Directory and Classified Submissions

[coremediadesign]

Most of the submissions will give you a link with attribute rel set to nofollow - and these don't really give you any SEO benefit, so it is quite important to first check the other listings and see whether they have this attribute and value assigned to the anchor - if so, then the only benefit you will get is the visit if someone actually clicks on the link in the listing and gets to your site.

[KS__]

Yup we always do make sure they are DO FOLLOW classified or directory sites.

[coremediadesign]

If they follow then you could also check:

• whether the directory actually has some ranking already and has been around for a while

• how many links they usually put on one page before paging to the next one

• check if the listing pages of the recently added entries (usually last ones) are already in Google index - I normally do it by checking their PageRank - if it's at least white (I use Quirk SearchStatus plugin for Firefox) that means Google is already aware of them - which indicates that they crawl this directory pretty frequently for new content / pages

• try to perform a search on Google for a specific keyword - the category you want to submit your link to and see what's their position for it

Obviously you would do all this if you had a lot of time to go through each directory separately, but it might be worth wile if you're planning to get some links in the different way then the generic links from the visitors.

[KS__]

Hmmm useful tips. Thanks.

How about submitting those pages (URLs) to Linklecious or Pingomatic so they are crawled by Google?

Would that help?

[KS__]

What about Profile Links and Web2.0 Links. They say its good to create 100+ profile links every month with appropriate keywords (while SEOing a website). Some say Profile links are better than Form Links or Blog Comments.

If I use services to create them, most of the links turn out to be on not-so-good Websites. But they say at the end of the day its about Backlinks.

My question is: Isn't Google smart enough to detect such practices?

In other word: Do profile links really help?

[mediabase]

Yes you should definitely continue with the directory & Classified submission. It will help you a lot. If you have any query then surely concerned with me.

Thanks

[KS__]

Thanks Herald.

Please reply to my query regarding Profile Links and Web2.0 Links later down on this page.

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Hi KS,

In a short answer, directory submissions have been abused over the years and we've seen a marked decrease in their effectiveness even as recently as the past 12 months.

The old rule for directory links was to build them in a 2:1 ratio. That meant for every two directory links, be sure to build at least 1 regular, high quality link. Today, the ratio is more like 1:1, or even reversed to 1:2.

If a directory is easy to get into, it's probably not worth your time. Too many of these links can lead to a drop in rankings. Done judiciously, they can give a small boost to your rankings, help round out your link profile, and help target specific anchor text phrases (again, when done in moderation)

Here's an article we published a few months back you might find helpful: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/seo-link-directory-best-practices

As for classified submissions, I'd be wary as I've never seen any evidence that they help SEO, and like low value directory links, too many "easy" links can harm your rankings.

Hope this helps. Best of luck with your SEO!

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Yes, Google is smart enough.

Two years ago Google stripped toolbar PageRank from most of the profiles on SEOmoz. The links here still pass some value, but build too many of these links and you're much more likely to incur a penalty today.

This entire school of link building discussed on this page is dangerous - and filled with snake oil salesman who care nothing about harming your rankings. I've never heard of Linklecious, but it looks like they've been de-indexed by Google, so it's safe to say they were penalized.

Instead of risking burning your site to the ground with low quality links, invest your time in long-term payouts by producing good quality content and earning the links others can't earn.

White Hat SEO works.

[KS__]

Thanks for the awesome comments Cyrus.

So what you suggest is going slow and develop solid, long term and genuine links by commenting to blog posts in the same niche, good quality PR submissions. good quality Article submissions and making relevant form posts?

Would you like to add something to the above list?