I was just browsing through the ads/offers forums and saw this thread:

http://webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=516526

What do you think about this? Is it a good idea or bad idea to have your site listed in a ton of directories?

Please give specific reasons why you feel it is good or bad.

Thanks!

Interesting thread you provided. Regarding directory listings in general I do not see how they can hurt unless they are inaccurate or have dead links in the listings. I think in general the more sites you can get linking into yours the better your search engine rankings will be and the more exposure your site will get.

I tend to look at website promotion as the more exposure the better, but at the same time one concern I have is what types of sites are providing links to our site, for example I personally would not want an adult hosting directory to have us listed in their directory. Other than those types of instances I don't see how being listed in directories can be bad.

My $0.02

In general, I'd say it is good. We've done it, but haven't had the time to keep getting listed in all the new ones. It's a little overwhelming to try to keep up with them.

Has it resulted in any new business for us? Very little, if any. I would say that is primarily because we don't compete much on price and most people looking at a hosting directory are trying to find the cheapest because they are in "shopping" mode and they feel better about themselves when they can brag to their friends and neighbors about their shopping prowess and the great deal they found.

Has it hurt us? Not that I can tell, except maybe that other hosts got a chance to look at our feature list a little sooner and revamp their own feature lists to match our own. It was bound to happen eventually and if it was really that easily copied, we just didn't innovate enough.

Wasting of time. We hired hostpromouter which added us to all hosting directory's (someting like $150) - but here no traffic and no leads from those hosting directory's for past 12 months.

Google Adwords and Overture works very well for us.

Personally never had any luck listing in directorys, as said above Google Adwords works well.

I don't think submitting to directories will hurt your website any but it also probably will not help,. I've never had any visitors to my sites that come directly from the directories. So I would say it can be a waste of time (and money if you pay for a submission service).

You shouldn't expect a load of traffic or sales from these directories, but I think it'd be something you should do. Most of these directories are free, and even just having these inbound links will help.

One way links is always a good idea no matter how you look at it. You can even get some pr up from them.

The more links to your website the better. Google loves links!

Most of the time if you don't provide a reciprocal link, you'll be listed on their directory but the link to your site will not be followed by search engines.. so it wont effect your page rank.. most directories do this to preserve their page rank..

Links from forum posts would be much more useful comparing to all 100+ directory listings.
It is worth to be listed in DMOZ and Yahoo directories and in some specialized directories focusing on your geographics location and business type.

It worked well in the past. But, it is nearly useless now since there are too many low quality directories around. Google doesn't count them anymore.

However, if it is a new site, submitting to free directories is a good way to start. At least, the search engines will be able to find your site.

I am still waiting for one of my sites to be listed in DMOZ

Wow what a thread bump. DMOZ is pretty much a dead project at this point.

Yeah, DMOZ don't allow anymore sites at all..sure you can submit but not listed ;)

Really? I didn't know this cause I had 2 sites added a 2-3 months ago. Could it be that all the people are on holiday or you think they're gone for good?

Well, far as i know they are still adding sites. :confused:

If you have submitted a site few months ago and it is not listed, then you better submit it again. It is because DMOZ just has a hardware failure. After they fixed, all old submissions were gone...

It probably can't hurt to submit to directories but out of hte 500 directories and $100 dollars spent on directory listing I have only gotten exposure out of it. Not one signup came from any of the directory sites. I did get a slight increase in traffic though.

Robert Davis

Wasting of time. We hired hostpromouter which added us to all hosting directory's (someting like $150) - but here no traffic and no leads from those hosting directory's for past 12 months.

Google Adwords and Overture works very well for us.

Same here. I think he posted to about 200+ sites and urchin reports one or two searches coming from those links. In fact, i spent another 40hrs adding hundreds more. That was about 5 months ago. Our traffic is still the same according to Urchin. So in my opinion, its a complete waste of time and money.