Can Low Quality Directories Hurt?
-
I realize that links from low quality directories aren't of much value. Having said that, can doing this kind of linking actually penalize a site?
-
Hi Wayne,
Google released an official post regarding this topic located here which may help to explain your question. As stated previously, by Google and in the post, Google does take measures to ensure submission to low quality links will not necessarily result in a penalty, but will likely not help your site a significant degree. This also means a significant ranking drop for specific keywords is likely not the result of low quality directory submissions.
-
That is a question we get a lot from clients. Extremely hard to pinpoint those drops.
-
That's what I thought, but I wanted an experienced opinion. I had a ranking drop after adding some directory links and was looking for a cause
-
Absolutely not.
If there was a way to 'hurt' a site then black hatters would be bombing sites to force them down in rankings.
How did you determine the directory being of low value?
In my eyes a link is a link is a link.
-
I don't think it can "hurt" a website.
Just because of the fact that a competitor could build them, to penalize you.
That being said, if very low quality links are built for months and months on end, that might possibly alert the search engines it's most probably the site owner building them.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Arrrg . . . Just can't seem to get there
http://www.electricianinperth.com.au is one site that me and my colleagues are constantly struggling with. It has a page rank of 5 which beats a majority of the competitors, but when it comes to Google Australia searches such as Perth Electrician and Electrician Perth etc etc, we just can't seem to get there and the rankings keep fluctuating and dropping. We backlink and update the pages on a regular basis Any ideas? - Could it be the custom Wordpress/CMS system?
Link Building | | lewisjosep70 -
Best way to regular check backlinks & identify low quality and spammy links?
Previously my site was under manual penalty and then 80% of the links i removed and my penalty lifted. ( I am talking about 1 year before) Now i have few queries - What is the best way to regular check backlinks? what to do if a spammy link appears What to do about directories that link to us What to do with old links that are not good quality Now I have to check number of links and quality of links of website so which is the best method check? Thanks! dev
Link Building | | devdan0 -
Are Directory links relevant?
What are everyone's thoughts on directory links now a days? I'm talking about the old tried and true ones, like Yahoo directory and DMOZ? We had previously been on a couple and removed the links, thinking it was hurting us. But we've been falling in rankings for a while now, and I'm trying to think of some ways to bring us back up (even if they're small). Do you think it would be worth it to be added back in? Anyone's thoughts on this would be appreciated.
Link Building | | Viewpoints0 -
How can I optimize the Wordpress "read more" link?
What is the correct way to work with “read more” links in Wordpress? I have a Wordpress blog where I use in each post a read more link (posts with long content), in other words, in the home page each post has two links to the full post, this is good for the usability of my blog. I show actually 10 posts on the home page, this results in 10 links of post title and 10 links of read more = 20 links. I have 10 repeated links on the home page. My read more links have customized text, links to the permalink without #more, links dofollow. In this way that I’m using read more links, Am I diluting the link juice of my blog? Is it correct to use nofollow in internal links trying to manipulate the link juice of my site?
Link Building | | adaumhenrique0 -
Can Google ban for use of Press Releases?
Is it possible for Google to ban you if you are doing multiple press releases on a weekly basis? All content is unique and news worthy, following proper ratio density/links Thanks!
Link Building | | TP_Marketing0 -
What if trusted sites in your niche have low authority?
What if the most trusted sites in your niche have relatively low authority? Should you still spend a lot of resources to get those links or go after easier links with higher link authority (as determined by MozRank)?
Link Building | | Charlessipe0 -
Submitting to Directories
What do you look for when submitting to directories? I'm going through the Web Directories list that SEOMoz has put out and trying to decide which are the best. I'm just wondering if anybody has any suggestions as far as what to look for before submitting. I know PageRank is kind of an old metric but I do seem to see a correlation between PageRank and directory cost. If I submit to a directory category with a PR of 4 or 5 it seems like it will cost me anywhere between $50-$300.
Link Building | | TRICORSystems0 -
Any good content sites with good quality links?
I have some content which is still relevant and interesting but not really suitable for my current websites. I have been thinking of using this on an article site to generate some links back to my sites, but I am wary about this due to Google's targeting of content sites. I currently have good PR's on Squidoo and Hubpages which link back and work quite well. Can anyone suggest any others or any ideas how to use this content for SEO purposes? Is using it for article submissions to get links short sited?
Link Building | | JohnW-UK0