Link Directory, let live or stay dead?

Let links live or die

[dublinmike]

Hi all,

We operate a relatively large villa rental site that has an Esyndicat Pro directory integrated into it.

The directory exists so that we can add in external useful service information for rental customers like boat hire, chemists, marinas and so on. We also call back these amenities next to relevant villa properties.

Most of these 'amenities' as we call them have websites and Esyndicat allows links along with addresses, phone numbers &c., and it was the original intention to link out to good service providers and later use the reciprocal features of pull in, or force, reciprocals. The option of having featured paid listings was also attractive.

However, when recips and free outflow of linkjuice was frowned on from an PR point of view about 18 months ago, we basically abandoned the link building possibilities altogether and encoded all the existing urls going out (maybe 4,000) to avoid passing linkjuice, or getting caught in downvalued recips.

Looking at this again now, two things come to mind that I would really appreciate your input on.

1. Can we reintstate our directory links unencoded without bleeding our PR to death?

2. Are two-way recips in large numbers still a source of negativity?

3. If we use the option of paid listings, are we then falling foul of the 'Paid Links' Google trap (which I see as a cool way to prevent any link text ads that are not on Google)

Any thoughts or input of any kind I'd be very grateful.

[Rosalind]

2. Are two-way recips in large numbers still a source of negativity?

Maybe. Look at the percentage of recips, versus one-way links. If all of the links are recips then it will look odd and unnatural.

3. If we use the option of paid listings, are we then falling foul of the 'Paid Links' Google trap (which I see as a cool way to prevent any link text ads that are not on Google)

There's a fairly old statement by Matt Cutts (April 14th, 2007) to the effect that you don't need to worry about this if yours is a directory with editorial standards. "Does the directory reject urls?" seems to be one of the most pertinent questions when it comes to this.

[dublinmike]

Thank you Rosalind, can anyone add any more thoughts to this issue ? It really would be appreciated?

[rorie12]

Hi Mike

I operate a relatively small site and have wondered whether using something like eSyndiCat actually works in terms of getting you a higher PR.

What do people think overall, is it worth using software like this?

Cheers

Rorie

[edited by: engine at 1:38 pm (utc) on April 7, 2009]
[edit reason] No specific sites, thanks [/edit]