Which directories to use?

[blablabla2013]

I've recently has a conversation with a colleague regarding which directories to use when link building. In her opinion we should use only the ones that are relevant and nothing else. For example if you're working on a travel website, you should only submit either to travel directories or local directories (based on the business location). In my opinion yes we should submit to these directories but then you'll reach a limit and then you need to submit to general directories that have the "travel" category, even if the business is in NY and the directory is in India, as long as it is a good directory and has the relevant category.

What is your opinion about this?

[TomRayner]

My advice would be not to use any directories at all.

Directories offer very little user value (no real web user uses directories any more - at a push they use very local ones) and consequently they offer very little SEO value.  What I have seen consistently since the turn of the year are links coming from directories being completely devalued.  It has been a common theme in the Moz forums that people experience ranking drops for homepage keywords, with no apparent penalty.  A look at their link profile shows that the majority of their links are coming from directories, pointing to the homepage.  They're low quality links and Google has been quite proactive in devaluing directory links on the fly every month or so.

There are infinitely better ways to earn high quality links to your website.  Don't bother wasting your time and money with directories and focus your efforts elsewhere.  Start creating content that is going to accrue high quality links over a sustained period of time.

[blablabla2013]

Thank you but this client really wants directory submission so I have no chance. Can you please answer my question? Thank you.

[TomRayner]

Who's the SEO consultant here? You or the client? If they won't listen to your recommendations and want to rely on crap tactics, let them get on with it themselves.

If you must use directories, I would do as your colleague says and only use industry specific ones, or location specific ones.  General directories are not only link-farms but they will not be able to pass on strength to your website due to indexing issues.

Check out the SEOMoz Directories list for some of the 'better' ones out there.

[blablabla2013]

The problem is not the client, but the marketing agency I work for. They do link submission to directories and if I want to work there, I have to do it too. I'll have a look in to that list, thank you.

[donford]

I agree with most of what Tom pointed out.

Directories in general are outdated and not  many people use them. Thus they have no value and rightly so.

However, this is not true for every industry. There are some animals out there for some industries like ThomasNet (Paid), Designt2Part (Paid), Eng-Tips, Efunda, are all good for manufactures and engineering. The difference here is these sites actually add value to users looking for companies and services.

Additionally, DMOZ.org still seems worth while getting but I wouldn't fret if they don't add you.

Hope that helps

[joebuilder]

The link is dead, it goes here http://www.whitelistproject.com/