Hi,

I have a client who is offering a very good and well established UK based directory listing for £49.99 a year.

I personally feel this is good value for money in the long term, i.e its value as an inbound one way link.

I would like feedback on whether people think this is a reasonable price and to what price you'd consider buying a link? :)

At some point it really doesn't matter what price you sell it at. I know plenty of indivudals that shell out the $299 for the Yahoo directory every year for multiple categories.

$49.99 is a fair price. There are those that are cheaper and there are those that are more expensive.

When it comes down to it, it really is the integrity of the listings. Are they just listing any body who wants to pay? If so how are they ensuring they are not linking to bad neighborhoods and keeping themselves clean in the eyes of the engines?

If it were me... I wouldn't really care how much I spent, as long as I'm getting the results to justify the cost.

Hi phaithful, thank you for your feedback.

'If it were me... I wouldn't really care how much I spent, as long as I'm getting the results to justify the cost.'

I think this is the main problem they are having is struggling to win over the publics perception of the value of this link. My thinking is it is only going to be a semi-serious SEO'er that will want one of these inbound links.

Good point about the Yahoo! listing btw, they set the standard in the market for a quality directory listing pricing. Over here in the UK we can submit to the Yahoo! UK and it seems to offer a good return.

*I would like feedback on whether people think this is a reasonable price and to what price you'd consider buying a link?*

I'd have to see it first, but the price is not unreasonable if the rest of it checks out; as you say though, if it's not a household name or industry specific it may well be harder to convince the "uninitiated"...

I have never purchased a link ever and I have hit #1 and very high in the SERP's in many keywords!

Buying links is over rated big time and webmasters have been gamed by following logic on webmaster forums!

Hi AnthonyCea thanks for your input.

I think it is horses for courses with this subject, I would consider purchasing a directory listing (i.e Yahoo) if I was in a very competitive area. I only know this because I consider the Yahoo! Dir link to be quite valued once established in Googles as a backward link.

You can definately get success through manually chasing free IBL from related topics, this would be my strategy out of choice for relatively un-competitive areas of search.

I think the day of adding thousands of directory links, paid or non paid to rank are over, some of these webmasters that pay directory submission services to submit to thousands of directories via automation may be doing more damage than good.

The problem with this sort of deal is that many of these directories are suspect and are link farms that webmasters should avoid like the plague!

Very good point, a definite sign of the times like you say.

I have a feeling it is struggling to win over the publics perception here due to its potential link farm nature. Its is by no means a link farm, and enjoys great success in G.

I definitely feel Web masters are savvy enough to cut corners on paying for links, and of course realise the benefit of them!

It is a hard sell, because unless the directory is actually used by a large amount of users to find stuff they are not all that great to be honest about it.

I see some paid directories with very few quality listings in them and I would never go back and use them to find anything and that is where the value is long term, if no one uses the directory, paying for a link in the hope it is going to gain some rank is not enough for me!

I want business and hits, no one using it does not cut it for me, in the future directories will have to prove they have actual users and traffic!