Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I am seriously considering just dropping all of them, the PR from them is small, in fact I give them more PR than they give me that's for sure hehe.
But...a link is a link is a link....
Do you think those links could actually be helping my SERPs?
A link is a link is a link. Yes. We certainly are happy to exchange links with, or get links from, PR0/1/2 sites. (PR, relevance, anchor text, traffic...why does anyone think these are bad things?) Quite simply, the more dug into the Web you are the better it is for your site (the usual caveats still apply, e.g., bad neighborhoods).
Of course, recips are not so effective as one-ways, but other than that, I can't think of a reason to avoid nice links from low PR sites...well, unless that's ALL you have. You gotta some high PR links too. Balance grasshopper. :-)
I am seriously considering just dropping all of them, the PR from them is small, in fact I give them more PR than they give me that's for sure hehe.
You should not be giving them ANY Pr. There are tons of directories out there which actually give you 1 way links for free or a fee.
Always look at the page where you want your link to appear and see if it has PR, also see that they are not hoarding PR and redirecting you through a CGI or some script.
..despite their directory having a pr of 6 or higher, all subpages are pr0 ..
If the directory has been around more than a few months they are either blocking the pages from being crawled or they are worthless at least in the eyes of Google. There are many ways to check to see exactly what the problem is, but it may be difficult if they are cloaking via IP. Unless the directory is very new I wouldn't be exchanging links with any site that has been around awhile and is PR0 or grey barred.
I guess I would rather have a link in a free "categorized" directory (link exchange) than on a "links.html" page etc.
Though I'm not one for reciprocal links anyways...
Would Google give a penalty to site listed in a "worthless directory"?
Since I already believe they are gaming google/me with ip cloaked content, my main concern is whether or not linking back to them could be harmful.
I have over 600 links that I know of...about 130 are recips. Of those, 42 are to PR0 sites, with maybe 9 being these directories.
You should not be giving them ANY Pr.
It's hoarding the PR that can get a site burned. Management of PR is a much misunderstood aspect of SEO.
There are tons of directories out there which actually give you 1 way links for free or a fee.
Always look at the page where you want your link to appear and see if it has PR, also see that they are not hoarding PR and redirecting you through a CGI or some script.
We did several recip link arrangements last year with PR0/1 pages that are now PR6/7. There was no need to wait until they were PR6/7.
If the directory has been around more than a few months they are either blocking the pages from being crawled or they are worthless at least in the eyes of Google.
I wouldn't be exchanging links with any site that has been around awhile and is PR0 or grey barred
Reminder: The SE's and especially G like *natural* linking patterns.
Indeed there is a difference between grey/white...and could be several/many reasons for either.
The thing is that would lead me to typing a "Steps for finding/exchanging links guide" and I'm not in the mood to type ;)
Can't wait to read it. :-)
My school of though is that 1 way links are more valuable than reciprocal links. However, reciprocal links can still do good if on topic and relevant.
Many sites submit to directories to generate pagerank or credibility from an authority site.
This does not mean that one should only *get* links from directories.
No one said that! Getting links from directories is part 1/6 of my total strategy, not the total solution.
Again, if the directory is worthy of a link, go ahead and give it.
True, if you like Dmoz, link back. However, imagine DMOZ said link to us, or we will not link back. Many of these so called directories or trying to increase their own pagerank, and are actually gaming you! As seen, many of these directories have been burnt badly in Google (no names mentioned).
What do you guys think of exchanging links with directories?
It should be *optional* not mandatory.
We did several reciprocal link arrangements last year with PR0/1 pages that are now PR6/7. There was no need to wait until they were PR6/7.
You should play the lottery with luck like that. I had the opposite, after an audit, found that 80% had PR0, nothing recpirocl about that. If your linking page has a pagerank of 5, why get a link back from a pr0. What about Pr0 = sites with a penalty? What about linking to bad neighborhoods?
I am sorry I completely disagree with you.
In the event (heaven forbid) you lose your position in the search engine, which happened to me for a month or two last year, doesn't mean you're out of business if you get a significant amount of traffic from other sites.
Don't dismiss them as every visitor counts, no matter where it's from, as long as it's on topic.
Has anybody else come across one of these directories that can send thousands of visitors every month?
Has anybody else come across one of these directories that can send thousands of visitors every month?
Err that's a negative.
I think that only exists in SEOtopia!
Do you think those links could actually be helping my SERPs?
They could well be, a natural mix of links/link text seems to be the name of the game now-a-days. If the page that has your link is in the SE's cache then it's probably helping.
As others have said, if they're not messing around with 302 redirects/cloaking/etc, and you think it's a good directory, why not link to them....although I'm a bit biased as I have a couple of directories :)
Has anybody else come across one of these directories that can send thousands of visitors every month?
