Now that google frowns on paid links, does this mean that paying for your site to be listed on Yahoo directory or BOTW.org or other "big and google trusted" paid directories count as paid links. Is their any official word from Google regarding this???
Agreed!... The STANDARD review fee needs to be recognized as the standard when submitting to any directory. We are paying for a review and possibly a better or higher position in the category submitted to. That is the benefit to the submitter.
There is never official word from google, only riddles, rewarded with magic beans if you find the answers.
explain adwords then, its a paid link no matter what way you want to wrap it, google can not frown on paid links as such or it will penalise everyone who who runs their adsense programe, effectivley saying here is a paid link we want you to run, but we will penalise you for it. What they can do is penalise those who purposley manipulate links to gain advantages, but if anyone can show me how a PC can detect a link and tell me it is paid or non paid please do so as i doubt it could be done.
Adsense is javascript, therefore doesn't pass PR. It's relatively simple: - Things like Text Link Ads, footer links, "Pay for listings" where the prime goal is to pass PR: Google Hates You - Directories that review links, no follow listings etc: Google Likes You, well, a little bit more. And I agree it's not fool proof way of detecting links, that's why they have the request reconsideration tool, but they can detect TLA links (TLA puts an xml file on your server), and some other links.
I'm still new to this. Let me see if I've got this straight: Pay for PR = featured listings that appear on top Pay for review = Simply a little review of the site that's being listed What about directories that include physical businesses? How does Google treat those?
Featured links are the same as regualr - a review fee. The only difference is the advertisement fee - which is there to generate extra traffic for this listing. The featured links may also have extras - like deep links, blog reviews etc.
If a directory charges a review fee, they are safe. Simple. Matt Cutts has said this many times. In the google webmaster guidelines it states you should submit to directories.
Google has never had a problem with directories charging a review fee (as long as poor sites are rejected). The problem they do have is when the directory was agressively buying links for PR, to effectively re-sell that PR as a link. It really is that simple. It is explained simply - Adwords are not links they are Javascript redirects. It amazes me how many people do not grasp this simple fact
Let's be serious. What review Yahoo does? I don't see anything special in it. Few words of description - completely useless for visitor. If you compare it to some of other directories - it's so poor... And are Yahoo pages not ranked? Yes, they are, have PR, preety high in most categories. Final Result is: You pay - you have link on high PR site. There's no difference. Those are same paid links as on any other site. So the difference is in name: This is YAHOO! - Big Bro
Another myth. There are dozens or hundreds of even broken links in all GOOD COMPANY like: dmoz, business.com, etc.
I know your point dagre. We all sell the placement of a link - the advert. I do however charge for my time it takes to review a site aswell. Its just to keep ourselves friendly with google, we have to state we charge for review - which is partly true.
I do also some extra job on each listing review. I'm changing description into html, review deep links and create contextual (no pr chasing) links mixed with description. Then I check all extra statistics for listing, generate website report, keywords density and links structure. Checking owner details and if owner's password working... I think this 500% of this what any BIG BRO does. Unfortunately I'm not a member of LA COSA NOSTRA
I agree here. Bottom line is your paying to be listed! which is OK as Google says get listed in directories. I review EVERY site but do NOT charge for the review. I charge for yearly listings. A review should be done anyway if you really want a quality site. Do it for yourself, not for Google!