(5)
Let's say that when you first built your site, you relied heavily on directories to get your name out. You've also built good content and get linked to every so often. You're now complacent with your rankings primarily because you're getting good traffic from a variety of these alternate sources, and your directory links are not doing much for you.
Do you drop the directory links, or do you continue to pay the yearly rate for these links that may do absolutely nothing for you?
A High Rankings member asks the community: what would you do?
If your content is self-sustainable, it may be perfectly fine to start trying to avoid paying these fees for directory inclusion. If the rankings take a plunge, you know that the directories you've dropped are likely to be responsible for it. And that is exactly what you can try, says member donp:
Sounds like you are doing it right, wean yourself off the directories, watch for a dip in traffic & rankings. if you are getting "x" traffic from Yahoo or whoever and it's worth it, pay the bucks.
Jill Whalen agrees.
You can drop them, and see if you notice any change in rankings. You can always re-up if you think that dropping them was the cause.
So do I. :)
Forum discussion continues at High Rankings Forums.
Comments:
Eric Itzkowitz
07/19/2007 07:57 pm
Is it really even worth the potential down-fall to fret a $300/yr listing fee (or less)? I'd argue that it's not. Why screw with what you've achieved?
Michael Martinez
07/19/2007 08:54 pm
$300 per year is more to some and less to others. I think it's reasonable for people to question the value of a paid link from time to time. Jill's advice is spot on. If you get that funny feeling in the back of your head, maybe it's time to let go and see what happens. You can always replace it later. But a good strategy won't depend on one link. You should build your visibility and reputation one customer at a time so that the prospect of losing a link doesn't become an issue to fret over.
srinagubandi
07/20/2007 12:32 pm
Being in a good directory is never a bad thing. If you were a medical site and you were able to get on an AMA.org site would you do it? Ofcouse! There are many factors involved, but I would look at it as an taking the next step, put that 300 towards a a site/directory that is the best niche/authority site in your industry and product category.
jebbiii
07/31/2007 12:33 am
since directories like Yahoo's are paid links, would Google provide any page rank value for them? I think people generally believe it does - so it begs the question of paid links on Google.
Eric Itzkowitz
08/13/2007 09:28 pm
"would Google provide any page rank value for them?" If they did, nice. If not, oh well. I'd continue to list my site in the Yahoo Directory to stand out from the average clueless spammer. Yahoo definitely includes their Directory as a checkpoint in their algo. How much, who knows? As Michael says, $300 to some is more than to others. If you are offering a legitimate product or service and can't afford $300/yr, you might want to look into a small business loan.