Submitting To Free Directories - Worth It?

The common question I get in the SEO world... is it worth it submitting to free directories?

Well the answer is yes it can help you but the reality is that you are better off spending your time on other areas as they can bring more bang for the amount of time.

If you are going to submit to free directories here are some things you should keep in mind:

1) Free directory submission takes a lot of time and you must submit to hundreds of directories to see results
2) Many free directories are here today and gone tomorrow and that means the same for your backlink... so if you submit to 500 directories, you may only be left with 200 or so backlinks two months later
3) Many free directories main goal is to capture your email address so they can send you lots of spam
4) A lot of free directories are utilizing dropped domains so Page Rank is not real
5) Even directories with good page rank on the home page rarely have good PR for their internal pages where your link will actually be placed
6) Contrary to lots of rumors free directory submissions WILL NOT get your site penalized
7) Free directories rarely deliver you any real traffic, they are mostly just useful for their backlink value
8) Your competitors can easily get the same backlinks
9) Submitting to these directories will eat up a lot of your time (use a program like RoboForm to speed up the process)
10) Make sure to change up the text in your submissions often to avoid it looking spammy in Google's eyes

There is nothing wrong with using a free directory submission service.

Yes, but there are services that will do this for very, very little money.
And that's 200 more than you would have had.
That's why you should use a throw-away e-mail address when submitting.
Maybe, but that hasn't been my experience
Agreed - true
Agreed - true
Agreed - true
But they usually don't
Again, there are services that will do this for very little
Yes, be sure the submission service you use allows you to chaneg up the anchor text

Directories might not send you many visitors, but you will receive more traffic in the long run as a result of higher search engine rankings.

Could you explain more about dropped domains and roboForm

Dropped domains means that someone just recently acquired a domain name that had a decent Page Rank and put up a directory instead. The person will usually advertise the high page rank in order to get submissions (preferably paid) but once Google picks up on the change the Page Rank will usually disappear or reduce. You can always tell a dropped domain by looking at the history of a web site... if the site just recently became a directory and has a decent page rank, that usually means it is a dropped domain.

Roboform is a program that you can buy (there is also a free trial with reduced functionality) that will help you fill in all of the information with one click. All you do is create the content you want to use once and the program will allow you to fill in directory submission forms with just one click. To find the program download just Google RoboForm.

You forgot to add that this form will work only with dead on arrival mushroom farm directories that will be off line at the same time their domain will expire. Any directory with basic spam protection will delete your submission before editors will have chance to see it. Our directory spam defense will blacklist your IP, never mind domain and if you by any change bypassed stoppers, our editors will delete your site because your form is too stupid to read our submission guidelines thus will be making mistakes too obvious to editors that link submitted by moron who tried to use Form.

Did I mention that in order to submit your site to us, you have to go to index page, then to category, then to sub-category and only them click on Add URL?
No yet... oh well, then I just did it. Almost forgot, if your submission in missing even one single step in our log, your IP will be blacklisted.
I think, I mentioned blacklisted already.

fastreplies

I agree about maybe spending time doing other things. I would rather submit press releases and articles than submit to directories.

But hey if you submit to a few good directories it prob wont hurt, especially if you can find some nice niche ones.

What might be more clever is to try and get links on resource blog posts or blogs in your niche.

hello , emmaonline

You are right some directories using (Dropped domains)
we should avoid submission in these directory

And about Roboform recently i using InformEnter

"Is Roboform better then InformEnter "

..................................

In my own exprience, I got a lot of links in short time after I have submitted my site to few hundreds of directories... But it's better to be prepared in advance, because it takes time.

submitting your site to free directories is worthywhile. but it will take you so much time to do so. pretty time and energy consuming.