Directories

[SussexChef83]

Hi

The former owner of One of our competitors ( www.gastrocatering.com ) gave my some insight into  how he got his site up in the rankings.

He said he got his site listed on 100s of directories

had bloggers Wright about him.

Gastro catering ranks highly for almost every key word we want

I used the moz tools to see where his links came from,

Should I copy what he did? I read a lot of posts that lead me to the conclusion I shouldn't, but he ranks #1 for so many desirable keywords.

What are your thoughts on this please?

All the best

Ben

[aap82]

I thought that being listed in directories wasn't recommended anymore...

[SussexChef83]

Yes, my point exactly

But then again, could he just be the best of a bad bunch? looking around none of our competitors seem to have shareable interesting content.

I'm thinking if we pay for some blog posts from recognised industry leaders such as wedding magazines and create a lot of interesting content and perhaps a free to use tool that helps with wedding catering planning, should this out shine the competitor thats just got a lot of links going for it?

[RyanPurkey]

Hi Ben. Ideally you'll want to get your links from a source that could also provide referral traffic as well, so if it's a directory that looks useful to several local businesses or specific topics, great! Same goes for a blogger that seems to be getting comments and some level of interaction on their site, excellent!  In addition you'll probably find new ways of networking that older sites didn't do well early on and could target those. Working on developing the PR side of the business will go a long ways too as you'll be building relationships with people that make content on the web.  Look into researching sites in other areas or other types of food service, maybe places that are highly competitive, to get an even broader idea of tactics.

What's hard to tell in just looking at the numbers is how many of those old links that seem somewhat spammy have been discounted anyways a while ago.  Cheers!

[TheeDigital]

Technically most NAP (name, address, phone#) listing sites are directories such as yelp, yellowpages, etc. There are also usually industry specific directories which should be fine to submit to as well, such as AVVO for lawyers or healthgrades for medical professionals. After that is where it gets iffy, some sites like BOTW, DMOZ, joeant are still considered quality by most, but there are hundreds of thousands of other directories where submitting may get you in trouble.

[SussexChef83]

Thanks again Ryan!

I really appreciate it I never even thought to check the amount of comments. So many of the sites that claim to have high volume don't allow comments. such an easy way to check how their site fares.

any other tips for choosing? I was thinking an easy way to get links are to mention equipment that we use so surpliers will link to us, but they won't really influence customers,

Ben

[aap82]

I would like to believe it would.

[SussexChef83]

excellent thank you. I have submitted to the big boys and will leave it at that I think.

[aap82]

so the point is: quality better then quantity

[RyanPurkey]

Right, as was said a little earlier in this thread, "quality over quantity". Getting a write up in a local paper or being listed on the directory of a local township site are all great signals that you're legitimate and doing the thing you say you do.

Don't ignore advertising either. As Rand mentions in the latest Whiteboard Friday, "advertising can show returns in many organic channels, including SEO." http://moz.com/blog/advertisement-investments-organic-roi-whiteboard-friday.  Cheers!