Does Google Still Like Directories?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

Google used to love directory listings as part of a long term link building and search engine optimization effort. A webmaster could submit his website to 1,000 general directories and get back links using the same anchor text and it was good. But those days are over. You could call them the halcyon days of directory submissions. Or the hey-day of links.

Whatever you call it, you won’t ever see that level of commitment from Google toward directories again. Google hasn’t gotten stricter on directory submissions.

In general, I think Google still likes most directories but you could say the search bots have grown skeptical. Google is a bit more discerning. If you get your website listed in directories where there is a lot of spam, you shouldn’t consider that those links will account for much. It is better to get links from a few real good directories than to get a lot of links from a bunch of bad directories. And if it comes down to high traffic directories versus directories that give just a little bit of link juice, you could be better off with a high traffic directory and no link juice. Any way you look at it, you have to weigh your options.