Link Building: Paid Directory Inclusion

[Alex]

I run a small business buying and selling Cisco networking equipment, things like routers, switches, firewalls, etc....

I'm actively working on link building, and I am on the fence as to whether to cough up the cash for a paid directory inclusion in Dir.Yahoo.com, Business.com, Botw, etc....

Doing quite a bit of linked article submission, heavily targeting about a dozen keywords/phrases. Also selective linked blog commenting and a few other tactics....there are not a ton of "industry relevant" sites without opportunities for followed links.

Looking for the opinion of experienced link builders...are paid inclusion in these premier directories a "must have". I am not a cheapskate by any means, but something about paid directories with annual renewals rubs me the wrong way.

[Xatsker]

They're not absolutely necessary, especially if you're having success getting links from other solid sites. I usually use a few paid directories as a base -- just something to get things started with. But I've pretty much given up on directories that only offer an annually renewable listing. If I'm going to pay to get into a directory, I want to pay once and be done with it.

[mangoface]

It's all about experimentation, for some niches getting included into those directories may help but  in most cases you really don't need it. I only submit my sites to very niche directories. I find that helps most!

[bigzee]

It used to work great in the good old days 

However now the effects are much less, google seems to love in content links in highly related articles. I still submit to directories but not as much!

[truffleshuffle]

Yahoo directory, DMOZ etc are all old ways of getting your site noticed. Having a listing on any of them takes more time and effort than it's worth. I personally have quite a few sites on DMOZ (sure it's not paid, but it's supposed to be exclusive), mainly old ones and I don't really see any of them having a boost or gaining any benefit from being on them.

In terms of traffic refferals I literally get no traffic from them!

[Sevam]

It is almost impossible to get into dmoz.
So to promote site, you can pay for inclusion, but i have never done it.

[Andrew11]

I don't like anything to do with monthly/annual fees subscriptions via online transaction I think it's crazy Paypal allows this without a second verified consent every month/year.  These kinds of fees really add up

[jean12]

I used to use directory links when I first got into creating websites, however, I've been using them lesser and lesser as time passed by as I don't find them as useful as I did before as Google didn't pay much attention to these.

It might work for the nature of your business though it all depends really, because I had very different websites.

[alexmike]

I don't know about you but I wouldn't spend too much time paying for a directory submission. i haven' t found it to be very useful lately. maybe it was in the beginning but not any more.

[fiant]

I don't know about you but I wouldn't spend too much time paying for a directory submission. i haven' t found it to be very useful lately. maybe it was in the beginning but not any more.

Yes of course