Is it good practice to still pay for Best of the Web Directory (BOTW) and other similar one's you have to pay for?

[RoxBrock]

I know that paid for links are hit by Google, but in the past these directories were okay. What about now?

Thank you.

[arjen.koedam]

My advice will be to only pay for directory links that drive enough traffic to your website directly to get a proper ROI.
If you pay for a directory link only to gain position in the SERPs you will most probably not get any ROI.
If you get the link from a directory Google does not like because it is known to be selling links it could even hurt your rankings.

In short: Paid directory links are not good for SEO.

[danatanseo]

Hi,

Well in general I agree with Arjan, I am strongly of the opinion that some directories are still VERY worthwhile, and BOTW is one of them. When you are launching a brand new site, you just aren't going to have a lot of attention and inbound lin opportunities at first. Submitting your site to DMOZ (which is free), Yahoo.dir (Paid), Business.com (Paid), JoeAnt.com (Paid) and yes, BOTW (Paid) are all most definitely worthwhile. IMHO they send a signal to the search engines that you are a legitimate business. That's a very important message to send when you are a startup.

In addition to those I think there are some others that are worth it as well, depending on your particular business, particularly localized directories and directories targeting certain niche markets.

Hope that's helpful!

Dana

[EvadoMedia]

There are exceptions to the "paid for" link rule and I believe this site is one of them as they qualify there links! However whether you'll get ROI from it is another question!

[DustChasersToronto]

"If you pay for a directory link only to gain position in the SERPs you will most probably not get any ROI"

Meaning if you are on the first page there won`t be ROI? I dont think so!