Do Online directories affect your search position?

[gib123]

Hi guys,

Just wonder the above. I have a places page on google and i was told that to get it up the rankings its good to add your site/business to alot of local and established online directories. Is this a myth or is it actually true and is it also true for making your site more google friendly by having these directory listings?

Sorry, im not very website friendly, this is my first try at a site and i made it myself. so ive been following forum posts and articles about SEO. I seem to be doing ok, im 3rd page for pressure washing glasgow and some sites on page one have been around years. Ive sorted all my meta stuff and changed my page names. I was just curious about the whole directory thing but i always thought being n many directories just gave you more external links.

Well anyway, look forward to hearing your replies.

Cheers,

Matt

Precise Pressure Washing

 

[craig_mckenna]

Morning Matt,

I was advised the same and I think your logic is very sound, I have done the same but I am yet to see any difference although I suspect there is a whole ream of other pieces that this jigsaw needs that I probably don'y yet have!

Craig

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

I do think online directories help a little bit. The equity of the internet is links so the more you have pointing towards you the better.

You mentioned Google Local above. As much as this is a directory of sort it really can be put to much more use. Almost 20% of Google's traffic is for local terms so it pay's to spend a bit of time on your local listing. You have the option of adding photo's and videos to these listings so I would be looking at how you can best integrate these. Off the top of my head you could be showing before and after pictures of your work.

The other big thing about Google local is trying to get people to recommend you through it as that really does affect the ranking at a local level so I would be encouraging people to give you testimonials via Google local. Other sites like Freeindex would also be a good bet as they also offer testimonials. It's really all about getting as much social proof as you can but I would avoid trying to fake it in anyway. If you have satisfied customers then i'm sure they wont mind typing out a few lines.

 

[gib123]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies.

Yeah i figured as much about the reviews and testimonials. But i probably need to work on my links too. I did try to add pictures to the google local page, but they came out very odd looking, all stretched and whatnot. I resized them and i also emailed google help to no avail. But thanks for the info off i go to get some changes going.

Matt.

P.s - Be sure to check out the great deal in the business marketplace section :001_tongue:

 

[Mike Lewis]

Matt,

In general, any links you get to your website - whether they are in a directory, a blog, or another site - are good for your ranking.

The only exception - and it's an important one - is if the link is an obvious "link farm". By that I mean a site that's been set up specifically to artificially provide links, either in return for payment or as part of some sort of link-sharing scheme. If Google detects that you are part of such a scheme, it might downgrade your ranking substantially. That applies to other search engines as well.

As far as your local rankings are concerned, it does make sense to get listed in genuine local directories. But don't expect it to have a noticeable effect straight away. There are dozens of factors that affect your appearance in search engine results, and there's no one sure-fire way to ensure you reach the top, in local results or anywhere else.

Mike

 

[gib123]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the reply.

I was more wondering the question in regards to a google places page, or do the same rules apply? The reason i ask is because i created a places page and when i search for say ''pressure washing glasgow'' my place page doesnt come up in the list, and a small red dot appears on the map to the right where my business is, but there is no ''letter'' assigned to it like the others.
I was just curious as to weather there is different criteria for boosting your place page or is it the same as boosting your webpage.

Cheers,

Matt.

 

[Gouldie0]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the reply.

I was more wondering the question in regards to a google places page, or do the same rules apply? The reason i ask is because i created a places page and when i search for say ''pressure washing glasgow'' my place page doesnt come up in the list, and a small red dot appears on the map to the right where my business is, but there is no ''letter'' assigned to it like the others.
I was just curious as to weather there is different criteria for boosting your place page or is it the same as boosting your webpage.

Cheers,

Matt.

Hi Matt,

The reason this is happening is that there are some many 'local page' results for pressure washing Glasgow. This means that Google have only allocated a limited amount of space on page 1 and therefore you show up as a red dot rather than having a letter assigned to your listing.

Hope this helps.

Kind Regards

Neil

 

[iMS]

You'll get best results from directories that are human edited and paid for listings.

The free for all directories don't really carry much weight at all.

As an aside, you should list in DMOZ.com - it will take months before they get round to approving you if they ever bother to but if/when you get listed it is an excellent piece of link juice for your site.

 

[iMS]

Ours is 100% human, our subscribers do pay and we are selective about who registers with us. Thank you for the tip, I'll have a look at DMOZ.com. Kind regards,
HttP://www.negotiatenow.co.uk

Hi there, sorry it took me so long to reply to this thread, for some reason I must have overlooked the reminder email!

