Content Chefs
New Member
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.
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.
