Link Building – Why We Don’t Use Non Human Edited Directories
August 14, 2009
Using directories to build backlinks to your website was once a very useful website link building practice. If you are not a student of the website marketing community you might still think it is a vital useful tool. Just go to any SEO or webmaster forum and you will see dozens of threads about free directories and submission tools.
Many of us have known for some time that backlinks from directories have been devalued by the search engines for some time now. But like anything questionable in this industry it is best to get Google’s opinion on any subject.The best source of acceptable practices is Google webmaster guidelines.
These guidelines are an SEO bible of sorts. The guidelines offer a very clear picture of what is good website behavior. Until recently, Google only recommended two directories and they are both human edited directories. This should have been a hint that Google no longer values these mostly useless links.
However, in early 2008 Google did recommend the free DMOZ directory and the paid Yahoo directory. This was because they were human edited and appeared to be spam proof. That has changed with Google removing its reference to these directories in late 2008. For us this is a very clear indication that Google does not value directory links.
I have been trying to explain on forums for about a year that Google has devalued directory links. I have meet with fierce resistance until this recent development. It is somewhat amazing how people get certain web based marketing techniques ingrained in their marketing efforts and have a difficult time giving them up. There have been multiple video’s produced by Google representatives on this subject.
What it all boils down to is this. Almost all of the easy links building methods have become obsolete. The reality is that link building has become a much more difficult and time consuming task. This is why we are such a big proponent of creating great content that is worthy of linking too and the use of ethical link building practices.
Are you still using non human edited directory submissions?
We at Tucson SEO Solutions are officially requesting that you join the conversation here. That is, if you found that this post was at all interesting, useful, or perhaps you are just looking for a useful link. Then, I would like to entice you to comment by providing you with useful backlinks as part of what I call “Scratch My Back Marketing.”
The Scratch My Back Marketing requires you to scratch this blog by leaving a useful comment of at least 20 words or more. Your comment should be relevant to the post. My scratch is that you will receive a Do Follow anchor text link (Keyword Luv.) And if you have a blog with an RSS feed enabled you will receive an extra permalink back to your blog via Comment Luv.
It’s all about win/win marketing. I am willing to exchange page rank for the bump that a fresh comment provides.
Are you ready to exchange comments for links?
This is the part where I move link juice around the site and hope that someone might actually want to learn more about our local small business solutions and venture further.
Too learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Services Tucson Website Designs Tucson Search Engine Optimization Phoenix SEO
Holistic SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Arizona SEO Solutions
Ethical Link Building Training Affordable Website Designing Tucson
If your business is located in the US, Tempe, Phoenix, Glendale, and Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO, Niche SEO, Internet marketing, or our affordable website design/re-design services please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479 or 1-866-512-1230 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
Paid Links Our Point Of View
November 5, 2008
As you most likely know by now, Google finally has begun to enforce its long standing position on the buying and selling of link’s in 2007. It’s official position was first outlined back in 2003 on their webmaster blog. Here is a more recent update: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/12/information-about-buying-and-selling.html
We are very pleased that they have finally taken action. As they say better late then never. We have always thought the ability to buy links gave deep pocketed companies a huge advantage over the small website with limited resources.
Some say Google is the biggest link seller in the world with their AdWords program. We would agree but it’s their service and they can do what they deem most effective for them.
The sad part about this is that a whole lot of websites took huge hits financially over Google’s decision to enforce these rules. Thousands upon thousands of website business models were built on the ability to sell links. This has effectively shut down many of these operations.
Taking four years to enforce a company policy and then forcing businesses to completely alter their business practices doesn’t seem very fair to us. Now, don’t get us wrong we are big fans of Google. We just wish this had been handled a little better.
We invite you to join the conversation and leave a comment. We also invite you to continue the conversation on your blog or perhaps use a trackback, or maybe even social bookmark this article, give it a Digg or Stumble it.
To learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Tucson Website Designs Phoenix SEO Tucson Search Engine Optimization
Small Business SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Do Follow Blog List
If your business is located in the US, Canada, through out Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO or Internet marketing. Please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479 or 1-866-512-1230 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
A 12 Step Program For Link Buyers – Sellers Anonymous
October 21, 2008
This is my personal favorite post. This was created as a response to the uproar during over Google’s decision to move against websites that participated in the lucrative trading of links. This practice for many seems as if it were an addiction.
The SEO subculture was a buzz and people were openly discussing how hard to was to give up the easy way of buying your way to the top of search rankings. It seems often like the cry of addiction. Businesses were struggling with how to give up this patterned behavior.
So we came up this little 12 Step Program.
