I’ve never placed much value on submitting websites to online directories to improve SEO. I just can’t see why Google would be interested in a pile of links all grouped together in a neat list.
Even if the best directories can offer a tiny improvement in SEO, couldn’t the time spent submitting to them be better invested somewhere else and with greater benefit?
That being said, there are many SEOs that use directories and believe they can give your website a reasonable boost. I read a post yesterday on the Search Engine People website titled Top 25 Most Powerful Web Directories. It certainly made interesting reading, not least because of the positive response the article received. If you want to submit your website to paid directories, then I’d definitely recommend checking out that list as Paul Teitelman who compiled it seems to know what he’s talking about.
It seems that most people tend to agree that the free web directories offer very little value, so you’re going to have to pay if you want your link to appear in the worthwhile directories. This leads me on to my next point:
Is paying for a link in a directory good SEO?
Probably not in my opinion. Surely Google will eventually sniff these directories out one by one (even if they have to do it manually) and whose to say they won’t penalize sites that appear in them. For a small short term boost, I don’t think I would take the long term risk.
For the moment at least I think I’ll stick with other link building techniques such as article submission, social media and the mother of all tools for generating links – good content.
Anyone who has experience with directories, please feel free to leave your comments about your experiences.