How does Google view Business.com Directory?

[plc90210]

What does Google think of the Business.com directory? Does it treat it the same as Yahoo/DMOZ? Does it treat as a regular link or does it devalue all links coming from it?

Have you ever bought a link from Business.com? How did it turn out? Do you think it's worth the cost?

[Andy Langton]

The way I look at it is that a listing in Business.com is just a paid directory listing like any other. Sure, they have a nice domain name, but I don't think I've ever come across a visitor who would have placed any value on whether a company was listed there. Personally I doubt it's worth the effort.

[plc90210]

"The way I look at it is that a listing in Business.com is just a paid directory listing like any other."

So it will pass pagerank/anchor text?

[Andem]

So it will pass pagerank/anchor text?

No. Links go through a redirect script which are noindexed. [bs.serving-sys.com...]

On a side note, business.com seems like the typical site which Google hates and a scam nonetheless.

[plc90210]

"On a side note, business.com seems like the typical site which Google hates and a scam nonetheless."

If that were the case, wouldn't they have deindexed them or at least caused their pagerank to drop, like they do with all sites that they find are selling links?

[Andem]

wouldn't they have deindexed them or at least caused their pagerank to drop

Not necessarily. Business.com is a brand (but not in my part of the woods) and they don't break any guidelines since they don't sell PageRank. The scam is that they appear to sell PR -- they don't. The vast majority of the "SEO" business is a scam.

[plc90210]

"Links go through a redirect script which are noindexed."

How do you determine that?

[klark0]

No. Links go through a redirect script which are noindexed.

False. The directory listings are direct links and are dofollow. They have seperate paid ads that are redirected. Take a look again.

I don't see them any different from Yahoo/DMOZ which are also good editorial links to get. Just like Yahoo, you're paying for consideration without a guarantee and that's fine with Google.

[Andem]

False. The directory listings are direct links and are dofollow

My bad. You are correct, they are dofollow links without redirects. I still believe they are viewed as useless backlinks by Google's algorithms.

There definitely is editorial oversight, but it is lazy at best. I highly doubt Google gives much, if any, weight to links from business.com.

[plc90210]

Anyone else have other comments/opinions? I want to make sure I get as many opinions as possible before I decide to spend money on this.

[viralvideowall]

Not sure after the recent Google exact match domain slap. Maybe it's worthless now?

[potentialgeek]

Go to Alexa.com and look up its graph. Panda killed it.

[plc90210]

The thread isn't about its traffic/ranking, it's about the value of backlinks from it.