Has anybody else come across one of these directories that can send thousands of visitors every month?
Yes, Yahoo can do that. Takes a bit more than a reciprocal link to get a listing though
One of my sites *IS* a directory that has been around before Yahoo went public. It exceeds 250,000 visitors a month, and some new listings get more than 1,000 visitors the 1st month they are in the directory and some only get 150 hits/month.
However, it's narrow casted for a very specific topic, not a free-for-all directory. The purpose of the site was to allow people to find what they wanted in a specific industry without wading thru a million page hits on the search engines and it's done very well at serving it's community in that regard.
Perhaps I just have one of those rare directory sites, but I've seen a couple of others that also perform very well.
Seek and you shall find them, they exist.
Has anybody else come across one of these directories that can send thousands of visitors every month?
Is it really that hard to believe that a link can send that kind of traffic?
It may not be the rule, but it is certainly possible.
You should play the lottery with luck like that
Heh, heh. There's a difference between luck and judgement. We don't link to low PR sites that are poor sites. In fact, we don't link to high PR sites that are poor sites. We link to sites that we want as link partners, regardless of PR, and we base our judgement on a well defined set of criteria that we have refined over years.
Also there's nothing wrong with a site requiring a link back. Some sites require recip links some don't. We don't exclude them from review because they do. That's their choice, regardless of whether or not their site is a directory. I am free to take or leave the offer. I go both ways ... er, umm, well you know what I mean.
imagine DMOZ said link to us, or we will not link back
Gee, lemme think ........................................... YES, I'd do that! ;-)
Ya' know, Y*hoo! has a very clever variation of this game. They don't require a recip link ... instead, they make me pay $299 each year just to keep my darned link in their directory. Frankly, I'd rather link back. Ah well, like I said, I'm free to take or leave the offer. Hoist by my own petard again. Oooooouuuuuuugh, that hurts! :/
I go both ways
That scares me ;)
When finding potential link partners you need to have criteria to evaluate whether those PR0's will eat their daily supply of links and grow up to be healthy PR3-7's :)
I now put all potential link partners (PR0's) into quarantine (spreadsheet), and migrate them across to partners if they graduate out of PR0.
I now put all potential link partners (PR0's) into quarantine (spreadsheet), and migrate them across to partners if they graduate out of PR0.
But you are not willing to help them graduate from PR0?
It's been said many times, but it's worth repeating, if all webmasters thought like that, no site would ever get above PR0.
This is what happens when people use math instead of judgement, especially when the numbers being used (TBPR) are not necessarily reliable.
If we're talking about one of those link exchange directories tacked onto a website, then you're going to see those pushed way down and eventually many webmasters cut them off entirely so that they lose PR. A lot of shady folks are getting too aggressive with those.
If we're talking about a traditional directory, again you're generally going to see the relevant cats as far away from the home page as possible in order to maximize the balance of exchange in favor of the directory.
So is it worth exchanging links with directories? Yes and No. Probably better to pay for an express submission and pick up a one way.
- major directories like Y!,
- smaller niche directories/hubs,
- niche authority sites...
...are all part of our marketing efforts, along with recip link arrangements, and begging for one way inbounds.
Wait a minute, did I say begging. Forget that...we never beg. We ask politely, usually with an email or phone call from one of our female employees.
;-)
So is it worth exchanging links with directories? Yes and No. Probably better to pay for an express submission and pick up a one way.
Finally someone around here see's the light!
Thanks Martinibuster :)
As for 'does any directory give a thousand hits a month to any one site', we can respond to that. Until a month or so we go, we designed sites (sold that end of the business), and did the promo for those clients. Because we also gave them tech support, we had access to their stats. So, we know exacty how much traffic we sent each month. Many clients, with popular ecommerce sites, are getting a thousand hits each month, or more, from us. These are not paid advertisers, but those we gave free listings to in order to help them launch their site traffic. The totals on our paid ads, we have no idea what we send them. We don't track it. But, if they stay with us long term, we think the traffic must be as good, or better than that of the free listings.
I can't speak for other directories, but seeing their Alexa ranking each week as we watch the competition, I would say yes, they send heavy traffic too. However, having said that, it depends on your content. We know some only get a few hits a day because nobody is looking for what they offer. That is not our fault, or the fault of any directory. It is simply the course the webmaster or business owner chose, when he chose his/her site topic or product.
I know that getting a recip link might be good for us, but we prefer to pass on them. It is less work for me to watch the sites and make sure they stay friendly.
No promo here. Just some friendly advice on directories as a whole, and what you can get free... traffic. Don't pay for ads. Just add your url free. Even if you only get 100 hits a month from them, it is a 100 more than you had.
