Is That Directory Worth Submitting To?

It was interesting to see the number of questions that came in through comments and email after I ran the post below (Directory Submission Discount Codes) asking if Directories were still a viable link source.

If you follow this blog you know I think they have a place in your overall link building efforts but shouldn't be done as a stand-alone tactic. I consider them part of your foundational linking efforts and not your ranking salvation.

In my opinion, there are a lot of free and paid directories that are worthless for various reasons. Here's the short litmus test I use when trying to decide if a Directory is worth my time or money:

1. Is the directory page your link will sit on in the index of G and Y?

If the page your URL will be added to doesn't show up in the index, then it does you no good ranking wise. Then you have to decide if the traffic alone is worth it.

2. When was the page last cached?

If more than a couple weeks, you need to check for exclusions and nofollows. Or ask why. Or just move along.

3. Does the page have more adsense ads than submissions on it?

This is a particular pet peeve of mine. I don't think I need to compete with adsense ads when paying for a listing. If there's as many ads as submissions, I walk.

4. Does the directory allow you to deep link?

Linking to your main dot com is good, deep linking is better.

5. Does the directory allow you to use your own Title?

It's more advantageous for me to use "Link Building Firm" than Alliance-Link in my submission Title if I'm linking for rank. On the other hand, a handful of links with my company name doesn't hurt either.

6. Does the directory offer a lifetime link?

This is personal preference but - pay it once, be done with it, move on. If you go the annual route you may be asked to pay more the next year. My exception to my lazy-pay-it-once rule is Business.com

7. Is the directory listed in the Google Directory and/or the DMOZ?

The answer to that one should be self explanatory :)

http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Searching/Directories/
http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Searching/Directories/

If you spend a little time poking around all the Directory categories on the DMOZ you'll find a bunch of juicy little aged directory nuggets to add your site to, buy mailing lists from or strike up a promotional advertising deal. Use them for all they're worth!

Directory Savings - BOTW & Aviva

Our friends at Best Of The Web are offering a promotion code for discounted submissions to their Directory now through the end of the month. Here's the details:

Throughout the year, we like to provide our valued members with savings on additional BOTW listings. It's been a while since our last promotion, so this month we offer you the opportunity to save big. From now until the end of March, you can SAVE 25% on All NEW Submissions and Sponsorship Advertising in the Best of the Web Directory and BOTW Blog Directory.

When prompted, enter the following Promo Code: SAVEBIG

Be sure to enter the Promo Code: "SAVEBIG" during the sign up process and you will instantly save 25% on new directory submissions as well as sponsorship advertising products.

The promo code may be used multiple times for multiple products and services during the month of March. Remember - the code will expire on March 31, 2008 so be sure to take advantage of the 25% discount before it's too late!

If you've bee thinking about submitting your site to BOTW, now's the time!

ADDED:

An email came in from Jeff at the Aviva Directory with a discount special of their own, here's what they're offering:

Aviva Directory has just turned 3 years old. We could not have made it this far without your valuable support. To thank you, we are offering all clients a third birthday special of$20 off all new submissions - both regular and featured.

To take advantage of this special offer, simply enter the following coupon code into the coupon field when submitting: birthday3

You can use this code for multiple submissions.This offer will expire at the end of March - on March 31, 2008. So, hurry and take advantage of it before the special ends. We look forward to many more birthdays in the future, and continuing to provide you with a top quality web directory.

Any other directories out there want to add a discount code? Bring.it.on!

Dude, Where's My Leap Link?

Hey there, hope all is well out in linkland. I have a couple things to share:

If you've been thinking about doing SES New York, here's a priority code for a 20% discount when you register: 20SPKRGUST. Be sure to stop by the linking session on Wednesday, March 19 and say hello, I'll be there talking about links again.

Good news! The Aviva Directory is back in Google's index with a new and "improved" outlook on link life. Jeff wrote an awesome post on what happened and how they changed what they were doing to get back in Google's good graces. You'll find the whole post here on the Aviva blog. Thanks for sharing what you learned and here's to living in the green from here on out!

Two more things and both are from Search Engine Roundtable.

If you didn't make it to SMX, here's the week's recaps minus the one I'm supposed to be doing on the Linking Basics session. Pretty sad when you have to cover your own session 'cuz none of your cohorts thinks it's sexy enough.

Oh well, note to self: next time we do a Linking Basic's panel...pack push-up bra and convince Eric to show some chest hair.

The other thing from SERoundtable is a post about how paid links can hurt you. Yep, you read that right, seems there's been chatter about how your competitors really can slap you into the penalty box. We'll see. People also go on and on about how funneling PageRank is the next coming and duplicate content means the end of search life as we know it. Hmmm.

Our friend Matt McGee has a great post on the new Yelp/Yahoo! relationship:

At the bottom of every business profile page on Yelp, right next to the “Write a Review” button, there are now links to view the appropriate category results page on Yahoo Local. And even better, those are followed links with terrific keyword usage in the anchor text.

