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What are some examples of "the other high quality link sources all over the web?"

Hi Dann
Participate in the active parts of the web and see what sites and what people are talking about...how are they getting good links, etc.

Aaron: Not sure Business.com is worth it. The page at Business.com where my PR 5 site will be ranked is only PR 3. What do you think?

Is there and SEO benefits for being listed in business.com? If you look at the source code each link looks like a 'redirect,' so business.com isn't actually linking to your site.

Has anyone listed his or her site on business.com? Was it worth it?

What a complete and utter waste of money, particularly when Google are cracking down on paid links. What better place to start for Google than ignoring the Yahoo! directory and business.com directory (which are big visible targets for Google's crackdown).

They use a natural link at the bottom of pages which links directly to your site with no redirects.

And ppc type link on the top that is the redirect.

Scattered within the page is their own adsense ads as well.

What a complete and utter waste of money, particularly when Google are cracking down on paid links. What better place to start for Google than ignoring the Yahoo! directory and business.com directory (which are big visible targets for Google's crackdown).

Is that perhaps why Google recommends buying a Yahoo! Directory listing? People who think Google is cracking down on everything have to realize that Google has to trust something.

If a business is spending $500 a year for just 2 links that are editorially reviewed that site is much more likely to be of quality than the average website.

Thats a good point Aaron. I would go out on a limb and say thats why your kickin' butt with SEObook.com and we keep coming back to learn from you ! Great Point above !

Not to mention-- at least for us, Business.com is a source of significant traffic. (shocking-- I know)

"If a business is spending $500 a year for just 2 links that are editorially reviewed that site is much more likely to be of quality than the average website."

Either Google is cracking down on paid links or they are not.

You argue that paid links mean that a company is more legit because they're putting money behind their links.

Google argues that this is gaming their system of link popularity (officially).

So perhaps it comes down to the cost of the paid link? If I pay $1000 for a link, it's OK coz I've put a serious amount of money behind the link, but if I pay $30 for a link, I'm a sleazy, back-alley company?

And how do Google evaluate each link exactly anyway?

This feeds into my doubts about Google's own policing of links by the way.

I'm not knocking business.com and Yahoo! directly - I'm merely saying that the waters are so muddy now, I wouldn't throw money at paid links when you don't need to.

Good points all around - editorial review is crucial here - and yes a $300/year link with review is worth a lot more than a $5 to $50 link from a paid free for all/link farm which is what most directories are these days.

Are there any concrete studies out there which can show the effect of a Yahoo/Business.com link or removal thereof?

Anybody?

I do think that with the quality crackdown one could do better buying either a prestige link or a site for this money and pointing it back at the target site. On the other hand, that costs time/energy, while the Yahoo/Business.com links cost only money.

I haven't done studies on any one link like that, but I have ranked new sites in under a week on Google using only directory links, but those were not competitive terms either.

Google is doing a lot of people a favour.

"Dont buy links.... (from 98% totally useless crap directories)" or your site could be devalued." Too right, so could your wallet.

"Buy links from Yahoo.....(a decent directory generating on topic/theme links through human editors)"

What's difficult to understand about that?

Thanks Aaron, $40 worth of beer on me if I ever drag my ass to a conference.

That is ridiculous.. Google is trying to knock down other small directories straight away. Owners of small websites cannot afford the price for link submission with Yahoo. How can Google force people to do that !

Owners of small websites cannot afford the price for link submission with Yahoo. How can Google force people to do that !

Google is not forcing anything. No site needs a Yahoo! link to rank. It is optional, and there are other high quality links sources all over the web.

Thanks Aaron once again. I jumped on on this one which is the first time I paid for a directory listing or link but it looks like a solid one.

So much as changed in the last ten months since your last SEO Book update I am looking forward to the next revision.

I took this offer last year and it was worth it at $159. Now they want to renew me at $299. I think I will pass unless if I get another deal. I don't like how on some of the pages they mark my link with "Paid" next to it and a redirect URL and not a clean link to my site.

if you are paying the flat rate you should get a direct link. BTW you can submit a guide to Work.com as a workaround to paying that $299 fee.