Was Penguin update a major blow to the free-directory market?

It seems the penguin update affected a lot of people that had bought 500, 1000, etc directory submission services out there. I wonder if submitting to free directories are even worth it anymore (except DMOZ and alike of course).

IMO penguin update was the beginning of the end of crappy directories. I think better directories will benefit from it in long run but the directory market (specially general directory market) will probably have a downtime for a while.

 

It seems like it as most directory submissions tends to use a lot of keyword stuffing and many more to promote their sites.

 

Im never promoting my site through directory submission. And only a few authority backlink such as Ezine, ArticleBase to bring me a link with unique article.

It starts with Panda, and now Penguin, all algorithm update refers me to quality content of your site.

 

Depends on your perspective. Last Thursday there was a few blog threads flying around the web concerning whether or not Google was de-indexing free web directories, based on a really lame post on WMW suggesting that 50% of free directories were de-indexed. The post was lame because it cited no stats/research/data or actual directories. So it was really just a figure pulled out of thin air.

After some research it was found by one person who posted their list online that of 500 directories that they looked at 16% were deindexed, or around 75. Hardly earth shattering, but still significant.

So I took that research one step further and applied it to our own Info Vilesilencer top 100 free directories list. What I found was that not only were none of the directories on that list de-indexed (i.e. all 100 directories had their pages indexed in Google). Most of them had good-to-strong indexation. I would figure that maybe 12-15 were at the weak-mediocre indexation end.

It's pretty common knowledge that people, even well known SEOs, have gone about directory submission incorrectly for years, and they are only now seeing how they made mistakes. Using all the same anchor text, spammy titles, spammy descriptions and then throwing the submission at 10,000 directories is a ridiculous strategy. Yet most do it...

They all talk about quality content, and taking time to source links, then they do the exact opposite with directory submissions. Clever directory submitters should see a stronger profile from penguin because their well executed strategy will have pushed their quality content and submission higher in the results.

The beginning of the end for crappy directories was October 2007. The end of the end is penguin. People will ignore it and continue to post their dud directories in DP and all over the web, and create hundreds of them on .info's at a time, but they won't get indexed or stay indexed, and they won't pass any rank.

Only good directories that have vetted content will remain. It's what I have been saying now for 10 years. Getting sick of saying it, but one day someone will listen... maybe

 

And the problem is when directory owners think 'human editing' means clicking the ACCEPT button when they receive a stuffed submission. Every submission needs editing to make a site belong to the directory and not the submitter.

 

I support the idea that directories that are not well edited and accept any link should be de-indexed. I also expect it will be a blow to some in the business.

We've seen this play out many times before. Some people find automated type methods to make money. They thrive for a little while, and then they are crushed. What this does is clear space for others who want to make quality directories. Those people don't get lost in the shuffle so easily.

There is so much you can do with a directory if you put your mind to it and don't try to be like everyone else. Just as an example, why do categories have to be the standard fare seen everywhere else. Why not have categories like:

Guaranteed to Make You Laugh
Best Tech Products May 2012 (and use VigLink!)
Sites to Help You Track the 2012 Elections
Play Retro Games Now
Travon Martin Case Links

Then take steps to make this viral! Setup great categories that people on facebook will reshare. Make sure there are links to other interesting categories that people will be interested in. Trying to make a directory of the internet by yourself is dead. Give it up. Instead focus on making a directory that people will enjoy surfing around on. I'd love to see a contest of who can make the funnest directory.

 

When you consider how many free directories have lasted over 3 years it's rather ignorant to start a one, especially when it's done just like all the failed directories.

 

Exactly, and trying to just repeat what everyone else has done is not a very good plan. There are some that have thrived by perfecting the existing model, so we should also learn from what is working too.

 

Directories of most types have not been working well for SEO for some time. Google's move seems to me only to enforce this sentiment.

 

Its issue of off page work dear because Google had ban blog comments and all no follow links for a site. I also suffering from this problem but now I start ethical work for my site and regular fresh text posting for my websites and getting good response.

 

In my opinion, some of the most difficult thing that someone wants to achieve when wanting to promote a site is the link exchange process. As known, after a site has been built, the smart move is to make it visible for search engines. What makes a site attractive to search engines is its popularity and online references. The link exchange process is a bit controversial amongst specialists. Some believe that these are very effective, others consider them to be a waste of time, and there is the third category which thinks that link exchange only works on certain conditions.

