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In general, webmasters submit to directories a lot (so I've seen). But I've recently heard that search engines often ""mark down"" for this - is that true? Should I submit to directories?

Spotless

I recently submitted to some respected directories and discovered some positive results. You don't submit to directories for the sake of submitting to directories. You need to be selective.

Only prestigious directories will give you respect among search engines.

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stOx

It's like any link, They dont just mark you down for being in a directory.
If you are in a good directory with clean links and a good structure google like it.
If you are on a free for all directory full of spam then that link will be of no value.

Google look at a page, whether it be on a blog, site or directory, Then decide, based on what else is on that page, How much weight that link will carry.

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appraisal57

I would submit to directories. It can't hurt you to do it.

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raina

You must check following before getting a link from a directory:-

1. Age of the directory

2. Classification of categories (e.g. suppose you want add a mobile phone site link it should have a category like Mobile phone. )

3. Is pages are crawlable or not.( Some directories use dynamic pages like http://www.directory.com/page?cat=6&cat=4&subcat=3, these pages are not crawlable as compare to .html pages or having a single ID parameter)

And last but not least, If you put your link to any niche directory of your topic, its likely to get more weightage from it than normal all purpose directories.

Hope it helps,
Raina

hhheng

Submit to directories definitely will help your backlinks and thus rankings in SERPs. One month ago, my site never got visitors from google, and since then I started submitting to about 35 directories. Now many unexpected keywords are ranked in the first page of google, and daily unique visitors from google will be around 6.

I have no budget, and so I will submit to any free directories, no matter it's old or new, and no matter it's PR6 or PR0. Normally higher PR directories will think themselves as DMOZ, and will only approve or reject a website long time later, and the chance of getting rejected are more bigger than getting approved. For new and PR0 directories, most of them will approve you site fast and few will reject sites. Sooner or later, these new directories will be popular and get higher PR.

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Toaster

I think thet better make linkexchange and article submition. I think that submition to derictories just lose your time.

richie

You will never get marked down by having links on any type of site to your own. As long as you do not link to bad sites, there will never be a problem.

Some sites will give you a better link back than others but none will do you any damage.

If it was the case, then I would add my competitiors sites to every casino, viagra, link farm and pornagraphic site going.

The search engines know that you as a webmaster have no control on inbound links so will not mark you down for them. Bad incoming links will just either not be registered or will not carry so much weight.