What to look for in paid directories

[Ron10]

I was looking through some of the directories in the seomoz directory list and a lot of them are paid directories.  What should i be looking for to decide if these directories are worth paying for a link?  obviously if the page my link is listed on is in fact indexed by google. What about the following questions:

1.  what about page rank of the page that it's on?  Does that matter? i've heard that one page rank 5 link carries the weight of hundreds of page rank zero links. Is this true?

2. What does it mean if the page rank is unranked? Is it worth paying for a link if the page is old and is unranked?

3.  i read in an SEO forum that there are many other things i should look at in a directory besides page rank. Obviously traffic is one but what about other not so obvious things?

4.  How many directory links at one time is too many? how many is too many over a long period of time?

THanks in advance for your help Mozzers!

Ron10

[NakulGoyal]

Great questions. Let me try and answer them in the sequence you asked.

1. Don't worry about the PR. Consider PR for entertainment. Although PR does give you a "brief" idea on the quality of the directory, as to how many quality links does this directory have to itself. Again, don't look at just the PR.

2. Yes, all links are good links. It does not matter if it's unranked, because it might be indexed tomorrow. That's fine. If this is the case, I would look for PR on the homepage and PR on some inner-pages (atleast).

3. Look for how strong the directory is in terms of backlinks to itself. Are very related sites listed in the directory ?

4. That actually depends on your current backlink profile ? Do you have atleast 500 non-directory links to your website already ? Are a majority of those from Blog Comments/Article Directories/PR Submissions etc kind of link techniques ? If yes, I would not do the Directory submissions and concentrate on some natural link building techniques ? Can you create some content that could go viral ? If you decide to do that, don't expect success in the 1st try. Just keep doing it.

Overall, whether to do directory links or not, depends on how your existing link profile looks like. If it's mostly natural links, do a bunch of directory links every once in a while.

Also, I would recommend finding niche directories pertaining to your industry and see if you can get yourself listed there before the "general" internet directories. I hope this helps.

[KaneJamison]

If it's included in the SEOMoz directory list, and if it's relevant to your site, then it's a quality site.

The second questions becomes, which of those is the most valuable, and how much is it worth?

The first part is relatively easy - look at the Domain Authority and then the Page Authority of the most likely page that you'd be on. Rank them high to low. Don't worry about Pagerank, it's infrequently updated and somewhat unreliable. Get the SEOMoz toolbar and focus on those metrics.

Value is also going to be related to content of the directory. Big wide open directories like DMOZ and Yahoo Directory aren't really used by actual people, they're just quality links. On the other hand, vertical niche directories are often great sources of traffic, and they're highly relevant links. Domain quality metrics like PA/DA might not be as high, but that's OK, the value goes beyond PA/DA.

So, how much is it worth? That's probably going to tie in to your budget. When I see high value directories (in terms of traffic or link metrics) that only cost $20-50 as a one time fee, there's a decent chance I'll jump on it. If it's a recurring annual fee, my best recommendation is to gauge the value based upon potential traffic, and try to ignore the link metrics. If you think it's worth it for the traffic alone, then try it out for a year or whatever the minimum time period is.

As far as number of directory links, just spread it out amongst your other link building. Spend more time producing content than you do link building, and you'll be OK.

[RyanKent]

**What should i be looking for to decide if these directories are worth paying for a link? **

Be very careful to ensure the directory does not violate Google's Guidelines. In my experience, most paid directory listings have no value whatsoever, and may actually harm your site. A few examples of requirements for a paid directory link:

• the link fee must be for an evaluation of the site, not for the link itself. In other words, any site which offers any form of guarantee to be included in the directory is violating search engine guidelines. It is highly likely Bing and Google have devalued all links from the site. This can be confusing because the site may retain its own PR, but the outgoing links are devalued.

• the link fee must be non-refundable. If the fee is "guaranteed inclusion or your money back" then the directory violates guidelines.

