It has been very clear now that Google is after directories and don't like them to earn money for placing links. Whatever the reason Google presents but majority would follow the rules set by them. For an instance if after few weeks it become very clear that directory niche is about to die then which directories would really be able to survive? I think there would be switch of submitter's mind. Now they submit into directories largely for the sake of link juice but after this hit 'value' of visitor on your site would be increased as these tactics would not help in getting good rank in organic results in Google and eventually high traffic. But then submitter may continue to submit into 'those' directories which can send them traffic maybe a little. After this it would be very clear to majority that adwords is only left better way to get traffic. But you need to pay daily and once you stop Google will stop sending you traffic. In the end after this act of drama {publicizing pagerank number in toolbar} created by Google only Adwords would be the winner. And multiple niches would die and cost of death would be the benefit of Adwords. What's your take on it?
adwords should write on there homepage in bold letters, that adwords listings dosenot pass PR juice and has no SEO benefits! anyways, big directory owners use adwords listings to promote there directories! and they will continue to do that, so organic search is not the only way to be on top of queries in google search! also, google is not the only search engine, yahoo and msn is also there! i think directories will continue to stay! and about the recent serps changes, i still think, things will become normal in the next few weeks time! I got a blog post here, about the recent google paid links conference, thought about posting it here! cheers!
The only flaw with this argument is that it assumes that Directory submissions are the only way to get backlinks. In reality there are a ton of ways to get quality links - especially if your site is packed with useful content and stuff. If, however, your site is pants nobody will want to link to you naturally - and a pants site should also be rejected by a Directory If a Directory accepts low quality sites it is not good for the Directory, IMO
Agree...... I think Google wants to death of whole SEO industry and they start working on the same....
I assumed you meant it that way due to this statement, unless I misunderstood your meaning? I took it to mean that if people started to leave directory submissions then they would just use Adwords - correct me if that is not what you meant though. To me there are many ways to get quality links and relevant traffic
I think link baiting and blogging has some way to run before we can start thinking of the Death of SEO and Adwords as the only alternative. Actually - for commercial sites Adwords can be good for "instant" results - and there will always be 20 spaces on page 1 - 10 paid and 10 "free". Even if SEO did not exist - someone is gonna be there on page 1.
Its impossible to erect SEO on linkbaiting.. because linkbaiting has no roots. Blogging cannot be the option because next step of Google would be sniffing on 'paid' reviews on blogs. Though blogging can be made an option if used with 'nofollow' tags.
Really to me SEO is all about traffic - so I like to mix it up - blogs, directories, articles, social bookmarking, having a site with a USP that people will want to link to in the first place. And yes even Adwords if the ROI is worth it SEO to me is all about a good spread of options. But all this stems from having a site with great content that people will find useful in the first place - without that why even bother?
I just get sick on reading such "homo sapiens" affirmations. When are you guys going to grow up? In a funny way I see every day people that never posted on "directories" section before, coming with all this non sense. Everyone seems to be a guru saying how, when and how many directories will die. How childish... The truth is that no one knows for sure Google's intentions at the moment and no one should start these sort of stupid threads. Come on people, have some sense... when Google will finish this silly update (if they will ever do it) everyone will know for sure what is to be done from that point. And no, directories won't die, none of them - established ones or new ones, good ones or bad ones, all of them will still be around...
I dont think directories will die - although I do think that some directory owners may have to re-think how they promote and develop their directories to secure a long term future. What I will say is that if a webmaster throws up a new site and then "just" submits to tons of directories - that is unlikely to yield great SERP's by itself in the future IMO. It should be and will be about building a great site with a varied and natural back link profile - which may include Directories
Yawn....is the world ending again? These threads are so funny. As far as adwords being an alternative? I think not....adwords does not give you any backlinks and is very expensive (mostly because of MFA sites abusing the system). If google was serious about changing anything for the better they would focus all their resources and a couple of billion dollar on getting rid of MFA sites which are a problem 100 times bigger than a few directories chasing PR.....
It is easy to find MFA's and MFA likes if they use all resources... But they are not doing it ,as MFA's are contributing a good source of revenue to them...
I don't think that is true. The MFA sites cost google a lot of money and more importantly it costs them reputation. With more alternative advertising programs coming out I think MFA sites will cost them more and more in the long run. Plus let's not forget that almost all MFA sites use dishonest forms of SEO to get high paying ads to be shown. The real reason for not cracking down is that they would need to manually review each site and even then I am sure they will run into dozens of lawsuits. If they need an employee to spend 5 minutes per site and even if they could use some computer algo's to narrow the potential sites down to say a few hundred thousand it would still take them tons of resources to do this and imagine doing it on a continuing basis? All the above is another reason I find it hard to believe google is going after a few dozen directories that 'might' have bought links.