Moz recommends submitting to directories?

[Cyrus-Shepard]

I agree with Peter 100%. On the other hand, most people abuse directories and Google has devalued 95% of them.

For the minority that do it right, it's not such a problem. But we should probably take that off the list.

Thx!

[Oren.]

Great points above.

Keep in mind, some directories for some niches actually drive a decent amount of traffic.  These high quality directories are usually for a service that people don't commonly use, and likely don't have any in their personal offline network (such as lawyers).  Without knowing what you do I can't say if that's the right path for you, but if your industry has high quality directories that are specific to your niche, go ahead with it.

[Chris.Menke]

It's probably time to come up with a new name for worthwhile lists of sites within a target niche.  "Directories" just doesn't do it any more.

[DonnaDuncan]

For local SEO, it's good to get directory listings / citations. It serves to validate your business is where you say it is.

[DanielFreedman]

Yes, to all the above.

Like most things in life:

(1) The answer is "it all depends."

(2) Context is everything.

I have used a targeted and focused "directory" strategy  with great success in certain niches....

...but only in conjunction with other techniques: guest blogging, social media, frequent updates, etc...

Also: Whaddaya mean by directory? Different people have different ideas.

So blanket statements like "avoid directories' are off base. It would be better to say" "avoid crappy directories/"

You should also avoid crappy guest blogging and crappy content on your own site.

[TellThemEverything]

My 2c; I'm deleting all mine on BOTW now, even though I originally paid for a lifetime listing. It seemed such a good idea at the time.

Why am I deleting? Because Link Detox (for one) is now classifying BOTW as 'highly toxic'. I've come to agree with them. They are, at the end of the day, paid links.

Remember we were all told (and believed) that EzineArticles was the jewel in the crown of Article Directories. It hurt having to remove thousands of $$$ of articles from there last year. My tolerance for SEO BS has lowered in recent years - and I no longer do anything that isn't 'real' (and by that I mean a real person on the other end of the link)

[DonnaDuncan]

I'm curious to know if Moz concurs with your BOTW assessment James Shaw. They've assigned it a domain authority of 81.

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Currently, Moz doesn't take paid links into consideration when calculating it metrics.

Our team is working on a spam algorithm. Should be released in the next few months. That said,I imagine it will be better at detecting pure spam than what Google considers non-editorial paid links.

[TellThemEverything]

I expect some won't agree Donna. Trouble is, we're all guessing.. and we're guessing based on today's ideas. We've seen over the last 2-3 years just how quickly and radically the rules can change. Google has made it clear (I think) what they value. Links from real people writing content about you.

[DonnaDuncan]

Thank you both. I appreciate the feedback!