Rand at seomoz.org has released a video where he talks about using web directories as a tool to one’s link building campaign.

And well he does portray the mass web directory industry as useless and it feels bad.

As quoted from their blog:

“This week, Rand talks about directories and why so many of them have little to no value. Don’t be mistaken though, there are still plenty out there that can be of serious help to a link building campaign.”

My comments, (a thorough review of the video)

Rand takes a direct pick on Bob Munch and even acts ignorant on the existence of the domain name (i never knew there was a seo-company.ca).

That was a useless statement and he bluntly denies to acknowledge competition, and that made me laugh.

And then he acts so ignorant of the Aviva Directory List, that made the PS tool so popular within the webmaster communities.

He even states that a PR does not signify any quality and that even a PR 7 link can be useless (now i seriously have my doubts).

He does talk about the QBC culture, which i agree is prominent in the Directory market too. But, he is vain in believeing that a QBC would be able to sell a 20$ directory link ;-)

He then target the empty categories of premium directories, which too an extent I too believe in wrong.

A directory serves as a index of useful information and should be built keeping that in mind.

The empty categories do freak me out too.

And then he take a pick on their link building starategy. And well i have to say that it amuses me to see the way he has put it.

He quotes directory submissions, linking from ones own sites, link exchanges(not so effective, but not completely bad) as useless. The truth is that everyone does it, what wrong in that and well trust me that it would be very difficult to be a PR 5 by just all this. A PR 5 and above would be difficult without any quality backlinks.

Then he talks about the editorial integrity of web directory editors:
1. They admit anyone (duhhhh, i dont get it. How can he speak for the whole industry)
2. Directories are general in nature with no specific niche. (duhhhh, the category page content does make it a niche topic related content backlink page)
3. Then he talks about the poor quality of inlinks, well he sure needs to visit backlink check done by Aviva
4. They are not trusted. I dont understand what he means by this ? The word “Trust” is very ambigious in the SEO industry and he should define it better.

According to him, you need to be a library editor to run a quality directory ( I guess its time that web directory owners changed their profession)

What connection does this have with managing a quality web directory and i never knew that a list can be quoted as a directory.

In his words i would understand that you need to be a Google employee to be a SEO specialist, duhhhh.

And the premier topping come with the statement he makes: “Yahoo and Dmoz are PROBABLY pretty good”. Now if he is not even sure of the authority of Yahoo and Dmoz, how can i believe what he has to say about general web directories.

And then he quotes BlueFind as an example, that lost its PR8 and got banned by google for possible PR sale.

Now guys, i seriously dont see and sense on what Rand has to say about general web directories and he shows his ignorance throughout the video.

The problem with this video is that it shows ALL (even though he quoted that some web directory are good) web directories in bad light.

He claims that this video was made to help a newbie, so why has he missed out the part where he tells one on how to identify a good general web directory ?

I am lost………………..

— A general message 

I do have a message for directory owners and urge them to make their web directories a valuable resource and maintain high editorial integrity (review a site throughly before accepting in it your index, and never keep money as your sole motivation to accept a submission).

I believe that the future of web directories is not as a backlink building engine but a mean to bring exposure and visibility for a listings in its index.

Much success to all you directory owners out there.