Is Directory Submissions still an effective way for link building in 2015?

[Brian Davis]

Hello.
I've come across many sites which state that Google doesn't prefer much link juice or no link juice at all after you submit your sites to Directories. Wondering if Directory submission is still a healthy way for gaining some good rankings?

[Freelancier]

No, it's not.

[Harold Mansfield]

No. It's not. However, paid, credible, well marketed directories like Yellow Pages, Angie's List, Home Advisor and others like them can be effective as part of overall online marketing strategies. Other than that, no one uses directories.

[janefirst]

No it is not working but some directories that approve post instantly are still useful. I used such directories and got back links shown in Google web master tools.

[JasonG]

As others have said already, directory links in general are not of real value, and to an extent can be detrimental. However, relevant directories to your industry, of a high quality (approval process, likely paid listing) is something to look into.

[WebEminence]

I'm not sure it's so cut and dry. I believe directory links can have some value for a page that has ZERO links and ZERO authority. I've seen them give a good boost to domain authority in recent months. But they are not a long term solution to build meaningful rankings and authority over time. I don't think they are totally worthless though either.

[Harold Mansfield]

I'm not sure it's so cut and dry. I believe directory links can have some value for a page that has ZERO links and ZERO authority. I've seen them give a good boost to domain authority in recent months. But they are not a long term solution to build meaningful rankings and authority over time. I don't think they are totally worthless though either.

I'm not intentionally trying to refute what you are saying, but "Domain Authority" is a term created by Moz. It is not an actual metric that Google uses.

Also, from Google's own mouths

Any links intended to manipulate PageRank (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank) or a site's ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines (https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769). This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site.
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en

[krymson]

I'm not intentionally trying to refute what you are saying, but "Domain Authority" is a term created by Moz. It is not an actual metric that Google uses.


This is true, but the sole purpose of domain authority is to give you some vague idea of how authoritative that site is and gives you some sort of idea how good that "link juice" coming from that website actually is.

Per Moz -

Domain Authority is Moz's calculated metric for how well a given domain is likely to rank in Google's search results. It is based off data from the Mozscape web index and includes link counts, MozRank and MozTrust scores, and dozens of other factors. It uses a machine learning model to predictively find an algorithm that best correlates with rankings across thousands of search results that we predict against.

It's best to use Page Authority (PA) and Domain Authority (DA) as comparative metrics when doing research in the search results and determining which sites/pages may have more powerful/important link profiles than others. While specific metrics like MozRank can answer questions of raw link popularity—and link counts can show the raw quantities of pages/sites linking—the authority numbers are high-level metrics that attempt to answer the question, "How strong are this page's links in terms of helping them rank for queries in Google.com?"

[Harold Mansfield]

But Moz isn't Google. He sells products. Not saying Moz doesn't offer some great advice and some good products, but when deciding to listen to Google or someone else, seems to me the clear choice is the people who actually own the search engine.

The reality is that Google doesn't tell us most of what it does so a lot of it is guess work, trial and error, and deductive reasoning. But one thing I know for sure is that Google doesn't use words like domain or page "Authority" when they are telling you exactly how to format your websites for best results.

I mean they tell you what to do. All you have to do is read it. A bunch of tools that tell you how many links you have, and a made up score of the links based on absolutely no Google algorithms and aren't created with any kind of Google API's may make you feel good, but it's not completely applicable to how Google makes decisions. It is applicable if you're buying Moz products.

[krymson]

I agree, I'm not saying I rely solely (not that this post is about me) but Moz does offer SOME, not a lot, but some insight into what sites would be good to get a link from and which ones wouldn't. Like you said it's a lot of guess work, but finding good sites to use in your link building strategy is key to getting good backlinks.

I look at it like this... I would rather have a tool that gives me some sort of idea, than me have no idea at all. Like building a fire... I would rather have a stick and a rock to try to build a fire with than just trying to use my bare hands, even though it would be really hard I would have a better chance of getting a fire started with some ingenuity.




The reality is that Google doesn't tell us most of what it does so a lot of it is guess work, trial and error, and deductive reasoning. But one thing I know for sure is that Google doesn't use words like domain or page "Authority" when they are telling you exactly how to format your websites for best results.

I mean they tell you what to do. All you have to do is read it. A bunch of tools that tell you how many links you have, and a made up score of the links based on absolutely no Google algorithms and aren't created with any kind of Google API's may make you feel good, but it's not completely applicable to how Google makes decisions. It is applicable if you're buying Moz products.

Noting that this piece here is a little off topic from the thread I will separate it out.

Google does tell you how to format your website for best results, but they don't tell you how to find reputable website to get links from. They tell you to find them, but they don't offer really any tools to help you outside of webmaters to see where you have links coming from and disallowing links from known bad sites. That's really it.

What I use Moz's products for (what I mean by I is the company I work for) is Followerwonk for our social media person, measure traffic, measure keywords (branded vs non-branded) and things such as missing titles/meta descriptions and 302's 404's 500's and duplicate content issues and see where I can improve some pages, content wise to rank better for certain tracked keywords or opportunities for untracked keywords.

The way I look at it is, there's a reason Moz is successful, they must be getting something right or they're pulling a really good one over millions of SEO's and digital marketers worldwide.

[Harold Mansfield]

Yes, I agree that some tools can help. I'm a big proponent of using the right tool for the job. Just don't rely on SEO tools as some kind of gospel. Google clearly tells you everything that they are willing to share.

[planetjanet77]

As far as "directory submissions" go, I concur with Harold and Jason. If you're a local business, you do want to be found in local business directories - where the locals go. You want good local SEO. You want to reach your target audience, in your industry. You should reconsider "gaining some good rankings" and set an actual goal for reaching your target audience, and converting them to loyal customers.
<link removed>
But if you have a good business plan, this should already have been considered in your marketing plan, at the very least outlining your customer profiles.

[shrinkme]

There are plenty of better ways to get your links out there these days. I'm beginning to like Pinterest...

[dewalds86]

Case closed.

[NahidHasan]

Hello.
I've come across many sites which state that Google doesn't prefer much link juice or no link juice at all after you submit your sites to Directories. Wondering if Directory submission is still a healthy way for gaining some good rankings?

It has some value, actually each dofollow and even nofollow links have some value. But you can rank a site with only directory backlinks, and linking pattern is also important. You need to make sure that it looks natural. So I will suggest to provide less focus on directory submission. But few good directories can give you some referral leads.

[seowares.com]

Only paid directories will still have some benefit but don't over spend. The best thing is to check where your competitors are getting links from and use that as a reference point.

[nextlevelseo]

At first google simply counted the number of backlinks to your website. The more backlinks you had, the better your site scored in Google. But now they have started to look more at the quality and relevance of the backlinks and less on quantity. Internal links, links from social media, and quality backlinks are definitely the best way to go now. Quality backlinks = links that are revenant to your website.