Are Directories Good Links?

[AppleCapitalGroup]

Are directories like yexts listings are good links?

[Copstead]

What is yexts listings?

It all depends on the directory.  Some are good, some are bad.

I would probably not focus too much on directories but more importantly on related sites or blogs.

[SlavaRybalka]

Yes, both website directories and business listing directories are good links. Just watch for the following when you build links like that:

• the quality of the neighbourhood (links to viagra, casino, porn sites)
• the Domain Authority of the directory
• are the links dofollow or nofollow

If the directory doesn't provide a link back to your site but only your physical address, that is still good, because with the introduction of schema.org and HTML5 tags showing the search engines what is the address and what is the brand name of the company; sooner or later Google will be precisely identifying your business address and your Google Places listing will benefit from it.

[SlavaRybalka]

I still tend to believe the thesis that the more different your link profile, the better. Social signals, directories, guest blog posts, random blog comments, some bookmarks, some profiles, web 2.0 posts, articles, links from high authority sites - everything counts.

[Mrupp44]

Excellent points already mentioned. Some directories are good and some are bad. Finding a forum / blog where your client can interact and share with others in the same industry is always great to find - if they get a backlink to their site of course. The important thing is that they bring value to the group and not approach it as a way to benefit themselves. (but it will happen).  Good luck!

[MarieHaynes]

These may help:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-makes-a-good-web-directory-and-why-google-penalized-dozens-of-bad-ones

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/seo-link-directory-best-practices

[AppleCapitalGroup]

Where can I find a forum for finance and business?

[KeriMorgret]

I'd suggest Google searches using your keywords plus words like forum or online community. Here's a small business finance forum at http://www.smallbusinessbrief.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=37 where you can see what kinds of questions people are asking. You can go in and provide some advice in answers, or even use the questions as ideas for your own blog post.

A note of caution is that the owner of that forum is a known and respected SEO and will easily see through any attempts at blatant link drops; it's not one to try to spam.