 

I Dont think so , it affects that much

 

Because it would look messy, those read like blog post titles, its suggested to keep titles short, creating category titles like this would be wrong, that would be trying to use a directory script for something it wasn't built for, i bet google would see it as unnatural, although just examples those would quickly become out of date.

If a webmaster is doing things properly then you shouldn't need to even think about pandas, penguins and whatever other daft name is mentioned next.

People dont go on facebook to share categories found on a directory.

 

A directory's purpose is decided by the owner of the directory. Google tends to notice sites that get traffic and it is time directories stopped worrying only about links as a tool for rankings, and started worrying more about quality traffic. My ideas above are just generic suggestions, but there is no reason a directory cannot be interesting and worthwhile, and there are many reasons why a directory does not need to fit the mold of every other directory.

The name of this forum is "Directories", but not necessarily "link directories". Why can't we have video directories, business listings, article directories (similar to "blogs"), flash game directories, download directories, and much more? Within that you can have "funniest home videos", "best strategy flash games", "articles on Justin Beiber" or whatever you want to present for your directory. That is not to say you can't have interesting "link directories" too, but let's not create limiting thoughts on our industry.

 

Fair enough suggestions but theres youtube for videos, real business directories, articles directories are too many and i feel encourage duplicate content and MFA types picking up tiny snippets for their blogs, the rest i would say are suggestions for niche directories.

Good to encourage something different but to be realistic i would say there is limitation on what a directory can be.

Maybe a directory could be used as a launchpad for something, for example groupon was started.. well the idea was tested with a blog and a script setup to test their startup idea before building anything properly.

So maybe a site using a directory script to test something or to build interest might become something bigger, but i dont think that you can turn a directory in a different direction without it losing its identity as a web directory.

 

Ok, you will see phpLD expanding what is "realistic"

 

This is just the beginning of the end of websites and directories that do not offer quality content but spam and spams all over the internet. This is the beginning of their end indeed.

 

So how? directory of what is good about this right now?

 

I had a long think about the category suggestions (especially the dated ones). My immediate conclusion was the same as yours, but once you let it roll around in the head a bit why is it a bad idea? If anything the dated content (like a blog) becomes a lot more relevant to that time period and therefore archives a lot better.

Thinking along those lines, what about websites that are just added to a category because they are all "like". There could be different dates attached to all of them. I believe that "like" content added on a "like" date is infinitely more relevant, regardless if the content has adapted a blog way of doing things.

I agree with this 100%. It is narrow minded thinking, when people pigeon hole directories into a corner that forces people to put up these multitudes of worthless link farm directory networks. Only by breaking the mould can serious owners hope to survive.

Only if you pigeon-hole it to begin with. If we think of "categorising" as directories, rather than trying to have a set site type as a directory (which is just plain wrong and the reason why people are stuck in this bucketload of categories on a directory script mindset), then it opens up the possibilities. It's one of those situations where nearly every site on the web has directory characteristics.

Sure, we tend to group the similar styles together, but even within these styles there can be a lot of differentiaton. Let's be broader minded not narrow minded. The concensus amongst people that have been in this industry for more than 5 minutes is that the old style of directories are dead. It doesn't matter that people come in here creating hundreds of them every day, they are going unnoticed. Yes, they will attract the lowest common denominator, and there is no shortage of this, and they may even have "success" in their own way... But they will always exist where they exist and will not rise and be part of the real web.

I disagree with that statement entirely. If we all thought like this there'd be no new startups ever. There'd have been no changes in the industry. Life would walk along a single straight line. It doesn't work like that unless you have tunnel vision. I don't believe that you do, I think you are being stubborn to try and get a point across, but I doubt you believe that.

 

@silencer, categories in blogs dont even look like that, so i think doing that in a directory is not a good idea.

You might be missing the point of what is now common in the web startup world which is to test ideas as cheaply as possible before any code is written, using certain methods, not that the directory script would have to be disposed of but that it could be built around but i still think that it would become something else.

Im a fellow directory owner but i know its limitations, value and solving problems for people is more important than just trying to be a bit different, a lot of people dont even know that directories exist, so i dont think that changing how the categories are labelled or something like that will differentiate from the other directories.