Is it true directory submissions are no longer a good SEO strategy?

[GeorgeB]

@ULTiMATE

It’s not “misinforming” if you cannot provide solid evidence to suggest that submitting to directories is what made your site popular. So far this thread is full of fluff posts stating that directories will make your site popular, but no one has posted a shred of proof. If you want to attack the “snobs” then provide proof to back your claim up.

That’s an impressive figure, but it depends on the type of site and the current traffic. In my view, these values are the only ones worth concern when it comes to SEO.

That’s quite a broad claim you make, and one I feel is grossly ill-informed.

This thread is a key example of the type of users that visit the SEO forum. The vast majority of people have been here for less than a year, with less than fifty posts, and these people tend to work in SEO and talk about what I would call outdated SEO advice without a single bit of evidence to suggest that their claims are true. On the other side of the spectrum there are a few years who have been here for a large number of years and I will suggest have a lot of experience with SEO and these claims due to their high post count over years of posting.

The simple fact is that if someone has been around for a long time and they can state a claim about SEO in a clear and concise manner, as well as being able to provide evidence or at least a counter-claim to suggest their claim is true then they’re worth listening to.

One other subject I’d like to address is your use of the word long-tail. As someone who has read Chris Anderson’s book and Wired article more than a few times I would be interested in hearing from someone who advocates it as strongly as you do how you feel that it works for SEO when it is both.

1. A theory based on economical observations regarding online purchases and music

2. Disputed in a number of industries where it has been proven by economists to be an invalid business tactic.

This sentence doesn’t make any sense. Yes, no one knows the Google algorithm bar two or three select Mathematicians at Google, but in slating the “snobs” you tout yourself to the members here as someone who “knows something”.

As far as I’m concerned SEO is nothing more than domain knowledge, built through experience.

You could be correct in that directories will boost your website, but let’s think about this logically for a second.

Why would submitting to a directory make your site “better” than the others? In other words, why would Google possibly decide that your site is better than all of your competitors because you took five minutes to submit to a bunch of directories full of other sites?

Secondly, you may have submitted your website to a directory and the page on which your link resides may have a high PR. Two facts remain in this scenario:

1. Your link is not the only external link on the page. Far from it. You’re competing on a high PR page with as many as 25 different links.

2. It is very likely that the directory home page has a high PR, but the category page that your link resides on has little to no PR.

3. PR is only a measure of link popularity. It is widely known that there were at one time over 200 other metrics that were more important to the Google algorithm than PR.

As you can see, after the scenario has been logically broken down it doesn’t make sense for Google to assume your site is more popular because you’ve taken five minutes to submit to directories. Why should you rank higher than someone who may simply have a better website? If someone has spent years on a site and has tons of content, should you rank above him for spending a few hours submitting to hundreds of directories?

As you’re against SEO snobbery it will be interesting to see if you can refute any of this and provide a levelled opinion on why directories do matter.

Good discussion. I saw you started by saying I should provide proof to back up my claim but as you continued to read you kinda saw that I did :). You made some great points as well and all I can say is that everything I say is based on my own observations and current real-world work I do today. I’m not an SEO consultant or anything of the sort and everything I do in SEO is for my own sites. So I think that is what separates me from the, let’s call them SEO consultants instead of snobs, as I realize that wasn’t very constructive of me.

As for that last sentence. Challenge accepted sir!!!

You see it’s quite simple, it’s not an opinion. I stated it as fact based on my own experience. It’s not whether it’s a directory, an in context blog post, a forum signature or what have you. Google is smart and those links all have been given different levels of weight. I agree. However comma… to say directories simply don’t matter is patently and provably false.

Like I said I’ve used said directories as a part of my linking campaigns and seen tangible increases (6 position rises in the SERPS for 1 blog site). Could any one of the hundreds of other factors that kicked in during my months long slow and sure SEO campaigns have had something to do with that rise? Sure, but I also know from experience that Google’s speed at indexing and giving credit for changes is usually a few weeks tops. Those increases came right after the directory submission phase.

But if you want unequivocal proof here’s a simple and easy test for you. Write two blog posts on a brand new blog. Link to one of them with nothing but directory links. Don’t link to the TLD or other blog post at all! Within a few weeks tops your directory linked blog post will show up above the TLD itself when searching for the TLD’s own keywords. Why? Because the blog post will have more weight from those directory links.

Again, sure there is plenty room to have silly SEO arguments over how much directories will help your rankings but to say they don’t help at all is, as I believe I’ve proven here, false. Even if I haven’t proven that in your eyes, that’s fine. We’ll agree to disagree, but I gotta tell you, I know it works for me.

[system]

Well i agree with this Directory submission is just waste of time instead of wasting time on that its better that you should work more on bookmarking websites try to make your profile strong

[pratap295]

Yes, its right its directory submission is no longer and good strategy for your website because directory submission is the first step to start the SEO process the all the process of SEO is started. So its no longer and good strategy for SEO.

[AbbeyzSmith]

I am not sure how many of you remember that directory submissions were suggested by Google but they removed the point long back ago because the people almost started submitting their websites in whatever directory they found without thinking about the quality of directory. Today, even if we do directory submissions but only in authoritative directories that are having good rankings, are helpful. So submitting in 100 useless directories can be a waste of time but submitting in 5 directories with a good ranking, still counts worth.