November 15, 2008 by Andy Russell
For years now, Google had been telling us to get our sites listed on directories. They’ve always recommended this as a great way to build quality links and get PageRank up. Until now, that is. At some point over the last few weeks Google has quietly backtracked on its endorsement, removing all mention of the practice from their Webmaster Guidelines. What’s going on?
It’s unlikely that Google are planning some major change to the importance they place on links from directories, though it would seem to indicate that in Google’s opinion, we shouldn’t rely on directories as a primary link source.
Directories, well unscrupulous ones anyway, have been a thorn in Google’s side for a while now. In 2007 they removed or reduced the PageRank of numerous directories who were being a little too inclusive in terms of the sites they let onto their lists, leading to numerous awful websites getting ranking bumps they really didn’t deserve.
By removing these few sentences from their guidelines, Google could be gearing up for another round of penalties, or simply trying to not look like its endorsing nuisance directory sites. Either way, this is unlikely to be too much to worry about for honest webmasters. Stick to good (and exclusive) directory sites and you’ll be fine.
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The directory system to some extent has been abused, simply by the sheer number of directories that have sprung up and by the fact that you can buy bulk submissions. On top of that, certain directories, such as dMOZ have lost their importance due to the fact that it became increasingly unfair how the inclusions were being executed.
This is bad news for Yahoo as the Yahoo Business Directory was seen as a useful for SEO. I think directories are useful, if you are only targeting uncompetitive keywords and you stick to relevant directories, preferably ones with an older domain.
Comment by PPCManchester — November 15, 2008 @ 3:20 pm