Submitting to directories worth it?

The web directory industry went crazy a few years ago. Web directories used to be one of the more popular and widely used places to get a backlink for your website from, but they are not close to being as effective compared to what they used to be.  They may even be ineffective. DMOZ, was the granddaddy of all web directories and it has recently been shut down by its owner, AOL. However, the editors are working hard trying to resurrect it and create their own version. Google and all the other search engines are either penalizing or just simply ignoring these types of unnatural links. The backlinks from directories tend to be very unnatural as they are usually created by the webmaster submitting to get links. It is no longer worth it, where you could submit to 100o’s of spam web directories and expect to see an improvement in your site. It was really getting out of hand a few years ago so many directories being created every day on strong, but expired domains to try and make a buck. They were really useless and provided no value to the web ecosystem. That is why Google and other search engines had to act to penalize or ignore these links as they were artificially inflating link popularity.

Having said that, there are some directories are probably worth submitting to, especially if you have a niche site and the directories are well run and well established. One is the most robust is  BOTW m but they do charge a lot, but they are very strict who gets in, which is probably why it is worth getting a listing from them. Some of the old well extablished directories like Skaffe, GoGuides and Web Experience are also possible worth it. They were around before the craze of a few years ago and are still around today and being managed well. If you have health or medical related site, there are the old familiar ones such as ABC.md.

A reasonably good guide is that if the directory has a lot of poor quality crap sites listed, then stay away from them. If it has a lot of carefully curated high value sites, then that is the sort of directory that you want to be in.

Get Links by Making Content Compelling

The sorts of links that the search engines want you to get are the ones that you do not create yourself. They want other sites to freely and willingly link to you as they really like the compelling and unique content that is on your sites. You often hear about the ‘linkable asset’ – that is the content on the site is worthy to be linked to. What does it say about a site if the only links you can get to it are the ones that you create yourself.

In my spare time, I like to do some running, so I follow a few blogs and forums on running to keep uo-to-date. I recently came across this new site on research into running, running injury and running shoes. When I went to the site, I noticed names of some of the people leaving comments on posts. They were some well known names in the industry. I did some more digging. I noticed that a number of key people in the industry were tweeting about this site; and a lot of people were retweeting was was coming from this site. What does that say about the site? They did not have to do those tweets themselves; they did not pay for them to be done; they were made simply because of the content pf the site.

When you read the blogs posts on the site. They are compelling. They do no rehashed what is widely viable elsewhere. The blogger is original in what he says and obviously people want to know what he says. I notice the leading magazine in the running industry, Runners World, linked to his views on an issue! I notice that weekly podcasts and reviews include comments and links to the site. This is how it should be. The only websites that are created should be the ones that had real value to the web and attract real links as they are worth linking to.

If you were a search engine, is this the social media profile and backlink profile of a website that you would want to rank as you know its the sort of site the searchers actually do want in their search results. Learn a lesson from this site. This is how it should be done. This is how links are earned in the long term for success.