The SEO Myth Of Directory Submissions
April 12th, 2010 by Jon
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Within SEO, there is a great amount of relevant and useful information and also a considerable amount of inaccurate and misleading information too. If exploring the subject of search engine optimisation online, you will quickly see the reliability of sources can vary significantly.
Many myths exist about SEO and are often used by unethical SEO companies trying to gain clients. If you want to run a successful SEO campaign, it is important to only work with respectable and ethical SEO firms. You should be aware of the most common SEO myths and avoid all companies which claim these myths are true.
One myth commonly used by unethical SEO consultants is that submitting your website to thousands of directories is beneficial for your business. This myth is often believed by those new and inexperienced in SEO. The reason for this is because submitting your website to as many directories as possible can appear to be common sense. Directories are often used by internet users when they are looking for a particular business. If your site is registered with numerous directories then it is assumed this will increase the amount of traffic visiting your site.
This is inaccurate. In fact, submitting your website to as many directories as possible could even damage your reputation and chances of SEO success. Linking with low quality websites encourages the web crawlers to view your website as low quality and this is not beneficial. If any of these sites are spam, your website may also be regarded as spam and the search engines do not rank websites of this kind highly.
Unpopular and low quality directories are also unlikely to receive a great deal of traffic. This means your website will not receive a great deal of exposure from a listing like this and it is unlikely to make a significant difference to the amount of traffic visiting your web pages.
It can be advantageous to submit your site to some popular and relevant directories. However, using schemes to submit to as many sites as possible will not generate you a great deal of traffic and can damage your rankings.
This SEO myth is pushed by some of those working in SEO because it is relatively simple and sounds impressive. Business owners are keen to have their website listed in as many different online locations as possible and do not realise the quality of these websites can make a significant difference.
Respectable SEO specialists will not recommend an SEO technique like this. Some directory submissions may be advised but these will be suitable and relevant for your business and may be useful sources of targeted traffic.
At SEO Consult, we are always honest with our clients. We let them know what we can and can’t do and always try to achieve the best results possible. We will not manipulate you with myths and promises we can’t deliver but instead will provide you with useful information and assistance to help your business to be an online success.
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I agree and disagree with you to a certain point. I believe you should submit to some directories, but you need to practice the use of variety. Submitting to several thousand directories, using a single keyword as the link title is certainly SEO suicide.
Directories still can be used, although their importance has declined and are not nearly as highly regarded as they once were.
I think you just need to analyze the directory you submit your website to and amke sure to use different keyword and description for each submission.
The best directories use rss, sitemap and social bookmarks to advertise new listing on social network. (If I may, http://www.blogconn.com is a good example how a directory can help improve your ranking)
The bad directories will only want your link to get a reciprocal link in return, and most of the time, the reciprocal link is not the directory itself.