Backlinks From Directories Are Awesome But Are They Worth It?

Getting a backlink from a directory, especially one with a high PageRank, can be very helpful for your rankings. But are they worth your time and money? This article is going to explore this issue and lead you down the profitable path.
There are literally hundreds of website directories that you can list your site in. Many of these are high PR sites, so the backlink can be of great quality. But overall, these sites provide more problems than ranking boosts for the average webmaster - Ill explain.

Each directory has a review process. So even if you spend your time submitting your site, you may not even be accepted. If you do get accepted, most of these sites get very little traffic, therefore you will probably not benefit from any kind of traffic. And most directories are PR0-4, though there are perhaps a couple dozen that are PR5 and above. So mostly youll be rolling the dice as to see if you can get PR0-4 backlinks, which is certainly not worth your time. So my advice is, if the directory is less than PR8, dont even consider it.

More specifically, Id say not to mess with directories AT ALL, besides two specific ones: the Yahoo Directory and the DMOZ.org directory. Both of these directories are PR8 (though Yahoo.com is a PR9). But the link power from these directories most likely goes well beyond just their link juice.

Most expert SEOs believe these directories give more weight because they have a rigorous approval process. In fact, Yahoo charges $299 a year to be in their directory and if they dont approve you, they still keep your $299! Pretty ballsy, huh? But they pull it off. And the DMOZ directory can be PAINFULLY slow to get into. Some people report that it takes them up to 6 months to approve you (while Yahoo only takes 1 week).

So the question remains, should you try to get into these directories? Well, if youre making a blog or a small site of any kind, simply put, no. For $299, you can get quite a few backlinks without having to risk trying to get just one. But if you are building thousands of links to a crown jewel of yours and the competition is stiff for your target keyword, then you may want to consider it. There is some evidence that a Yahoo Directory listing can give a quick, big boost to your site in Google (and probably in Yahoo too, but who cares about Yahoo?). It shows Google your site went through a manual review and passed. That should score big points. Honestly, if your site is legitimate enough to be in the directory, $299 a year should be a drop in your budgets bucket. Get what Im saying?

Make sure you go to the Yahoo Directory site and check their guidelines first to make sure you have the chance of getting accepted. You dont want to blow $299. As far as DMOZ sure, if you meet their guidelines, take a couple of minutes and submit your site. But dont expect them to get around to it any time soon.