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  1. #1
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    Oct 2002
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    Submitting to Niche and Local Directories

    I know recently there has been a feeling that there are too many general directories of low quality. I tend to agree with this, and I think we will see some of the low quality general directories fade away, especially those where the owner is not doing a good job adding value or maintaining them.

    However, I'm seeing a lot more niche directories and regional/local directories these days. I am wondering if anyone has noticed this, or made submitting to these a part of your promotion plan. In my opinion, these types of directories are more likely to help you with search engines, as well as give you some traffic that is worthwhile, because the visitor is actually interested in the topic of your site in most cases.

    Here are a couple of examples of directories I've seen fitting this area:
    Niche Directory - Mixed Martial Arts, Delightful Blogs, big list
    Regional/Local - GateUK, big list
    I'm sure there are many more, but in my opinion, these are the sort of directories that would produce better traffic, and help with the search engines too. It takes a little more work to find these types of directories, but it may be worth the trouble.
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  2. #2
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    Yes that type of directories have the advantage that they are easier to get listings if you are relevant to their theme and the traffic from such sites will be more qualified, but from a rankings perspective links from them tend to be more relevant but otherwise not much different than any other properly designed and maintained general directory.
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  3. #3
    Well I am no SEO expert,but other than the exception of the PR of the page,and the "bad neighborhood" type linking....
    A link is a link as far as the SE are concerned.

  4. I agree with the guys, the submission to the directories is made in order to get the back links, not the traffic. You won't receive a link from the page with high PR in none of the directories so basically it doesn't matter where to submit, people don't visit directories to find info.
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  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    I tend to agree with some of the stated opinions. Niche directories work way better than the general ones as they allow you to find your target audiance and tell your story only to them. This way you approach a specific group of people and this group is exactly the one that is likely to read and browse your website and maybe come back to it again.

  6. #6
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    Mar 2008
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    Quote Originally Posted by grace5 View Post
    Well I am no SEO expert,but other than the exception of the PR of the page,and the "bad neighborhood" type linking....
    A link is a link as far as the SE are concerned.

    I tend to agree with the premise Grace, but IMO the relevancy of the page the link comes from, and in particular the text immediately before and after the link, are weighted by Google at least.
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  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
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    185
    Quote Originally Posted by grace5 View Post
    Well I am no SEO expert,but other than the exception of the PR of the page,and the "bad neighborhood" type linking....
    A link is a link as far as the SE are concerned.
    Agreed. But the strength of such backlinks would determine your positions in SERP.
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  8. #8
    If you will start looking at the top 3 results for a search term,then check out the backlinks to the site...
    well it speaks for itself.
    they say content is king ,but its really the backlinks

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
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    Relevancy is the key. Submitting to niche directories is good if they are well within your market and focused on maintaining relevancy with the sites in their directory. But, there's always a downside. Some "niche" directories are created solely for the purpose of building a sites link popularity and not providing useful information for the visitor. Also, look at the sites DNS/WHOIS info to gauge how long its been around. If the site was registered recently and/or will expire within a year, you may want to look at it a bit closer. Consider this, a domain registration that has a 5+ year registration/expiration says that the owner plans on keeping the domain/site active for quite some time. This information (WHOIS) is accessible to the SE's as well, so imagine how much weight they'd apply to a site that has a 1-2 year registration in comparison to a site that has a 5+ year registration. I would say that they would favor a site that's "been in" or trying to "be in" the game over one that "appears" to be a walk-on and short-lived player.
    Last edited by lantafly; 04-22-2008 at 08:54 PM. Reason: grammar
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  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    USA
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    Yes I do to a niche directory is better for

    Quote Originally Posted by ElTino View Post
    I tend to agree with some of the stated opinions. Niche directories work way better than the general ones as they allow you to find your target audiance and tell your story only to them. This way you approach a specific group of people and this group is exactly the one that is likely to read and browse your website and maybe come back to it again.
    Yes I do also think this and if you have a sports store you should be able to post in sports store sites or sites that talk about sports. Not sure how many there are and will they out produce sites like Google Yahoo and MSN for ROI. But I guess the more the better and would not give up on any.
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  11. #11
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
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    Quote Originally Posted by grace5
    they say content is king ,but its really the backlinks
    Not really, content is still king as this would also greatly determmine the conversion you'll get form your visitors.
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  12. #12
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
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    Quote Originally Posted by lantafly View Post
    Relevancy is the key. Submitting to niche directories is good if they are well within your market and focused on maintaining relevancy with the sites in their directory. But, there's always a downside. Some "niche" directories are created solely for the purpose of building a sites link popularity and not providing useful information for the visitor. Also, look at the sites DNS/WHOIS info to gauge how long its been around. If the site was registered recently and/or will expire within a year, you may want to look at it a bit closer. Consider this, a domain registration that has a 5+ year registration/expiration says that the owner plans on keeping the domain/site active for quite some time. This information (WHOIS) is accessible to the SE's as well, so imagine how much weight they'd apply to a site that has a 1-2 year registration in comparison to a site that has a 5+ year registration. I would say that they would favor a site that's "been in" or trying to "be in" the game over one that "appears" to be a walk-on and short-lived player.

    *sigh* why is the perpetuation of myths such a rampant thing on SEO bbs?

    The age of the site you are getting a link from does not alter the character of the link nor give it more or less ranking "juice".

    If your purpose of submitting to directories it to get traffic from them, then good luck to you, but first of all tell me this: When was the last time you went to a directory (any directory) looking for information? And/or what do your stats tell you about the traffic you are getting from directories?

    I thought that the myth that the length of your domain registration affecting rankings had been thoroughly debunked a couple of years ago but it looks like not all got that message.
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