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This is probably the side of the fence that I fall on in terms of this issue. If I see that obtaining links from paid directories isn't only not hurting our major competitors, but actually seemingly helping them rank on the first page and outrank us for many keywords, then I am natually going to assume that those links are helping their rankings.

One of our major competitors outranks us for more than one of our main targetted keywords and, having checked their link profile again today, they clearly invest a lot in obtaining links from directories, not many of them are relevant, what you would call reputable on first look and one is French, not even being in the site's own language!

Furthermore, although they don't do it for every link they have on directory sites, they have many links that use keyword-specific anchor text. Now, this is something that I would hesitate doing as often as they do, rather I would use branded anchor text when unsure of the validity of a link as I would expect that to carry less of a penalty if that were to happen, but it's clearly not hurting their rankings, instead seeming to help them.

In any case, this is why I referred to the use of directory links as somewhat of a grey area - it's not completely clear as to whether it's a viable link-building option or not. Given what I've seen of our competitors, I have to come to the conclusion that it's worth the risk.

Thanks for your reply, David.

I think it's a case of being selective and ensuring that it doesn't form a major part of any promotional strategy.

I do agree with you, I was just playing Devil's Advocate. My opinion is based only on what I can see around me in terms of competitors and how their link profiles don't appear to be affecting their excellent rankings - at least not at the moment!

I think it's a similar case to most SEO - keep quality and relevance in mind, don't focus entirely on one area, think about the users and you won't go far wrong.

Really appreciate your opinion, I think we're pretty much in the same ballpark!

Further to this, even Moz's own Link Acquisition Assistant returns lists of directories, based on your keywords, location and industry. Obviously you then have to sift through the rubbish, but it still gives the opinion that directories are useful in their own way.

Completely agree with what you've said there, links from directories would never form a major part of a link-building strategy.

**"Don;t do it for the link do it for the user" - **this is why I was ensuring that we only looked at relevant directories that we feel our potential customers would find useful.

**"no spammy directories for the sake of a link" - **again, this is why we are filtering based on relevance, trust and whether or not the site would be a genuine source of relevant traffic.

The reason I said that they were a grey area is based on the fact that, in the Link Schemes link you provided, it doesn't specifically say that paid directories are bad. It states that: -

• **"Buying or selling links that pass PageRank. This includes exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links; exchanging goods or services for links; or sending someone a “free” product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link" - **this does not specifically mention quality, paid directories.
• **"Low-quality directory or bookmark site links" - **again, it's obvious that low-quality is bad, but it doesn't flat-out say to avoid them altogether.

I completely agree that including your site in just any directory is bad. I agree that there has to be an element of quality and relevance. I just don't see that paying for inclusion in certain, quality directories that are relevant to your audience is a bad thing when used as part of a link-building and promotional campaign. Even more so when you consider the Yahoo! Directory and the perceived gains from inclusion.

Thanks for your advice, it's greatly appreciated.

If duplicate content does between two sites owned by the same company exist what is generally the outcome? Does one site rank and not the other? Are both sites penalised? Does location influence the site that ranks?

Our company consists of several smaller companies, some of whom deal with very similar things. For instance, two of our companies resell accounts software, but only one provides after-sales support.

Because of the number of different companies and websites we have, sometimes it would be easier to simply copy content from one site to the other, optimised in the same manner as, in some instances, we would want different websites to rank for the same keywords.

I have been asked my opinion on the potential impact of this practice and my initial response was that we should avoid this due to potential penalties. However, I thought I'd garner opinion from a wider audience before making any recommendations either way. What do people think?

Thanks.

We are resellers of 4 separate products. Currently we have numerous different websites promoting each product, not all of them use a URL which has any real link to our business - it's only when you land on the page that it contains brand images, etc.

We are in the process of redesigning and rebranding, and want to know what would be the best course of action to take in terms of domain registration.

This is what we have currently, for example: -

www.accounts-solutions.co.uk - This site deals with the resale and support of a branded accounts package.

www.software-accounts-systems.co.uk - This site deals with the resale and support of a second branded accounts product.

In terms of moving forward with new domains, which are going to contain our business name, our options are as follows: -

OPTION 1 - www.our-business-name.co.uk/product1/etc, www.our-business-name.co.uk/product2/etc, www.our-business-name/product3/etc where all products are given separate sub-domains within our main business page.

OPTION 2 - www.our-business-name-product1.co.uk/etc, www.our-business-name-product2.co.uk/etc, www.our-business-name-product3.co.uk/etc where each product we resell is given it's own separate domain entirely.

Does anyone think one direction over another would give any benefits in terms of SEO, or would it not matter as long as each site was well optimised with a solid content and social strategy? My initial preference is for the first option, if only because of the continuity in terms of having one main company website with each product listed in sub-domains. Each landing page would obviously be optimised for each specific product/keyword, etc. so, from a user point of view, there shouldn't be any confusion between separate products.

Also, would it be recommended to install 301 redirects from our existing www.accounts-solutions.co.uk, etc pages to the relevant new sites?

Thanks, John

Thank you. I've corrected that mistake straight away and will speak to my friend in Dubai to see if she can get together a list of possible local links.