Directory Submissions Warning – Dated Tactic

Directory Submissions when done in bulk pose a SIGNIFICANT risk of hurting your ranks. Basically you should do only the top ones I mention and a few vertical ones in your niche. Do too many and it hurts you post penguin.

When you’re out of great ideas and you want to do some basic link building to make for a more regular and varied link profile, there are plenty of things you can do. These techniques won’t necessarily generate the top links, but they can generate a good number of basic links that can go a long way—especially at the beginning, when you’re trying to establish an online presence.

Directory submissions are still one of the simplest ways to build links and hence are not worth much.

Most directories are useless now and pose significant ranking risk post-Google Penguin—not to mention they are laborious to submit to. Only certain paid directories are decent. Yahoo! at $299 a year is generally worth the expense. Better Business Bureau, Best of the Web, and business.com are other big directories to consider that could either pass along some link juice or at least drive some visitors to your site. Go for quality only and relevance to your business. DO NOT do loads of directory submissions just for a ranking benefit.

Another typical strategy is putting your brand name on what are called community websites (forums, social networks, review sites) and then interacting with these communities. If you can deeply connect with a legitimate forum and have engaging conversations with its members, then occasionally sharing your content/link is okay, but using this as a link-building strategy post-Penguin is very risky.

Do you submit to directories?

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