Is directory submitting still a valid backlinking strategy?

People have been submitting their websites to directories for several years. Since around 2006 when people realized that there was value to creating websites devoted to directory listings, companies have been adding their listings to directories for web traffic, search results, and other intangible benefits.

But is there still a real value to directory submitting campaigns?

One would surmise that the value of a backlink is best measured by its relevance. If another website is linking to your site, and it is in the same “neighbourhood”, then there should certainly be some value in having your site listed. Whether you would actually earn any traffic from that link is anyone’s guess, since most of the major search engines provide instantaneous results on any search listing or variable.

But still, people continue to create directories, whether for profit or pleasure, and humans, bots, and automatic directory submitting software programs continue to feed websites into these cloned directories.

I would have to say that the overall value is weak, given that there is typically no discretion in what websites are permitted to be listed in these directories. It’s more or less a free-for-all, and if you have a decent website, the chances are good that you will be listed next to other worthless sites that happen to share the same category.

Done in mass, directory submissions can earn you some serious backlinks, but how the big search engines treat these continues to change. For a while, Google distanced itself from directories and the massive copy/clone style of manufacturing duplicate directory content. While the directory creators saw value (and money) in creating scores of repeated directories under different names, the content offered nothing to websurfers and only more backlinks to submitters.

Relentless, these directory spammers flooded the Internet with the same links over and over again in the guise of referencial content.

Now, many of the directories have disappeared, the infinite copies of shareware directory software scripts relegated to parked domains and relinquished sites. While the stronger ones remain, the value of directory submitting has diminished, to the point that only true directories really offer something to the users.

Are directory submitting campaigns finished for good? Directory submitters will tell you otherwise. But it remains that on the Internet more backlinks is still better than fewer.