Seems that with the scramble for inbound links little if any regard is given to the quality of a general web directory where the link is coming from. Submitting blindly may not be in your best interest.
I personally think the quality and calibre of a directory listing is more important than quantity. So how can you determine if a directory has the potential to become a quality Internet resource and not end up as just another hyperlink landfill?
There are a few easy steps you can take to judge the quality, or lack of in the smaller general web directories available today. It’s all about editorial integrity.
Most directories offer a site search function. Try searching for keywords associated with sites that you’d prefer to not be listed with. Pharmacy and gaming affiliates, adult entertainment, illegal products and services; you get the general idea.
Search for individual words such as pharmacy or popular prescription drug names, online gambling phrases and games, adult entertainment terms and phrases to see what kind of results are returned.
Look at the latest links or new additions. Review the listing titles and descriptions. Keyword titles and lists of keyword phrases in place of proper descriptions like the example below is a clear indication that anything and everything goes. You can almost count on one hand how many seconds it took for the editor to review this submission; if it was a paid listing I’ll bet the directory owner spent more time verifying the payment.
Bad Credit Car Loan
Bad Credit Car Loan, car loan for people with bad credit, car loans, car credit, vehicle financing, instant credit approval, car loan bad credit, get bad credit car loans, subprime loans, bankruptcy, slowpays, bad credit, no credit, bad credit car loans, automobile loans for people with bad credit, bad credit car financing, car financing bad credit, car lenders, poor credit loans, bad credit auto loans, auto loans for bad credit, auto loans
Listings such as the one above are pretty useless; you have to wonder how much traffic a listing such as this generates. It’s also a reflection on the quality of a directory.
Do yourself a favor; avoid the temptation of a free link when you know that the quality of the link is not the best. It’ll improve your inbound link profile.
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One of the biggest advantages that directories can offer is good co-citation data – getting your site listed on a page full of quality links to the leaders in your industry. If you’re not getting that, you’re losing a lot, and possibly harming yourself – e.g. co-citation to bad neighborhoods.
You’re known by the company you keep.
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I agree totally about the description’s, the gambling, pharmacy sites etc. I do think though in some instances it is O.K to have descriptive link titles as apposed to the company or website name, I actually pitch it as being one of the benefits of being listed in my directory, a – they get the benefit of anchor text to help them rank and b – the company detail page is more likely to rank in the search engines for something they do and drive traffic to the listed website. I do always make sure that the link title’s read well though, for instance it just doesn’t make sense to have singular link titles most of the time, like the one you mentioned bad credit car loan, I would edit that to bad credit car loans and then list the company or website name in the description, I believe that as long as you are thinking about the end user and as long as you don’t have too many similar link titles in each category then descriptive link title’s are fine.
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You can’t accept submissions like those, absolutely agreed on that. I get them. I change the description. I approve. If the site is good. If they have a problem with it, I’m more than happy to refund the money.
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what about the strength of the site? such as how well it is ranked for its major keywords and how well the detail page is ranked …
should that be considered when thinking about submitting to an expensive directory?
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Makes sense to me. I get some submissions like your example in your article. I work with the web site owner to get a more content-rich listing to add into my directory. If they by chance don’t pass the review, we don’t refund their submission fees.
I also believe that if you are a webmaster and depend on PageRank and Alexa for status, “your building on a bad foundation”. As a, wise young man said to me, focus on context, and the rest will come natually.Even if you put frosting on crap, you still got crap!
If you want to build a directory the correct way, I suggest to pay attention to this article..
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