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15 Comments
good information
This is really a very good information for the beginners like us.
Link Building
This is really great information. It doesn't always help you to post your link to hundreds of sites..let alone directories. Think of how many competitors are also swarming these sites. Find sites that compliment your business.
Search Engine Results - Directories / SPAM
Search engines are getting spammed by tons of DIRECTORIES.
Yohoo Search Example: San Francisco Insurance
80% of first TWO pages of results are nothing but DIRECTORIES.
Remember, my search wasn't for a DIRECTORY...... it was for individual San Francisco Insurance websites/companies.
If I wanted a localized directory, that's what my search would have been for: San Francisco Local Directory.
If the search engines fail to curtail DIRECTORY results...... the public may as well only use directories for localized searches and don't even bother with Major Search Engines.
As a web designer/SEO for small businesses in lets say San Francisco or any other city....... you stand little chance of any top rankings since your major search engines have allowed DIRECTORIES to absolutely flood their top ranking search results.
Don't get me wrong..... Directories are a good thing........ but does it make sense for 18 of the first 20 search results to be Directories?
Search term: San Francisco Car Dealer
SAME results..... mostly nothing but directories.
And the list goes on and on............
Any opinions?
DIRECTORIES SPAMMING SEARCH ENGINES
As a user , I also find it frustrating to find so many directories in the first pages of Google et al. when what I want is the service or product provider site.
Why should we use the main search engines if 'all' they deliver is directory 'rubbish'. We might as well go to a competitor directory first? So I would have thought it is also in Yahoo/Bing/Google's self interest to eliminate other directories unless searched for explicitly.
From an SEO viewpoint it is getting more difficult for ordinary companies to compete against directories - especially when their content frankly is a bit SPAMMY - lots of keyword repetition which would look even more stupid for a non-directory.
So PLEASE Mr Search Engine(s) - remove directories for everybody else's benefit
Well....
We run lots of directory sites and feel that your comment is uncalled for as a general statement.
If you were looking for a specific term that would be found in a directory (Dentists in Atlanta, Georgia for example), it's quite obvious you are looking for a list.
So what I got from your comment was that you'd like to see Google show their directory results first (yes, google has a business directory) and then put everybody else's results after, but not another directory site (locking out every other directory site from the search results on purpose?). I mean after all the reverse would be that I was looking for a directory site and couldn't find one because I was flooded with posts about dental techniques and dental this and dental that and couldn't find the nearest dentists to me by just Google a term that should give me directory site results.
Perhaps to solve your problem Google will have buttons so that you can omit certain types of sites out of your search results for the keywords you are looking for rather than killing them. Because after all, Google gets all it's data from sites like ours so they'll never cut off the hand that feeds them information.
Now I know there are a lot of "black hat" stuff that a lot of directory sites are doing (which we do not), and I would agree if Google found a site using "blat hat" methods, they should ban them from the directory, or at least not favor it in the results.
About Directories and Ranking
I thought that submitting to any directory would be alright. Through your report I found out that the quality directories carry more weight in Google. Thanks for your informative report.
Quality versus Quantity Backlink Issue
It's interesting to see that one link from a major approved source like Yahoo Directory is much more worth than 100s of other directories that aren't equally important to Google.
Of course, you can even get 1000s of directory backlinks for a fee usually less than Yahoo's fee ($299).
Interesting
Great post, very useful information. I've always said directories are a great "starting" point for off-page but you need to build a quality list and the best way to do that is by using Google itself.
Hello This is really
Hello
This is really beautiful blog post.
Thank You
Mattcutts @ Directory
Matt is absoultely right, it doesnot hurt to be in there but there is still a question about the worth of the directories of are they worth it.
Good information
This is very good information. I am however hesitant to restrict myself into fitting one search engine algorithm. The number of competitors entering this market is growing. They all use different ranking algorithms.
If directory submissions is going to help you generate traffic to your site then go for it, I am personally hesitant to use anybody that charges a fee for listing when results can not be guaranteed. So I do my home homework and rely on DIY site promotion and SEO.
Great to know
We haven't really focused on directory submissions because it always seemed too black hat. I just don't know why submitting to 500 different directories is a good thing. It makes more sense to share information through social media sources and article/PR directories. At least you are contributing to the web that way.
Great Comments
I run a directory and couldn't be happier that Matt made these statements; we work hard to deliver value for both our visitors and the site owners submitting their site to us
Bye bye fly by night directories
Technicalities given by Matt for not submitting the website to fly by night directories was helpful. I will be more careful in future.
I have always heard that
I have always heard that Yahoo and Alltheweb are good places to submit sites, but it is great to have that confirmation from Matt.
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