Are links from directories good or bad?

[TylerReardon]

I've done a lot of competitive link analysis lately and found that a lot of my competitors links for a certain keyword are coming from low quality directory sites and they're outranking my site.

This leads me to my question which may or may not have an answer(I at least hope it fuels a good discussion)...

Are links from directory sites good or bad for SEO?

[MarieHaynes]

When I'm deciding on submitting to directories I ask myself one of the questions from the quality guidelines: would I be doing this if search engines didn't exist?

I submit my sites to local directories that make sense for the site and could drive traffic.  I completely avoid directories that are made for SEO purposes.

I'm also careful not to overdo it.  Anything done in excess can cause Google to look on your linkbuilding with suspicion.  I also avoid using keyword anchor text and prefer to link from directories using my url.

[TylerReardon]

Marie,

I completely agree with you for long term SEO purposes. But contrary to this, I performed a test where I worked with a highly competitive keyword creating links exclusively from link directories and the word currently ranks #1 on Google and Bing. (It's a keyword for a type of vacuum parts that outranks all of our competitors and the manufacturer's website!)

So does this mean that contrary to what experts say and what Google has told us, link directories can be effective for link building?

Also I might add that this keyword has been ranking number 1 for 8 months now.

[MarieHaynes]

Interesting!  I have a few thoughts.

A recent unnatural links recovery client of mine got their warning mostly because of directory links.  The quality guidelines, under "link schemes" tells us to avoid "Low-quality directory or bookmark site links".  The question is, however, what is "low quality"?  If you feel that you are ranking because of links from directories created just for SEO purposes I would guess that this ranking will eventually die and could even be penalized.

I have a theory that Google created the disavow tool to help them find all of the low quality pages and devalue them, or even worse, penalize sites that have used them.  My thought is that if a large number of sites choose to disavow www.exampledirectory.com then Google takes a look at that site and determines whether it is a site made just to boost the PR of other sites.  If so, then they likely deindex it.  A few months ago Google deindexed a pile of directories, but there are LOTS of them out there that, in my opinion will soon be gone.

Personally, I wouldn't risk a client's site on this tactic unless they had full knowledge of the potential risk involved.

[TylerReardon]

Thank you Marie for the insight! I think you've led me to a better understanding of this!

[TylerReardon]

Thank you Marie for the insight! I think you've led me to a better understanding of this!