Within this entry to th SEO manual (Search Engine Optimisation) the topic of free and paid links will be covered.

Free

This refers to any directory of links that provide inbound links to a website that has not been paid for; thus making it free. There are many free directories on the internet if only searching for ‘Free links’; there are a multitude of websites to choose from. This is not necessarily the best way to find free directories due to the fact that not all directories are great. Just because there are free directories at the top of a search engine results page does not mean that they are the best. For example, DMOZ is probably the best free directory out there but yet they aren’t on he first page of the SERP for free web directory.

Paid

Paid Directories have been looked down on recently, but even Matt Cutts himself of Google admits that paid directories are fine depending on which you choose. It is pretty much the same story as for the free link directories; the best ones are not always in the SERP’s. Yahoo is one of the best paid directories out there as you have to pay a fee and then that still doesn’t guarantee you a place in their listings. If a paid directory accepts every request then it will become a free-for-all with spammy and bad quality websites. Yet, if the directories are selective about who they pick then that paid directory could be one of the best.

So which one do I choose?

It depends entirely on your budget; if you don’t want to spend any money then search and find respectable free web directories and request you be included in their directory. If you have a bit of money to spend then add yourself to the free directories as well as finding quality paid web directories and submitting your website to those as well.

In this section of the SEO manual i will be discussing the topic of paid directories, Explaining what they are there advantages and disadvantages and a general evaluation of paid directories.

People say that paid directories aren’t good but google use it as a feed, Google use it as a basis if they despise it, then why do they still do it? Google say many people get penalised for paid directories the one’s that were penalised were the one’s that guarantee paid linking. When you are choosing which paid directory to use please ensure that you have researched the directory and make sure that you can find them on Google, Yahoo or MSN, If you choose a bad one then you may not receive a quality paid directory.

A great example of a paid directory is Yahoo, The biggest benefit of having Yahoo review your web page is that you pay a small fee and they review your web page within 5 days sometimes the turn around time is much quicker, you are paying for the editor to review your website by hand whereas if you use a free directory such as DMOZ they can take a year to review it.

Yahoo is probably the most useful directory that you could be listed in, its slightly more expensive than other directories but its defianetly worthwhile as its a very profitable site to be listed under, It has a presence in the online industry as an authority site, many people use it worldwide as its a well known search engine.

There are two relevant reasons why you should submit your website to directories and they are to acquire more traffic to your website and also to create more link building so that you will get a better page rank this is really important to your webpage.

Normally Paid directories are given priority and rank higher in the directory listing this increases the traffic to your website meaning that it will be more beneficial to your business.

One major factor when choosing paid directories is that they use one way links, this tells the search engine that your web page is valuable and useful as most free paid directories require a reciprocal link which isn’t as powerful in the search engine.

Here at Position Gold Ltd we hope that you find this information useful, We aim to offer our clients the best level of service possible, if you have any queries regarding paid directories please don’t hesitate to contact us.