Paid links from directory listing and business listing sites are good or bad according to Penguin 2.1 update?
-
Hi Friends,
Recently on October 4<sup>th</sup>, 2013, a new spam filtering algorithm got live named Penguin 21. / Penguin 5.
The update goes after sites that may have purchased paid links.
I would like to know is it safe, if we submit website details with links in paid directories, eg: https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro/ (yahoo directory) and quality business listing sites provided the categories are related to our website.
Our competitor sites having the backlinks from those kind of directories and they are performing (ranking) well in major search engines.
May I know how Google treat these kinds of links according to this recent algorithm update?
-
Thanks for your reply.
I have one more doubt. If I am going to get links from say 10-20 links from paid web directories/ business listing sites which is of high PR (pr 5 and above) and quality sites, will it affect my website ranking?
eg: http://www.rddesignlondon.co.uk/best-paid-directories-for-seo/
-
This is a complicated question because there's a sliding scale of directories out there. On a scale of 1 to 10, with one being 'getting you penalized' and 10 being 'increasing your rankings', I would put the Yahoo directory (the $299/yr one) at an 8 or so.
The yahoo directory is a rare example of a directory that is of value despite it being paid but for the most part I would steer clear of paid inclusion directories unless they have a true logical value, i.e. customers going to the directory to legitimately find a web site or business.
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
-
How does nudity on a site affect search results?
One of my clients sells lingerie and with it being lingerie there are a fair few photos of bottoms and some exposed breasts. Gosh. Anyway I know how this affects Adwords campaigns - Google classifies the site as 'adult' and your ads don't show anywhere. I also know how it affects image searches. However how does it affect text seaches?? Are rankings demoted because of nudity? I've worked with a clothing site with some nudity on it before and this didn't affect it, but would love to hear from anyone with specific experience of thisThanks
Industry News | | neenor0 -
Do rankings return to previous rank after a site has been un-indexed?
My client has had a site since 1996 (the first one was a www subdomain, his current site has no www). He came to my company for SEO about a year ago, after having a WordPress site that was accidentally set to not be crawled/indexed by search engines. We set the site to be indexed and added a blog. Since then, he has had slow increase in keyword rankings (on page 3 or most globally searched terms) but is still nowhere near page 1 for most of his keywords. He thinks my company has done nothing, while I see the keyword improvements as a sign of success - slow, gradual - but going in the right direction. I don't know if he was ranking well before he had a site that was not set to be indexed - but if he was on page one, would he eventually return there? Or do we have to build everything over again?
Industry News | | Alex_Ratynski0 -
Small Business SEO Recommendations
I work for a company that manages websites for several hundred small businesses. We do a good job with on-site optimization but don't do any link building for our clients. Occasionally, clients are in desperate need of links and ask us for recommendations. I've had a tough time finding a balance between quality consultants and affordable prices. I understand that link building campaigns, in general, carry a hefty price tag, but of our clients can't afford any of the big name agencies. We've also had a few of our clients get burned recently by bad link building and I don't want to point them in the wrong direction. Does anyone have any recommendations for companies or freelance consultants that do good work without breaking the bank? Thanks! Tim
Industry News | | TimKelsey1 -
Help seems like google is punishing our site and I don't understand why
I would love some helpMy anme is Suzanne Diamond our web site is WWW.thefutonshop.com we have been on line for years, 10 brick and mortar stores, had a strong ecommerce web site but in the past 4 months we have been dropping like a leaf. Organic search has been dropping since November 2012 but now total traffic seems to be slowing We are working on our SEO but I feel it has to be something more direct that we are being punished by google Perhaps it s obvious but not to me Can anyone help me please or give me a direction. [email protected] thanks in advance for any direction
Industry News | | FUTONSHOP0 -
Concerned about where links are coming from
Hi I am hoping someone can help me with this. I run a small seo company for a few select companies in the luxury markets. Due to certain circumstances I need to outsource a lot of link building until my in house link builders can return to work. After a phone conversation with an SEO company which offer white label service (quite a large UK company but will remain nameless) I became extremely concerned that they are supply paid links to there customers. I will explain what i mean and would appreciate advice on whether I should stay clear or not. They claim to have access to over 1000 websites in many different niches and can get a whole host of links from contextual (which they said would give 3 links in 300 words which rang the first alarm bell) then said the other come from primary theme links and hybrid links (oh which neither they would properly explain what they are). My main concern is they said the links are made and need to be "maintained" by a yearly fee so they are not removed. When I asked if they surely count as paid links I got a usual boiler room style sales pitch. My instincts tell me to stay away but maybe I am just reading it all wrong. They claim to already white label to over 300 other SEO companies, but it all sounds a bit risky to me after Googles tough stance on this! Thanks Paul
Industry News | | hanv0 -
Google's Current Wave of Updates (4/24 edition)
Edit: Someone beat me to the punch, here is the thread: http://www.seomoz.org/q/google-webspam-algo-update-24-4-12 Let's just discuss it there. So Google has said they are doing another wave of algorithm updates that could impact anywhere from 3-5% of SERPs. I saw it here: http://searchengineland.com/google-launches-update-targeting-webspam-in-search-results-119295 http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2012/04/another-step-to-reward-high-quality.html Has anyone seen any changes? I've heard from a few friends that their sites are bouncing all over the place, which seems to happy a lot during these updates. We might not actually know the fallout for a few days/weeks/months. I saw a few of my smaller sites take a hit, but most of mine have stayed the same. Anyway what do you guys think? Sometimes an update like this can be a wake-up call to people who think they are doing white hat stuff but may be pushing the envelope a bit too much. Thoughts?
Industry News | | vforvinnie0 -
When will Rand put out "Art of SEO 2nd Edition"? (ANSWER: IN ABOUT 2 WEEKS)
First edition was printed in the end of 2009. Great Book. Needs updating of course. I would buy the next edition if it was updated in an awesome way that I know Rand and the others would do.
Industry News | | stubby0 -
How does recent Google update affect e-commerce sites:
Most ecommerce sites use the original manufacturer product descriptions in their content. The product features and specifications are the content made by the manufacturer. Sometimes manufacturers insist that the ecommerce sites should use their original content and it is impossible to change what available in the original content and rewrite it.
Industry News | | IM_Learner1