I love your site, I think you have a very solid and interesting idea going on there! How's business? Are you finding it tough to convince business owners to list their business with you or can they see the value pretty easily? I thought about doing something like this a while back but realised what a massive committment it would take... looks like you've done an excellent job there!

 

[BioOutsource]

There might be mix openion on this. But according to my personal observation and experiences, Directory submission is past now, and Google doesn't value any links submitted to such directories. Less priority is given to listing on directories because of bombardment of cheap and low profile directories and million thanks to automated softwares that put automatic link postings. These submissions are now count at all. However, i still think through some reputable directories you can get a reasonable response and redirected potential customers.
Concluding: directory submission should be a core focus however, if done on casual basis can lead to fruitful effect. Still do not expect wonders

 

[Gutsy]

I think I agree with BioOutsource, directory submission might be dying a slow death. Saying that, I still do a lot of it. I try to submit to new directories at least say every two days. There are better ones and worse ones, obviously Gumtree being one of the more useful, and OLX is looking good, too. I don't know about in Scotland, but here in South Africa, many directories are actually running paid advertising campaigns now, and this has made them popular, so for that reason alone I like to make sure that I'm on the current ones - because presumably other than links, people do go onto these sites to search for services.

 

[stugster]

Google's not stupid. They put what they know into practice quickly and efficiently. Backlinks from reputable sources with high PR are what (at least the last time I looked at it) counts towards rankings. But more than that, content, content and content!

 

[RedEvo]

Generally the easier the link is to secure the lower its value. As most directory links are acquired by simply filling in an on-line form they are of limited value. Of course there are some directories with human curators. With these there's an element of them being earned and as such they have more value.

d

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

Hi Dave,

Your comments are really interesting. I read alot about SEO and while most people would say that submitting to directories is of limited value most of these people would also say that it's something they would do as part of a client's work. So is it fairer to say it's fine submitting to them but just don't waste too much time and effort?

For small businesses who think that submitting to directories will help them alot what you say would be a better use of their limited resources and effort?

Appreciate you're feedback as I think you could provide some valuable insights given Red Evolution is such a well respected business

 

[RedEvo]

Guest blogging is worth investigating as it creating useful content people will share, sometimes called link bait.

d

 

[aviemorebusiness]

Thought I might as well jump in here as link building is part of the service we offer to customers. There are various forms of link building and the one post that stands out above is from Stuart (why do I find myself constantly agreeing with him?!) in that Google is not stupid and it is definitely the higher page rank that the linking website has that is the most important thing for you. There is nothing wrong with directory linking, a good established link directory such as some of the companies joining in this thread are good, but it is definitely worth taking the time to in the first instance get yourself on the free UK directories, build up from there. Paid ones are only good if you track in analytics for a few months to see if it has been worth your while. Many of these directories make it sound a great deal that for only £50 a year you can have a gold listing, all well and good until you realise you didnt receive a single visit to your website from them, thats £50 down the drain.

Link building is a very broad term and there are various types and quality of link building although the majority of it is good and will do you no harm at all. As far as Google Places is concerned, just be warned that if you decide to go down the AdWords route and spend £50 a month having your places listing highlighted (which is an option) your highlighted listing will only appear to searches within a 15 mile radius of you - useless if you are in a remote area like we are up here. Maybe more relevant to a city environment and worth a go for a few months but again make sure your Google analytics are set up properly to track this.

I hate active selling on these forums but if you do need some help with getting your analytics or AdWords set up correctly and tracking properly then give us a shout as this is one of the services we offer. In typical Google fashion, they make out it is easy, when actually Google make it very easy for you to spend money with them when in many cases it is just not necessary!

Katie

 

[Jeff Hardy]

Online Directories are very helpful in search engine promotion. But beaware from link farm directories.

 

[Content Chefs]

Some online directories may help with your rankings to a limited extent. Namely high quality ones that are either local or relevant to your business (i.e. dedicated to your niche).

You should be wary however, Google has got good at devaluing links from sources like this, especially if they're obviously built in a way to manipulate your search engine rankings. For instance if you went out and got 50 links back to your site from directories then this might look suspicious (especially if you don't have a diverse link profile with links from other sources) and Google could easily slap you with a penalty.

For google places, search optimisation methods like this still apply to an extent, especially if you're targeting local sites/directories, but you'll probably get better results by concentrating on putting targeted local content on your site, improving your google places listing (by adding as much relevant content as possible) and increasing social signals, through Facebook and the like.

Above all else, don't pay to be listed in a directory. It's not worth it. Especially if it's purely to get a link back to your site.