What are the best paid directories today?

[wissamdandan]

there is alot of good directories, please put in mind the more relevancy of the directory to more valuale it is for you

here is a couple:

• www.dirjournal.com
• Yahoo Directory
• Canny Link
• JoeAnt.com
• Ezilon
• Jayde
• Skaffe
• BOTW
• Aviva Directory

[BraveheartDesign]

Thanx fo the quick response. Do you know any directories in the sports niche or uk specific?

[wissamdandan]

here is a couple with a lil research:

• http://www.business-directory-uk.co.uk/sports.htm
• http://www.mysoccerlinks.com/
• http://www.londonmmxiiolympics.com/
• http://www.golfshack.net/

Cheers

[saibose]

David,

I do not see the benefit of paid directories for SEO. I would rather invest that amount towards testing out the efficacy of my target keywords through PPC.

[FrankWickers]

Hi David,

First of all you need to keep in mind that paid directories may be able to take your money, but they can never take YOUR FREEEDOOMMMMM!!!!!

Now that I've got that out of the way (and hopefully delivered a mild chuckle at least) on to the business at hand.

There is a fundamental problem with "paid" directories. That being they have 2 options when it comes to the links they provide from their directory listings. They either need to 'nofollow' the links to not have Google penalize them as a link buying service, or they need to hide the fact that they are indeed basically just a link buying service... otherwise Google will likely penalize them.

You need to look at a paid directory from Google's point of view. If the directory is openly advertising that you can pay them for inclusion, and thus get a link from their site for the money then Google has just about no choice but to flag the directory as a link buying service.

If the directory already links to your site for free as a service to their customers, Google can consider them a legitimate service and not penalize the directory. Many directories of course do this and then offer premium type services that business can pay for and not receive any Google penalty from (yelp and even the BBB being great examples). In this case, though, you're not really receiving any extra "link juice" for the service you're buying. You're usually just receiving extra visibility or an endorsement of some sort.

So in short, if you're trying to find a paid directory for the purposes of acquiring links I would strongly suggest you rethink your strategy. If you are, however, simply looking to "buy links" then disregard this advice.

EDIT - Something I realized I need to add. You stated you do recognize that BotW rarely shows up in back link reports. Site's such as BotW and others (JoeAnt and so on) I think don't pass much link juice through to websites from Google and Bing. The search engines recognize that these sites offer paid review services, and while it's certainly not like link buying because instead there are editors supposedly quality checking the URL's submitted, I would guess the search engines still do not pass full link value on to websites.

I could be very wrong of course - I've just never seen any noticeable impact from going through directories such as those.

[BraveheartDesign]

Not looking to buy links Frank. Looking to add links of quality. I know that BOTW or Yahoo directory are quality links, even tough they don't always show up in backlinks. Looking for similar directories

[FrankWickers]

I understand. In that case as I stated in my edit I don't think most of the "well known" directories of that sort have a whole lot of their link value passed through by Google. I would say the money could definitely be invested in another tactic that will provide a better ROI, but that is of course an opinion which could be incorrect.

[Everett]

Look for directories that have a review process and don't just let anyone in. You can tell if they have a good review process by looking at the other sites in the directory. If the directory lets crappy sites in and charges a fee for inclusion, it isn't going to be as valuable to you as a site that charges a fee for "review" and doesn't guarantee inclusion - especially if that site only includes high-quality websites. Many of the ones Wissam mentioned would fit that description and, IMHO, are worth submitting to.

I disagree that there is no benefit to SEO from paid directories as a blanket statement. Like all things in SEO, diversity, moderation and common sense will usually give you the correct answer. And correct answers aren't always, or even often, black and white.

You mentioned sports niche directories. Niche directories are another example of ones that are often worth submitting to. But all in moderation.

This tool will help you if you haven't used it already:

Juicy Link Finder

As will searches like this, which Wissam probably used to find you those examples:

inurl:www.sports submit

[Jeepster]

All y'all SEO clever men be saying that paid directories (and fo' sho unpaid ones) ain't worth diddly.So how come when I open a can of Open Site Explorer on the a** of my (breathin'-down-my-neck) rivals, their (meant to be worthless) directories be passin' them lots and lots of link love? Riddle me that, people.

[SteveOllington]

I respectfully disagree. I know they don't necessarily pass loads of link juice but some of the paid directories don't have all the millions of spammy links to spammy sites in... because they're paid. Some are very, very cheap too. I know most are rubbish and not worth squat but there's still lots which are cheap and do pass link juice which far outweighs the cost.

Also the paid ones add you much faster... and if you want a diverse backlink profile it's worth getting a bunch of directories in there as well as your other link types... rely on the free ones and you could be waiting forever for that.