Page 22 - The Dark Side of Back Link Building

THE DARK SIDE OF LINK BUILDING 22

Introduction To Link Directories

Link directories are another one of those old tactics that began with a genuine use
case. But when people realized they could make a profit, the tactic quickly ran

out of control.

Link directories began as a sort of online phone book. When search engines weren’t

quite as useful, users had to do a lot more up-front work to find what they were
looking for. Link directories were, at first, helpful and searchable portals that collected

and organized links.

That is until people realized that they could charge listing fees to website owners.

Back when every link was equal, you could make a lot of money selling them,
especially if you had a website with a high PageRank score.

SEJ Contributor Jeremy Knauff describes how link directories got out of control:

“Untold thousands of directories popped up in varying forms. Some were hyper-
targeted, focusing on a very small niche, while others were general directories
that would link to literally anyone who was willing to pay the fee.

This quickly turned into a self-feeding business model where people launching
new directories would then submit their URL to existing directories to increase

their link equity – measured by Google’s PageRank, or PR, back then.”

So, a lot of folks started creating directories to generate income. Since new websites

couldn’t command high rates, these new directories needed to build PageRank.

And what was a really easy way to do that?

Submit their directory to other directories!