Experiment Concluded - Pay Directories Win

[John Scott]

So we submitted HealthSite "A" to five pay directories.

We submitted HealthSite "B" to 700 free directories.

HealthSite "A" ended up with PR4 and 100+ SE referrals daily.

HealthSite "B" ended up with PR1 and no SE referrals. Seems to be penalized.

[waffles]

So does this mean that I shouldn't submit my sites to free directories at all?

[John Scott]

Well, really the experiment was flawed. It wasn't pay directories vs free directories. It was 5 pay directories vs 700 free.

I think the conclusion we reached was, do not over-do directory submissions, free or otherwise. And I was very impressed by the power of the 5 pay directories.

[Cricket]

Ya gonna tell us which 5 directories the links came from?

[John Scott]

I don't want to give everything away, but .... here: http://www.v7n.com/forums/seo-forum/...tml#post604643

[Cornbread]

It is strange that you recommend Aviva after you blasted directories that only charge annual fees in an earlier post. There are quite a few better directories than Aviva that have permanent lifetime links: Joeant, Linksjuice, Search Monster, Ask, Go-Guides, BOTW, all give lifetime links, and are of very high quality.

But as to your topic, it doesn't suprise me at all that a handfull of quality trusted directory links would help your search engine rankings more that hundreds of spam links.

[John Scott]

There are quite a few better directories than Aviva

How do you define quality?

Joeant, Linksjuice, Search Monster, Ask, Go-Guides, BOTW, all give lifetime links, and are of very high quality.

Again, how do you define quality?

[Cornbread]

The same way you do. I learned the definition from you. Here is my criteria:
1. Directories that are Spam free, that only except quality sites with unique content. I have a football site, but I won't list my site next to a lot of gambling sites.
2. Human reviewed
3. Good Google page rank
4. Strong search results in Google for the directory, well optimized.**
5. Directories that are well categorized, profesional looking and easy to navigate with no dead links.
6. Directories that offer permanent listings.
7. Directories that have my category page indexed in Google.
8. Directories that aren't to full, I don't want to be listed alongside thousands of other sites on page 7 or something.
9. Directories that are respected by their peers in the industry, well established. They must be SERP friendly.
10. Directories that have a good business model, are successful and profitable.

**After I get a link it's easy for me to tell which ones are strong. I go to Google and type in "NFL Draft Dog" and see what I get for results, for example my V7n listing is one page three of Google so it must be an excellent directory to be ranked that high. That's why I like Search Monster, know one seems to knwo about that directory, but Google loves them, my link on their directory is on page one of Google.

[jo_cstd]

Almost same thing happened to 2 of my blogs.
I submitted/promoted one blog almost 10 times as much as the other one. After a month, The 1st blog ended up with 2500 IBLs and the 2nd with only about 50 or so, but both of them got a PR4. Quality over quantity, I guess. :>

[woodcs82]

Thanks for doing this experiment....

If i submitted the Top 25 directories or even top 50 with the best Good PR and high alexa, is this ok. Is ever "Too Many" to submit to, even if they are good.

[factoring]

John,

You are really confusing me now. LOL.
I don't submit to free directories anymore, but I did at the beginning. I hope it doesn't hurt me now. Thanks for the thread though.

[LennyP]

I think it is just a matter of quality beating quantity. A few authority links are much more important than even thousands of marginal links.

[Cornbread]

Originally Posted by John Scott

How do you define quality?



Again, how do you define quality?

Again, It is strange that you recommend Aviva after you blasted directories that only charge annual fees in an earlier post.

[John Scott]

Originally Posted by Cornbread

Again, It is strange that you recommend Aviva after you blasted directories that only charge annual fees in an earlier post.

When a directory is promoted as much as Aviva - pretty much more than 99.9% of directories - it's hard to go wrong.

[Cornbread]

I understand they are one of your sponsors, but you can't blast directories on one post for making you pay a fee every year and then promote a directory in another post that makes you pay a yearly fee..........well I guess you can, it's your forum, but it just doesn't look legitimate. Aviva is an average directory, but a little spammy and the yearly fee makes them un acceptable. There are just so many directories that are better like V7n that will give you a lifetime link for similar money.

I am not trying to bash Aviva, this is just an example. In the category (football) that my site would be listed in there are 10 web sites currently there, one is gambling, two are soccer, and one is trying to sell football computer games. That equates to two-thirds of the sites are crap (in that specific category.) In V7n, there are four sites listed in the category, three good (American) football sites and one Australian rugby site. So V7n is better (quality), much cheaper and has equal page rank.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by Cornbread

I understand they are one of your sponsors, but you can't blast directories on one post for making you pay a fee every year and then promote a directory in another post that makes you pay a yearly fee..........well I guess you can, it's your forum, but it just doesn't look legitimate.

I respectfully disagree. You can believe a directory is of above average quality and not like the fee structure.

[John Scott]

I understand they are one of your sponsors

If I had an issue with Aviva, I would simply not say anything. I have had advertisers in the past who I could not recommend, and I simply didn't say anything. Buying advertising here doesn't get you an endorsement from me.

I am not saying they are perfect, but I do pay to submit to Aviva, and I love the way the descriptions are rewritten, and from what I've seen they have editorial integrity.

[Cornbread]

OK, fair enough. Regardless if I agree with your top 5 recommended directories or not, the bottom line it was an excellent experiment and should let all of us that are addicted to quality directory submissions sleep a little better at night.