I would hope not, and feel that there not but everbody has a right to their own opinion. First of all Google mentions on their guidelines http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769 Here's something from Cutt's Blog where he describes the type of links that he is interested in his paid report link. Otherwise, Yahoo! Directory, Business.com would just be link sellers. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-to-report-paid-links/
There is no way for Google to detect the listings in directories are of low quality.....They could only detect it manually...
To be honest i think we spend way too much time obsessing, those guys are sitting watching what were doing and peeing themselves laughing at our apparent reliance on them, only recently myself and others were discussing how we should have our own independance (to a degree) not be taken in by certain things and yet here we all are sh**ting bricks every time something happens. Thats not business, thats sheer fear, we might as well quit and go work for other people if we carry on panicking all the time. Every single time, playing straight into their hands, what ever happend to enjoying the WWW, running a business, earning a living and enjoying ourselves? Its no wonder people are always arguing, people get so uptight, worried (understandably) i dont have a day job myself, the internet is my job and main income, and then all the stress comes flooding out through these forums. As an individual you have more power than you realise, but until you realise what you should do and how to ignore half of the nonsense then your forever nervous about what is happening next. Run your business "your" way.
These guys are out enjoying their lives, spending some of the millions they've made on their Google stock options.
On their boats and Jetskis enjoying themselves, they drop back into their offices once in a while for giggles, lol
Truth is the internet needs more people like you honest. I hope when everything clears out you can prosper more in your ventures. Good Luck
Thanks popotalk, very kind of you, im wishing you the best also and hope much success continues your way.
Not in my opinion. A review fee is legitimate The problem Google has is when a website "buys" Pagerank with a view to "reselling" that PR via a link (directory or otherwise) Also, any website that links out to "crap" has ALWAYS run the risk of being banned for being in a bad neighbouhood - once gain - directory or otherwise. All IMO
How does one buy pagerank specifically? If you buy a listing on a website or a directory, are you not automatically getting whatever pr with that link? I don't understand the difference. We all want better serps, and Google tells us to get that we need backlinks such as buying from Yahoo directory and others, so I am just confused as to what I can or can not do according to Google. Can I buy a link on a relevant site to hopefully help me with serps and traffic? What if that site has a pr8? Will I then get in trouble with Google? Can I not sell ad space then on my site too? Thanks.
Matt Cutts has been crystal clear on this, use no follow or the equivalent and you have nothing to worry about. As for the topic of this post....adnan answered his own question about 20 words in.
Thanks. So then how do we get backlinks that actually help us in the serps? (that may be a very newbie Q but Google does say get backlinks to help with serps, but if we have to add a no-follow then does that not cancel its effect?) Also, If I add a link to my site I will not add a no-follow because I do not know how and I will not pay someone to do this for me to follow this "rule". I am making a site/directory to benefit my customers/visitors and a normal website has "follow" to it's links unless it's changed somehow. Thanks.
This is why the idea of a Directory Owners Association should be implemented for the benefit of all serious directory owners who are making a living from the directory industry. Whatever happened to that idea?
I think that never happened because of imho the basic business in-experience of many of the owners, many of which cannot look further than the end of their nose, ie not past their own directories The facts are quite simple Airlines compete .............yet they have associations Car Manufacturers compete .............yet they have associations Clothes Manufacturers compete .............yet they have associations etc etc When the Directory Owners finally wake up to reality instead of living in what they think is a superior operating space the internet ( which it certainly is not) They will suddenly realise that they need an association to represent the interests of their market sector If the events of the last week are anything to go by, that will never happen as long as the respective negative protaganistic Directory Owners have a hole in their a*ses But the reality is crystal clear an association is needed asap
VCTech, britishguy: I agree with you guys, there is certainly need of such association or authority, as internet is open in nature and there is no limit for the users as well as for the webmasters to get enhanced. But, what ideas everyone got about such association? What should be it's main objective? What line of action it should have?
It all depends. I've just writting a blog post about how to start a directory and believe that you can create a quality directory which will get traffic for all sorts of terms from people who like using your directory as well as the search engines. The key is to focus on the end user more than on Google and Pagerank (or God forbid oagestrength).
Heres a very, very relevant link regarding pay linkage. I suggest everyone watches and takes note: http://www.davidnaylor.co.uk/paid-links.html
You keep speaking about this bullshit always on the forum. You think that google makes billions out there out of bullshit ? They have world's most complex algorithms which have been framed after years of research by world's most talented team of engineers and programmer. They are framed on very basic principles of string manipulation. Did you ever thought how it searches a database of billion records in just 1 sec ? even faster than your phpLinkDirectory which has to search a maximum of few hundred records ?. They have the world's most advanced technologies, softwares and algorithms working for them. Google's algorithm's modulus operandi is a closely guarded secret not disclosed to anyone. It takes into account 100s of factors to decide a site's quality. Its not as simple as you think. They have methods to know which site is quality and which is not, link metrics, relevancy etc. Get a link from a non relevant site, it will never give you SERPS. And recently they have modified their Search Algorithms with a major change is what i notice from the change in my site's rankings making me much more happier since most of my sites rely on natural links and they have scored tremendously high. All crap sites, who copied content and brought thousands of sitewide links etc have been penalized. Making sites and buying thousands of links wont work any more. Even if they work, they wont survive longer. Quality sites will survive. Make a quality website which is useful for the visitors, which has tons of original content and which is a good resource. And see google will send traffic to you, will rank your sites higher. I am not joking, i am experiencing thats why i am saying, quality sites do rock in google. Stupid MFA sited wont, even if you buy 10000 links