Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Is paying for a directory submission the same as buying a backlink?
Isn't the Yahoo directory essentially paying for a backlink?
Let's be honest. In most cases, paying to be "reviewed" for admission to a directory is, in most cases, just link buying by another name.
Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.
So your answer is no.
Directories are destinations
Directories are destinations in themselves. Directories that are destinations in themselves become that way because their editing practices have distinguished them as useful destinations.
You are not paying for a submission
Furthermore, quality directories do not accept payment for submissions. You are not paying for a submission. The payment does not guarantee inclusion. You are paying for a site review. If the site is worthy then it gets in. If it's not worthy, you paid for a review and now you know your site needs work.
Do what I say, but don't what I do.
I hesitate to contradict you but,
directories are not destinations, and have not been in serveral years, except for directory submission service providers.
I at least see no dmoz traffic in my stats every! Do you? Nor do I see any from the top paid to enter/review directories.
Yes you were very clever in indicating that you pay for a review, not a link, but people are not paying yahoo to review there site, they are paying for a link from that directory. ( come on, you were quick on your feet, but nobody gives money to yahoo for them to tell you that your site is good, or requires more work!)
The problem resides in that a backlink has value. This value is given a dollar value in the black market (so to speak). Google does not like link selling or buying because it devalues there algorithmic way of classifing the worlds information.
At present googles stance is that all link purchases are bad. A lot of it is, but not all detracts from the quality of the serps or the internet experience. I have no doubt that Cutts and others make the stance at no linking purchases becasue mathematically its a nightmare job to seperate the valuable from the pure serp manipulating.
I genuinely believe its a problem that they are unable to algo tweak for the moment. And they have a knee jerk reaction that is to try to ban it.
Arrgghhhh enough I hope some of that makes sense, and later I will come back and reread it and make an editing ....
It's wrong to say directories are not destinations. Yahoo and DMOZ are directories.. are they not destinations?
True.
"Directories are destinations for people looking for more resources in a specific niche or hobby."
True as well. In fact, recently I found myself doing this and was amazed to find so many sites that I'd never come across in Google or Yahoo search. You can definitely make the argument that directories serve a valid purpose for users.
Having said that, though, many directory operators have verrrryyyy low standards for admission, i.e. you pay you play.
A better person to seek advice from regarding link development or paid links would be a reputable SEO or link dev specialist/consultant.
