hmm.. lets see, people who agree with me might not have enough time to post here as they are busy in making their sites better rather than caring about what google thinks of their site. Second, I never said that i never bought any link or sold a link. There are sitewide links on idk and it is pretty obvious. I said google only penaltize the ones who were advertised crazily right before the pr update. I know tricans.org was just to use you as an example because i still have the pm saved where you came and told me that you bought x numbers of pr 7 links and x numbers of pr 6 links. About your low profile directory, why don't you give us the link because i dont know which directory you are talking about. Now am i bs'ing, I particularly dont think i am. But if you do than you are just taking your inner rage out on me. It is just a theory and what i think is going on. Why isn't sevenseek.com not banned ?? why isn't umdum not banned ? because recently they weren't being promoted as heavily as others like BWL / Alive / Dump / Zorg were .... And i am very certain, chris, Rob, Jeff, Mike will all agree with me here that this is just a change google is making and certain sites are affected not a penalty !!! Penalties gets far worst than this.
I agree with some of your theory, I was promoting heavily but not just before the update. I have tried to be consistent with the promotion work. Anyway this thread is not about bashing each other; I think directories are getting a bad name as it is. Let’s keep it friendly guys. Thanks Brian
Soon they will come, dont worry. Did I quote you in that comment ? Or have I told that Smub said that he never bought any link ? It was a general comment. Maybe its your inner rage out on me. And that x numbers are much less than idk.in still has [For reference http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace/auction/12623] and others. 99% of my links are from other directories. Thanks.
Smub, some of what you say makes sense but all the theories thus far are just that, theories and nothing more. Most of the theories don't seem to have much logic so that is what makes me wonder about this whole thing. If google was trying to send out a message they would just make an official announcement and that would have a far greater effect than some obscure penalization of a couple hundred sites. My theory is that they are simply trying out a new spin on their algorithm and that is probably why the tool bar export is held up. It is doubtful google will ever penalize websites based on what they 'think' might be happening, eg: buying or selling links and the same goes for the paid link reports. Webmasters are the hand that feeds them so I doubt they are looking for ways to bite that hand off. Also, google has millions of sites indexed and is battling with 10's of thousands of MFA sites, I find it hard to believe they would devote any time to 'watching' DP threads with a plan to take down a few dozen directories....what a waste of time and resources.
When has Google ever put out an "official announcement" about their antispam measures or other algorithmic changes? On the other hand, you've had very clear warning for months and in some cases about what Google considers to be outside their guidelines. Most of these directories were violating several of those guidelines. What I don't understand is why anyone is surprised by this. The only mystery to me is that it took Google so long to act... and the answer to that is: Google has always preferred an algorithmic solution to manual penalties but they have also shown that they are not averse to manual penalties when the situation warrants it. These directories were out of control with heavy link buying and selling, heavy interlinking, bidding directories, lack of quality control (i.e., you pay, you're in), etc., and I assume that Google felt it was worth applying some manual penalties to serve notice while they adjust their algorithms to prevent it happening again. They've done it in the past. Why not now? Actually, advertising and the average surfer are the hands that feed Google. And not all webmasters were up to the shenanigans of the directory owners that have been hit. Indeed, not even all directory owners used these tactics and that's why those ones were NOT hit. I think you might be surprised to find out how many paid links spam reports Google receives. I would also point out that a lot of threads in the DigitalPoint Directories forums were blatant all-out "get your paid links here" advertisements - I noted on several of those threads myself that the owners might just as well go the next step and report themselves to Google as link sellers and PageRank merchants. It was all just unbelievably dumb, in my opinion. If you're going to use black hat or gray hat strategies to promote your sites, at least have the good sense to shut up about it and not proclaim it publicly to the world.
There are many directories still standing in google that buy and sell links, and interlink their directories.
But it would very difficult for them to go manually through all the reports as they have a staff strength of less than 10,000... only 1000-3000 would be concentrating on core Search Engine results... Also Google employees are watching these DP threads day and night.. http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=464298 (How to contact Matt Cutts) MattCutts responded to this thread within one day ,I am sure that some one in DP would have told him about this.....
That just tells me they haven't been hit YET, not that what they have immunity. And Google isn't going to single out minor directories for manual pemalties - that's too labor intensive. All they need to do is hit the bigger and more heavily advertised/promoted ones to send a message to others who are trying the same tricks.
that's their trick.... I think the directory penalization would have scared of some probable new directory owners.They would think twice before entering into directory industry again. We need to be united against Google if we are united we can do anything The best example is here (Follow the below link) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM We can do anything if we are united...
Yeah, well... good luck with that. There might be a simpler solution, of course. Try playing by the rules for a change. Then you won't have to worry.
Little g's rules might not be the same as MSN's, Yahoo's, Alltheweb's, etc... You cant please them all NOR should anyone HAVE to...
I felt the splash of water raining down on my property. LMAO !!! Sure WE or I am still standing beyond the fact of your accusation but let me address this to you. Its true that we are all liable of buying / selling links and heres some reasons why. 1. After the last update MY sites went cold turkey and pursued the path of adding content RATHER than buying links for most of them. 2. It suffered a bit when it was accused of being a QBC but it didn't stop me from adding useful content by myself. While everyone is enjoying great submissions from the "BIG MOUTH MEDIA or OTHER SEO COMPANIES" I just kept quiet even though there were people ridiculing my site including its CHEAP DESIGN. Life goes on. I personally added more listings and at the same time I put up a blog or SPLOG as you may call it and continued to do what is good for me. Dirsensei jumped from 700 listings to 2700 in just 1 and a half month, while my other sites went from 300 to 1600 and 180 to 680 and so forth. Most got their FAIR SHARE of the market maybe because of recommendations I dont know and most reaped that benefit. Me I was on the sidelines when MOST were ENJOYING but its ok as I ENJOYED giving more quality and useful content to it in my spare time. But I still get submissions here and there with acceptance and rejections so to speak. 3. Everyone started placing how many submissions they had and most were shouting the BIG amount while forgetting that BIG G is watching. 4. Most went on and SPAMMED the Forum of BID Directory threads popping up daily and everyone enjoyed it. It made MOST very popular in so short time that the threads were mostly INFESTED with BIDS. MOST followed without knowing what fell to their hands THINKING that they would make a QUICK BUCK from submissions from "mystikmedia" and some of the big players who throws big bundles. Well come on. I can call anyone a LIAR if that was not the case that the primary purpose was the big CASH availability. 5. Instead of making their site worthwhile they rather stayed in the FORUM and be known and make themselves GOOD LOOKING. While others and I did participate on some personal bashing that lead to them mostly resigning in this forum and I do regret on CHASING OUT GOOD PEOPLE out of the FORUM. (I am very sorry for that believe me) 6. Some had bannered their site that they have TRAFFIC of enormous QUANTITY and even went to the extent of publishing their url's. 7. Some of the sites that were included were definitely good in content as I know of a very few but MAYBE the only mistake was it overdid the linking strategy. And if for whatever reason that the Big G does find my site or sites deserves to be in the famous list then so be it. I enjoy adding and finding sites as it was a hobby and was an exciting thing to do even when I was in DMOZ and will continue to do so. Thanks
All these SEO geniuses in one forum and not one of them can take a stab at what might have gone wrong. But I do notice the "Strong, Highly Promoted PR 6 Web Directory" sig files sure are disappearing in a hurry.