13 replies to this topic

[Jennifer Tripp]

Hello,

I've recently started a new site and am working on building content and links. As I've been researching I've found a lot of directories that require you to pay for a link (usually $10 - $40).

Do the search engines ignore links that you've paid for?

Does anyone purchase directory links?

Thanks,
Jennifer

[qwerty]

No, they're not ignored. When I'm doing link building for a client, I ask them whether they want me to submit their sites to directories that require a fee. I also ask if they prefer to pay on some directories that expedite the evaluation process for a fee. Any fees that are involved just get tacked onto my normal fees.

There are ways around this, though. On many of these directories, you can join as an editor, and that allows you to submit sites for free. I've only done that with one directory, because I feel kind of guilty that my "service" as a volunteer editor amounts to no more than submitting the sites of my clients, so I'm not planning on signing up for more of those. However, there are lots of people who have no qualms about doing that sort of thing, and I've never heard of directories dropping editors for doing it.

[Peter]

In my experience it doesn't matter if a link was paid for or not. What matters is relevance, quality, popularity and authority of the site the link is in, etc.

Paid links have the advantage of being faster. Generally the same day to just 1 or 2 weeks before inclusion. (if accepted of course).

[Jennifer Tripp]

Thank you for your quick replies

One other question I have on this topic... does it matter whether the link in the directory is a direct link to your site or one that is redirected? (hopefully I've used the correct terminology)

Thanks,
Jennifer

[Randy]

It kind of depends upon how the redirection is done Jennifer.

Check some of their current links through one of the online Header Viewers applications or grab some freebie software called WebBug to check that.

You want the redirects to return a 301 Moved Permanently header from the server. You don't want a 302 Temporaily Moved or even worse a 200 OK response. Both of those can be problematic in passing any link popularity.

[Jennifer Tripp]

Hello,

I went to 3 different sites that have directories where the URL is displayed as http://www.directoryname/sitename.html and that URL redirects to http://www.sitename.html.

Every URL I tried returned a "404 Not Found" error or "503 Service Unavailable" error in WebBug.

Does that mean listing in those directories would not give my site any linking benefit (aside from my customers seeing me there and clicking the link of course)?


Thanks,
Jennifer

[Randy]

One thing with WebBug, or any other checker you use Jennifer...

Make sure you have HTTP 1.1 checked in the upper-right corner of WebBug. HTTP 1.0 had some serious flaws and will give you totally false results 9 times out of 10 on redirects.

The URL's you mentioned above just don't look right. There is no .html TLD to my knowledge, so that would definitely produce the errors you experienced.

If you want me to double check what you're seeing, PM me over the directories or URLs you're looking at and I'll fire 'em up in my WebBug.

[Jennifer Tripp]

Thanks Randy I'll play around with it some more. The URLS I gave were for examples only so I could make myself clear. The pages actually have extremely long and messy URLs.

Thanks for offering to help. If I have any problems I'll PM you.

All the Best,
Jennifer

[rread]

along these lines does anyone offer or have a good comprehensive list of online directories. Sort of a reference guide to the most valuable ones at least. Of if no one has prepared a list is there a search directory for other directories.

[qwerty]

There are quite a few directories of directories. Try the ISEDB or Grackelfish.

[arambi]

Jennifer ,

Search engines have no way of knowing if a listing is paid or free unless it is a manual check .

People do purchase directory links .

rread,

if you need a list you can PM me !

[Debra]

Search engines have no way of knowing if a listing is paid or free unless it is a manual check .

I'm fairly certain even with a manual check the search engines can't determine if a link has been paid for or not - unless it's a paid inclusion directory.

What matters is relevance, quality, popularity and authority of the site the link is in, etc.

A link is still a link is a link is a link..... what sets the LINK apart is how it uses it's anchor text. Use the right anchor text on relevant sites and you'll see a greater impact from a traffic and rank standpoint for sure... but if you used keyword anchor text on "spam" sites you'd still see the benefit in the serps.

And yes I know that's not cool, but it is a reality.

The URLS I gave were for examples only so I could make myself clear. The pages actually have extremely long and messy URLs

Jennifer - anytime you have to use a search box on a directory, it's a pretty safe bet it's not going to pass link pop. That's a quick and easy way to see if it's going to be a link pop passing place!

Use the keywords "rex swain" for another of those link checkers, it's similiar to the one Randy gave you.

[Jennifer Tripp]

I'm fairly certain even with a manual check the search engines can't determine if a link has been paid for or not - unless it's a paid inclusion directory.

Thanks Debra. This quote from you is what I'm wondering about. The SEs must know which directories require payment for inclusion, so do they give less weight to links in those directories?

Thanks,
Jennifer

[Debra]

No, I don't think they do Jennifer. I've never seen anything to make me think otherwise.

Paid inclusion directories don't automatically take every site that pays; if you read their TOS closely you'll see they reserve the right to bounce a site for any number of reasons......And they do, trust me.