• the site must offer solid selection criteria. The idea is the directory separates "good" sites from "bad" sites. One example would be the Better Business Bureau directory which sets standards for membership.

There are numerous articles which cover this topic in detail. A helpful link from Matt Cutts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rKUlVquEImc

what about page rank of the page that it's on?  Does that matter?

Sure it matters. Understand when you refer to PR you can only see "toolbar PR" which is often months old. There are directories which manipulate a page's PR, then as soon as Google updates the toolbar PR the directory makes changes and the PR is then worthless, but they will earn revenue for months based on the falsely assigned PR value.

For this questions and your others questions, there is an excellent detailed discussion you may find helpful: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-link-based-spam-analysis-techniques

** i've heard that one page rank 5 link carries the weight of hundreds of page rank zero links. Is this true?**

PR is assigned on an algorithmic scale. Yes, higher PR is worth significantly more then a similar page with lower PR value. There are many factors which affect a links value including the position on a page (header vs footer vs content), whether the link is "above the fold", uses anchor text, etc.

What does it mean if the page rank is unranked? Is it worth paying for a link if the page is old and is unranked?

The term "unranked" may have various meanings depending on the tool you are using. It could be a new page which has never earned a rank, or it could be a penalized page. If you earn a link on a quality new page, then it may already have earned a decent PR ranking but it is only visible to Google.

I read in an SEO forum that there are many other things i should look at in a directory besides page rank. Obviously traffic is one but what about other not so obvious things?

The most important consideration is whether the directory is useful. Will anyone actually go to this directory, perform a search and then find your site as a result. The second most important consideration is whether the directory is 100% legitimate. In other words, do the links offered pass value. You may disagree with the order of these two criteria, but either way they should be your focus.

How many directory links at one time is too many? how many is too many over a long period of time?

This is a judgement call and opinions will vary. I find there are very few directories of a general nature which offer any value. My preference is to add one general directory link per month until the quality directories are used. The total directory links to your site should be a very small (less then 10%) of links to your site in my opinion. Many SEOs use a higher percentage, a practice with which I disagree.

[RobertFisher]

Here is what I would suggest: David Zimm did a post about a month ago on SEOmoz around using Blekko to discover the value of directories. Given you are willing to pay for these, it would be worth reading and understanding then going to Blekko to test it out.

As to just generally sending money to a bunch of web directories I don't suggest it. With clients who I want fast credibility of links, etc. I always suggest things like Yahoo Directory as you know what you get with the $299. Another if you are doing this around retail, etc. is BBB. You pay for membership, but the link is worth it if you are an accredited business.

As to paying for old, unranked pages, I would not but that does not mean they are without any value. I just don't see the point. Remember, the algorithm is a math equation, if you are putting something in as a variable that is extremely minute, the end effect will be minuscule. So, to impact it you need something big. I do not see a point in buying 200 zero level links, but that is me.

As to what to look for in a directory, I would say look here for the list of directories suggested by moz

I would say you don't want all directory links so spread the wealth. Some blogs, similar business or vertical notations, etc. and directories.

Hope it helps.

[McTaggart]

It's a difficult one. I mean, my site (a restaurant/bar) gets a large proportion of its traffic from relevant directories. Actually, 40% of the backlinks to my site are from (mainly) relevant directories. Will it incur penalty? Well, most links to the site are non-directory backlinks, so I think you have to maintain a mix.

[KaneJamison]

Luke makes a good point. In certain industries (vacation rentals comes to mind) almost all referral traffic will come from paid directories. In this industry, the big companies will spend 200-500 per years on sites like VRBO and Tripadvisor because it absolutely makes financial sense to do so, regardless of any SEO benefits.

In other words, don't let link metrics get in the way of making a good business decision.

[KeriMorgret]

When the new SEOmoz list of directories came out, Cyrus did a post about best practices when building links for directories. You might want to check it out at http://www.seomoz.org/blog/seo-link-directory-best-practices.