems like people are more interested in the easy route. Quantity over quality could work to some extent but it takes a lot of time and the results are often short term.

I think it's a good idea to post to new directories. As you say, there is less competition. But also, you may be "getting in on the ground floor" of a directory that may accumulate very high PR and/or traffic over time.

I'm happy to be corrected on this, since I'm not expert on seo, etc. But it seems likely to me that if you post to a wide variety of free, new directories a certain percentage are sure to grow into top quality directories (and start charging, too!).

If you're there from the start, you will reap those rewards in time. (Sure, submitting to the others wasn't worth it, but as with so much to do with marketing, it's ultimately a "number's game".)

Google does look at your link profile broadly, so the ideal is to have a variety of types of links from a variety of types of sites. Being in 20 low quality directories is as good as being in 100. There's no point - there are lots of better things you could be spending your time on. Why spend your time on something that doesn't matter when you could be working on things that do?

Another thing to keep in mind is that Google looks at how your link profile develops over time. So spread your submissions out over a few months so it looks more natural.