Hi Guys, I have written an article on the Recent PageRank Update & How it impacts the Web Directory Owners. Please feel free to comment & point out If I have made any mistakes with this article. http://www.directorytotal.com/established-directories-penalised-pagerank-update-conclusions/ Amit
Nice article amit. Agree with you that "Google is not against directories but only against PAID Links and attempts to manipulate PageRank"
Good read but I have to say this whole penalized thing is a little confusing to say the least. Firstly I have two directories that were hit, the first one in my signature I can understand why. My second directory www.urldir.org did not sell links yet has the same penalties as my first. Also looks like google is not happy just removing the ability to rank for the domain name, it has started removing lots of indexed pages from a very well known directories is now showing as only 164 index pages. Thanks Brian
Amit, I think your article comments are very solid and good to go. I also believe that PR should be taken out of the equation when building any credible, content effective web site. Only one source controls PR green bar, and it's not your everyday webmaster, site owner. Leave PR to the "G" and don't buy into it. Great Article!
A great article Amit, well written and a good read. I have no idea of what is what after all that went on, but i have kept one thing in mind that may have backfired on people and it is the gang mentality. Maybe not the best word choice but buddy/friend/homie I saw possibly too much of the same names always recommending the same names, and while that can be perfectly innocent and just wanting to send some business in the direction of your friends, it can look different to outsiders. It appeared clique like, im not saying from me, but i think others may have been watching and seeing that. There was a lack of being discreet about things. Just an observation of one person who can provide a little insight to how something appears to others, regardless of anything being right or wrong. And im mentioning it now after the trolls have gone back to their caves and people have time to breathe again.
I think Google created a cycle. G has penalized most the directories it knew about and also made scale changes for PR. This caused great drops. From 7 to 3 (excellentguide.com), 6 to 4 (alive, aviva, romow, ...) etc. And it also blocked the possible improvements by giving the same PR to directories, especially the ones with PR3, PR4. Cycle shows itself here. In the next update, the directories which got high PR in this update will have drops and maybe new ones which are not realized by Google yet will have increases. After all these, webmasters will lose their trust to directories. They will think, "Yes it has a very good PR for now but surely it will drop in a few months, it is useless to submit our links here." and then they will search another ways of advertising. The biggest and most memorable thing that Big G have done with this update is that: It destroyed the trust on the directories. After doing this, how much can it be important for me to get a PR7, 8 while the rules are written and rewritable by Google? When I woke up in a morning, I can see a PR3, can't I? Peeh!
"..attempts to manipulate PageRank." And includes - no multiple listings, title = name, original description compiled by directory editor, link to home page only....
Good article, Amit. Thanks for sharing. One must wonder now what happens at the next PR update as directory owners all work to remove sponsor links to other directories, etc.?????
Thanks Guys, for all the comments. I am really happy that everyone liked the blog post. I think that content will really rule directories now.
I really DirJournal for really amazing design & loads of content the site on the directory. It built itself like a nice resource site. Content will always rock on Google