1. We admitted we were powerless over links that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than or ourselves, (Google) could restore us to our SEO sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of Google as we understood their SEO logic.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves, our links, and our hats.
5. Admitted to Google, to ourselves and to another SEO being the exact nature of our link buying and selling.
6. Were entirely ready to have Google remove all these defects of character and SEO practices.
7. Humbly asked Google to remove our Page Rank.
8. Made a list of all websites and clients we had harmed by buying and selling links and become willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to Google and our clients wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take link inventory and when we were wrong in our SEO practices promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, Google , and the universe, as we understood them to be, praying only for knowledge of Google’s will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of Google, we will carry this message to all SEO’ers, Black Hat and White, and to practice these linking principles in all our SEO affairs.
Rely on your higher power to keep you strong.
We invite you to join the conversation and leave a comment. We also invite you to continue the conversation on your blog or perhaps use a trackback, or maybe even social bookmark this article, give it a Digg, or Stumble it.
To learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Tucson Website Designs Phoenix SEO Tucson Search Engine Optimization
Small Business SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Do Follow Blog List
If your business is located in the US, Canada, Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa, Arizona or beyond and would like to learn how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO or Internet marketing. Please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479 or 1-866-512-1230 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
Link Building – Why We Don’t Use Directories – Part 2
October 15, 2008
If you are reading this for the first time we recommend that you start with Part 1 first.
Recently, we posted an article about why we do not use directories and we would like to expand on this in more detail. When we first got into website marketing one of the tried and true methods of acquiring links was through directory submissions.
However, this can be a bit time consuming process as you have to register at each site. So we tried using some automated software. This helped speed up the submission process tremendously. We tried this method off and on for about 3 months. We checked back some 6 months later and discovered that less than 10 of these directories actually accepted our submissions. So the ROI here was not very good.
Since then we have noticed a sea change in the chatter coming from many SEO websites and blogs. Many of them mentioned that the search engines have devalued links from directories. They often pointed out that these directory sites had all seemed to be loosing their page rank it was concluded that the links from these sites had little or no value.
The assumption seemed valid to us, but we prefer to go directly to Google for our answers. Until recently Google’s webmaster guidelines had recommended only one directory. That directory, DMOZ, was highly respected as it is free, human edited and difficult to get into. It took us six tries over a year to get listed.
Since Google has now removed its recommendation of DMOZ, and since most directories sites no longer have much if any PR, we have concluded that directory listings are a waste of time and effort. We evaluate all of our marketing based on our return on investment or ROI. Thus our ROI indicated this was not a profitable use of our time.
As a follow-up to the original, it has been mentioned to me that directories are still useful for driving traffic to a website and thus should still be used. So I went back and looked at our website traffic reports over the last year. Even though we had been listed in dozens of directories out of the hundreds used, we could not find one directory that has sent us any traffic. That’s right 0 traffic. So directory submissions have been a complete waste of time for us. That’s not good ROI in anyone’s business playbook.
This may be why we believe the search engines no longer value directories. Those of you have been around website marketing for very long you have heard that the common refrain “content is king.” Well, that in a nutshell is why directories have lost there allure to the search engines. They simply don’t have any useful content. Since searchers rarely use these directories the search engines have concluded that their only purpose is to manipulate the search rankings, thus these links have been devalued.
There are so many better ways to acquire links that will make a difference that we must ask “Why are you still using directory submissions?”
We would like to invite you to become part the conversation and leave a comment. We also would like to invite you to continue this conversation on your own blog, perhaps maybe even social bookmark this post, Digg it, or give it a Stumble.
We invite you to join the conversation and leave a comment. We also invite you to continue the conversation on your blog or perhaps use a trackback, or maybe even social bookmark this article, give it a Digg or Stumble it.
Here’s some valuable resources:
Would you like to find 192 Do Follow Social Bookmarking sites with a Page Rank of 3 or Higher? Then go here.
Would you like 66 Do Follow Backlinks from high PR sites? Then go here.
Would you like to download the Scratch My Back Marketing anti spam plugin? Then go here.
Would you like to learn more about the Scratch My Back Marketing (not the plugin?) Then go here.
Too learn more about our services please check out these links:
Sierra Vista – Green Valley SEO – Internet Marketing Services Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Holistic SEO Local SEO Services Phoenix Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Yuma – Flagstaff Arizona SEO -Internet Marketing Services
Affordable Quality BackLinks Building Services Local Internet - Website Marketing Services
If your business is located in the US, Tempe, Phoenix, Glendale, and Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO, Niche SEO, Internet marketing, or our affordable website design/re-design services please call Tucson SEO at 520-505-6024, 520-777-6479 or 843-882-7661 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.