Smart move Yahoo!, that Yelp is a keeper and you got there first, nice.

During the Link Building Basics session at SMX I had a slide in my tactics section that said this:

• Ask your customers to write reviews on Yahoo! Local and Yelp.

Especially now with what you know about Yahoo! and Yelp, it may be a very good time to develop some sort of incentivized review program with your customers. Or at the very least, point them to both Yelp and Yahoo! and encourage them to add a review.

This will put some pressure on customer service departments which is a good thing, with people using the review sites and the results surfacing across the Web, companies will have to be at the top of their game or suffer humiliation and loss of sales. Which can be good and bad I guess... this has the potential to affect small business when it's really the big guys that need the kick.

Hmmm (a lot of humming tonight) I wonder if my suggestion to encourage people to review could be seen as spamming. Could be I guess, since Yelp is considered one of those social media sites.

On the other hand, I'm really not sure why, is encouraging people to leave a review on Yelp any different than offering a discount on the back of a printed receipt? You've seen those - call a 800 number, take a survey and you get a discount code for a future purchase. Maybe it's the paper that makes it all public relations instead of spamming.

Who knows. Ok enough from me, have a great weekend. :)

Ugly Sites Won't Get A Link

Are people always complimenting you on the design of your site? Do they say things like "wow that's pretty"?

Do you get email after email from perfect strangers asking who your designer was?

Does your site use CSS?

If you answered yes to all of the above, you may be eligible for a link from any one of these 50 CSS design galleries...

From: http://www.talkdirectories.com/link-building/673-got-good-looking-website-get-free-backlinks-link-building-method.html

There's 50 sites/galleries listed so if you're pretty and use CSS and don't mind a little elbow grease linking, submit your site. Just remember, ugly ducks need not apply. :)

Added 2/18/08:

Wiep just IM'ed and pointed out this list of CSS sites was originally posted on YouMoz last year. I picked it up from TalkDirectories, note the post was made there 2/8/08. Just an FYI that it's been done before and was originally posted on YouMoz.

Hi I'm Debra And I'm A Directory Addict.

I've been wanting to do a post about directories for a while since they've been in the SEO news lately, had thought to post after the flap last month but decided to wait until the firestorm settled. I dislike knee jerk reactions and didn’t want to add to an already over saturated conversation.

But since the statute of limitations has run out on the topic of directories and with last week's PageRank debacle I thought hmmm... might be a good time to talk about directories still being a viable link source. Of course this will have to get through the current PageRank debates but I suspect enough of us are already tired of that one and will welcome reading about something different.

Directories are like any other business; some are well run and provide a good service while others don’t. My purpose for this post isn’t to point out the less-than-stellar general directories but to showcase directories I consider to be solid and explain why they’re still a viable option for link building. To do that, let’s step back a bit…..

In February of 1994, two Stanford University students started organizing lists of their favorite links to a website they called “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web” . David Filo and Jerry Yang kept adding sites and pretty soon their lists had to be divided into categories and eventually sub categories to stay organized. The site was a hit both on campus and off and in the fall of 1994 the collection of links had a million hit day and almost 100 thousand unique visitors. From that, the Yahoo! Directory was born and so started the boom of commercial human-reviewed directories on the Internet.

Since then a lot of directories have come and gone but their main purpose of providing reviewed resources in a categorized fashion remains. They run the gambit from being personal to institutional lists of sites categorized by human subject experts. Most are commercial, a handful like the DMOZ are not. Websites submitted are placed in one or more categories based on their associated relevance and are usually divided into subject and geographical hierarchies. (I say "usually" because not all directories have geographical categories).

Submitted sites are allowed to provide a business description and in most cases, hyperlinked text. The single thread of commonality all directories share is this human review system. Spiders create databases, humans - directories.

In the early days of the Web/Net, directory editors went out looking to add great sites as a way to attract attention and a search following. It was a tremendous amount of work (and continues to be), but a popular way to search at the time. Gradually engines became more sophisticated and with the millions of sites coming online, the task of hand adding sites became almost impossible. Now, directory owners have to pay staffs to keep updating their properties and charge for submission as a way to cover payroll. Does paying to be listed somehow negate their purpose and objectivity?

I don’t think so. And apparantely neither does Google representative Matt Cutts:

I’ll try to give a few rules of thumb to think about when looking at a directory. When considering submitting to a directory, I’d ask questions like:- Does the directory reject urls? If every url passes a review, the directory gets closer to just a list of links or a free-for-all link site.- What is the quality of urls in the directory? Suppose a site rejects 25% of submissions, but the urls that are accepted/listed are still quite low-quality or spammy. That doesn’t speak well to the quality of the directory.- If there is a fee, what’s the purpose of the fee? For a high-quality directory, the fee is primarily for the time/effort for someone to do a genuine evaluation of a url or site.

