Is paid inclusion on directory web sites necessary?

11 August 2008

It depends on what type of website you have. For most websites, paying to be included in some directories is not necessary, although in some cases it can sometimes speed up the indexing of your site.

Search engines used to take anywhere from two weeks to eight months to find, index or update your site. These days, however, this is not typically the case. Although it is not unusual for a new website to sometimes take a couple of weeks or more to be spidered and indexed, using a link building campaign can speed this up dramatically and will benefit the web site much more than most any paid inclusion. While paid inclusion on some directories guarantees that the search engines will "spider" your site and include it in their listings within 48 - 72 hours, the impact that single link has is pale in comparison to hundreds, if not thousands of links to your site.. If your site features rapidly changing content, paid inclusion may still have some secondary benefits because it will ensure that your site is continually "refreshed" in the index. However, quality content and link building campaigns will more often than not deliver better and longer lasting results.