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SEO Expert
If you want your website to do well in SERPs, you need to build lots of backlinks to your website. One simple SEO tip for building links is to submit your site details to web directories. Web directories are a bit like online versions of a telephone book. Hundreds or thousands of sites are listed together with a short description of the website and a link to the site. Unlike most other types of website, directories actually WANT to give out links. There are thousands of directories available, so with a bit of persistence - either using manual submission or using a directory submission tool - you can build up hundreds of backlinks.
SEO isn’t as simple as submitting your site to thousands of directories though. The vast majority of directories will only give you a weak backlink and in a lot of cases, the web page your link appears on may be completely ignored by search engines like Google.
Over the past 3 or 4 years, Google has realised that people were building huge numbers of links through directory submission and has devalued the worth of directory links. It’s quite common to find directories that have a decent homepage PageRank of 3 or more but all their inner pages have a PR of N/A. A PageRank of N/A means that the links on the inner pages are pretty much worthless. This doesn’t mean though that all directory links are bad. If you have your site in Google Webmasters and Google shows the link from the directory in the External Links section, it means you get some benefit from the link even if it’s small. I know that for some of my sites in Google Webmasters shows a few hundred directory backlinks.
Here are 4 directory submission tips:
What sort of directories should you submit to?
Well, the usual advice is to submit to directories with high PR. However, for the reasons given above, just because a directory has a homepage PR of 4 or 5 doesn’t mean that the inner pages have any link juice to pass on.
Unless the directory is old and well-established, e.g. DMOZ or BOTW, you can’t be sure the homepage PR will stick for very long anyway. In some cases directories are put on dropped or recycled domains and usually, at the next PR update, the PR drops off.
Also, just because a directory is new, or has low PR today, doesn’t mean its PR won’t increase in the future. When people set up a new directory they often start out allowing free submissions or submission that don’t require a reciprocal link. So if a new directory appears make a submission before the directory goes paid or starts needing a reciprocal link before you get listed.
So my recommendation is that since directory submission is so easy, especially if you use a semi-automatic directory submitter, submit to as many as you can - new or old, high PR or low PR.
Do you get a benefit from being listed in major directories like BOTW?
As a SEO Expert Ahmedabad i have to say, in my experience the answer is no. I never saw any benefit from being listed in BOTW - either in ranking in SERPs or in traffic. I also never saw any decrease in rank or traffic from cancelling my listing in BOTW. I did save a few dollars though by cancelling my subscription.
Should you pay for submission?
Maybe, but not much. If you do pay for submission, make sure the page your site gets linked from will have a decent PR. You might pay for submission if you think the directory will give you lots of traffic even if the PR is N/A but you’ll never be able to tell how much traffic you’re going to get before you pay. In the past couple of years, I’ve received no more than a handful of referrals from directories. Remember also, that even if the page your link is on has a PR today, Google might come along and drop it to N/A in the next few months.
Should you give a directory a reciprocal link?
No. Reciprocal links are a bit devalued anyway. The whole idea of directory submission (and SEO) is to get a one way link to your website. Giving a link in return defeats the purpose of doing directory submission.
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