Online Directories, Are They Worth It?

[RayGroupInsurance]

I have been trying to improve my websites ranking on google by creating more backlinks. So far I have been using all of the free resources out there but I am beginning to run out of relevant sources.

Has anyone used the paid listings on directories? How much do you pay? Is it worth it to you?

I guess I'm wondering if these directories are any good and if so, how much should I pay per month/year to be listed?

 

[Alston]

I have purchased some links. I do think that they have impact. However, a lot of SEO stuff is educated guess work. You know that the more hands you shake, the better chance you have of getting elected. However, you can't tell which hands are really worth shaking.

I try to purchase links from pages that have a page rank. The page rank of PR of the page that links to you, not the home page of the directory, is what is most important. However, if it is cheap enough I will purchase links from 0 PR pages.

Most sites take paypal, so you don't have to worry about sharing your credit card # with a long list of sites.

Almost all of the links I've purchased required a one-time payment, as opposed to an annual or monthly payment. I do pay an annual fee to be listed in the Yahoo! directory but that is one of few that I pay for on a recurring basis. They charge $300 for submission and do not refund the money if your site is rejected. If you do decide to submit to Yahoo make sure that all your links work ( W3C Link Checker ), that your code is valid ( The W3C Markup Validation Service ), and that you have a privacy statement. The above are good things to do whether or not you submit to Yahoo. Broken links and invalid code will hurt your rankings.

Invitation to all Insurance Webmasters
I have a list of sites that I've purchased links on. PM me if you want. Send me the URLs for 5 directory sites you like (free or paid) and I will send you 5. We can do 5 at a time until one of us decides to stop.

I recommend coming up with an amount of money that you won't miss and purchasing a few links. If after a month or so, you feel that it was effective, purchase some more.

 

[The New Guy]

Then the first thing I would do is add your web site address to your signature line on this forum.

I'm working on a project to help Forum members with their SEO, and backlinks objectives. Both free and paid.

I'm knee deep in creating web sites for myself at the moment, and hope to be done in a two weeks or so.

Damn Golf Course keeps getting in the way.

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

I can vouch for "The New Guy." I have learned a great deal from him in the last month or so. And one of these months, I'll stop asking him so many questions!

 

[ABC]

I am new to this forum but I have been in the health insurannce business for about 9 years.
I was one of the first brokers in my state to have a website.
I do both SEO and Pay per click.

My first questions to you would be what is your goal for your site rankings? What is your monthly budget for digital media? Is your site developement correctly so that the web site "spiders" can read it?

 

[RayGroupInsurance]

I've got a company (pathnet.com) building a custom site for me. The objective of the site will be generating leads for my agency. They just started working on it this week so I don't know what it is going to look like exactly but it is supposed to be optimized for the keywords I need (home, auto and life insurance in Utah). I am currently spending around $500/month on online leads and would gladly pay that for SEO/SEP services if I could generate enough leads.

I found this site insuremyhouse.com that charges $80/year to be listed. I am wondering if it is worth $80 to get listed in a directory like this.

 

[The New Guy]

First of all, you need to determine what you want to do with your site. Will it be mainly for customer information, or actual submitting of business?

These are some of the first steps I would do.

Who is supplying your site builder with the keywords, and how much research has been done to determine if those are the keywords you should be targeting.

I wouldn't have a web builder choosing my keywords, that would be like you choosing the keywords for a web builder. You wouldn't know where to start.

What keywords, or phrases are you going to make your Header Tags, Meta Tag description and Site Title.

Put your web site address in your signature line on this forum. This site gets crawled daily by Google & Yahoo.

If your going to get into the back linking part of SEO, make sure your designer adds link pages for you while your site is being built, and make sure you can make additions and deletions yourself. Otherwise you will have to pay to have this done for you.

Some people would rather pay someone to do these functions, others would rather do this themselves. This will be an on going job, at least monthly.

Make sure your site gets submitted to Google, Yahoo, and DMOZ at least.

Go to Yahoo & Google, and set up Pay Per Click accounts. If nothing else, you can use the keyword information from them to adjust your keywords. This is where you build a list of keywords you might want to use. I have a list of over 250 keyword search terms that I use, and I'm adding new phrases all the time. Just did three more this morning.

Back link building is a process.

Basically, is it the exchanging of web addresses, which is then placed on each others site. That is called a reciprocal link.

There are one way links where you have your link placed on someone else's web site, without theirs being placed on yours. These can be free, or they can be paid.

Submitting links takes time and effort, first you have to find the source, Directory, Search Engine, or another Site, determine which type of link you are seeking, then fill out a link submission form of that prospective site. Some sites don't even have a link submission form, with those, you need to contact them direct, either by e-mail, or phone.

You also have to be careful with back links, some can do more harm, hurt your SEO efforts, than good. Wouldn't sweat to much over this if common sense is used with whom your link partners are.

Others will charge you a fee for a link or do a reciprocal link with you, then add a "no follow" tag, meaning search engines will not follow that link. Basically rendering it useless for you.

While this all sounds kind of overwhelming, it can actually be fun if you have the right mind set.

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

Guy...I meant to ask you...The Ohioquotes site is being replaced with a new site. It should be done in a few weeks.

Obviously the domain will stay the same. Will I keep any backlinks or other little SEO things I have done, or will they be lost. Also...I understand the older the site...the better. Or is is the older the domain?

I don't want Google to think that the new site is a brand new entity.

Thanks.

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

By the way Ray...Pathnet charges $80-$140 per month to build a site. I would think that you would want to pay a one-time fee ($400-$800?) and some nominal hosting fees instead.

 

[The New Guy]

Guy...I meant to ask you...The Ohioquotes site is being replaced with a new site. It should be done in a few weeks.

Obviously the domain will stay the same. Will I keep any backlinks or other little SEO things I have done, or will they be lost. Also...I understand the older the site...the better. Or is is the older the domain?

I don't want Google to think that the new site is a brand new entity.

Thanks.

Get with your designer and have them transfer the links while their building your links pages. They don't transfer by themselves.

You will not lose any SEO traction you have built, should notice an increase in exposure.

The longer established the domain the better.

Google eats up new content, with your link on the forum, google should find the contents of your new site in a matter of days, if not hours.