I recently made this comment and feel it sums up why you should continue to submit to directories:

The concept of merit based inclusion is what makes securing links in the better directories desirable. It’s reasoned that search engines bestow hub authority on these sites because human review is necessary before a site is included. And since human review is part of the co citation process search engines are programmed to reward, it stands to reason these types of sites would pass link popularity.

I've publically said I thought there were about 25 or so general directories worth submitting to and with the exception of my friends at Aviva , they're all still online and kicking up some green. (Meaning money not PageRank, although some would argue it's one and the same. Hey, it's Halloween, so I'm in the spirit and stirring the pot baby ;)

It would be naive to say everyone in the directory business is in it to make the world a better place, clearly a number of directories have come on board as money and/or network makers. I've listed my "stay-away-from" points several times in detail but the main point I look for is:

If the directory hosts as many Adsense ads (or close) on sub-category pages, then I say pass. Adsense detracts from your submission.

I'm only talking about general directories here, there are tons of niche, geographical, RSS, blog, podcast, video, how-to, etc type directories available to anyone who goes looking. I like the ISEDB for niche directories, and Master New Media for the others. (just search on "directories" on the home page).

Here's a portion of the list I generally use. Those sites with stars next to them are directories that have kindly offered to give us a discount code on submission:

GoGuides.org

JoeAnt.com

Best Of The Web (BOTW)*

DMOZ

Ezilon - USA *

Ezilon - UK/Europe*

eWilla*

Massive Links *

Aviva *

Abilogic

Rubberstamped *

WebXperience *

Yeandi

Incrawler

Web World Index

Browse8

Site-Sift *

Web-Beacon

SBDPro

AbleSeek

Webotopia *

Site Snoop

Permanent Listings

I'm sure I've left someone off but this is only a 30 mintue show so I'm stopping here. Submitting to directories is still a solid, basic foundational linking tactic that offers you a way to get started using reputable companies to secure links from. Will it net you tons of PageRank, traffic or glory within the search results? Of course not, but every site has to start somewhere so start with the directories.

Want to get started on a directory submission service and save a little dough in the process? Here's the list of directories that extended a promotion code or other special discounts to you loyal readers of the Link Spiel. I've copied and pasted their responses below. If you have a question please contact them directly.

Directory Discount Submission Codes/Offers:

BOTW - For a limited time only, BOTW is pleased to offer all Link Spiel readers an exclusive 20% discount on BOTW Directory submissions. That’s right! SAVE 20% on All NEW Directory Submissions in the Best of the Web Directory and BOTW Blog Directory from now until the end of November 2007. The promo code may be used multiple times for multiple site submissions during the month of November 2007. Remember - the code will expire on November 30, 2007 so be sure to take advantage of the 20% discount before it's too late!” Promo Code: LINKSPIEL

Ezilon - Offering 20% off their regular submission price of $69 now through the end of November. (2007)


Rubberstamped - Offering a buy one get one free deal through November 15, 2007. Submit and pay for first submission. In the comments box on the PayPal form,add the code "Dm-promotion" and make a note of the two URLs you aresubmitting. Then, submit the second URL to the directory as normal, but skip the PayPal stage. Any problems or queries, email editors@rubberstamped.org.

eWilla - Special offer from The Link Spiel: receive $5 off your standard listingsubmission at eWilla.com. Use the term LINKSPIEL with your submission. Limit of one $5-off offer per customer. Expires November 30th.

Aviva Directory - Promotion code is: Debra (note - it's case sensitive).The code is good for $20 off a submission until the end of November.

Massive Links - Offering a 25% discount for all Link Spiel readers for unlimited number of sites until November 30, 2007. When submitting your site place this code: DEBRA-M at the end of the description of your site when filling out the form and make the full payment. When we process the submission we’ll refund 25% of your payment. If you have any questions please contact us using this form http://www.massivelinks.com/contact/ or contact us by phone. The number is on the contact form. You can view the different listings available here http://www.massivelinks.com/cgi-bin//addurl.cgi

LIMITED TIME FREEBIES ***********************

The first 5 people submitting comments on the Link Spiel with their name and email address and the phrase "hey Deb I want the freebie" will be given a free submission to the following directories: THIS PROMOTION HAS CLOSED.

Site-Sift and WebXperience and Webotopia

(Offer limited to first five non-spam replies in comments on the Link Spiel.) All five have been claimed.

Ok so that's it for today. It's been a rough Monday, I started the day badly when I realized I had sent Chris (Sherman) my rough draft for Search Engine Land's Link Week instead of the final post. Didn't seem to matter because Eric Lander (thanks BTW:) sphunn it and it went HOT without ANY BEGGING. ;)

So if you have a second, please head back to SEL and re-read my Link Week post, I promise it will make more sense.