There was a time when submitting to directories such as GoGuides, JoeAnt, Skaffe, even Yahoo Directory provided value to webmasters who were either looking to get new sites indexed or increase their site's link popularity or both. However, I am seeing a trend where these and other directories are not as helpful in these two areas as they once were. Add to that the rising costs of submission fees and it is easy to see why the webmaster should approach directory submissions very carefully.

I have authored a post at Search Engine Guide entitled, "Do Directory Submissions Still Hold Any Value?" which looks at some of the reasons why certain directories hold no value and what to look for when trying to find value in directory inclusions. Those things include looking at whether the category pages you want to be listed on are actually indexed by the search engines, identifying how many other sites you will have to share the link juice wealth with, is the directory adding the nofollow attribute to its listings and are you going to get any actual traffic from the directory.

Check it out at Search Engine Guide.


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