It's been kind of quiet here

Is it an indication of the decline in directory business or is everyone just super busy?

 

I was talking to my friend who is owner of a directory network and owns more than a dozen high quality web directories. Over the years he has spent a lot of time and money on building directories with unique templates and content. He isn't online very often these days so I asked him what is he doing. So he told me that he is very busy promoting his sites and business is not going well these days and he isn't getting many paid submissions and he is into financial crisis.
I suggested him not to invest too much time and effort on directories now as word has it that directories are no longer good for seo.
He said that the business will be back as soon as google updates tool bar PR. He claims that directories like botw.org are still alive and in business which means there is still hope for directories. I told him that I am sure botw.org is also losing business. There is no more cheese left in the directories anymore(as said in the book called "who moved my cheese") Now you have to move on if you want to survive.

 

Not as quiet as u think...lolz

 

Link farm directories are definitely out and lesser known directories even of good quality are nearly dead but long established well known directories are business as usual.

 

I wouldn't agree that directory market is dead and we all need to move to somewhere else but it has become harder to make a living from it.

 

I dont think the quiet in this section is as much a reflection on Directories as it is a reflection on the majority of posts and posters (with some exceptions) that one usually sees here.

 

I fully agree. There was a time when this was a great forum and you could find lots of helpful information from experienced people. Over the past 2-3 years it has become a haven for haters and naysayers. Many of the successful directory owners I know simply don't waste their time here instead they are growing their directories and making money.

 

I think its more indicative of these forums in general. Its just not something many people use anymore. There are so many other outlets particularly in social networking avenues that people have pretty much migrated away from the "forum" format.

You really have to have been involved in more aspects of DP to realize that its not just on particular part of the forums, but all of them. Particularly the webmaster/seo portions of the forum. Some are all but dead, other areas are just so riddled with non-english speaking translated crap posts.

I think the real metric here for the directory owners out there that are still running and maintaining directories is in their submission and retention rates. I can tell you that our retention rate is better than 85% and submissions are consistent and constant. There is not a day that goes by that I do not have submissions.

 

I hang around a bit. But, when every other thread is asking the same question, there's very little point to join the conversation.

The PR peddling business seems to be finally winding down, so the folks who built directories to sell PR are finding fewer customers.

The days of build a directory on a nonsensical dropped domain, sell the heck out of the PR until Google kills the site and move on to the next appears to be thankfully dead or at least dying.

The folks who sold "reviews" but did nothing more than hit the accept button are finding themselves buried under removal requests.

All and all, I see things moving in a positive direction. It does mean that there's less to talk about but there's really nothing all that new to discuss. Categorize well, write unique descriptions, audit listings now and again, rinse, repeat. Running a successful directory really isn't that complicated, it just requires quite a bit of work - something many who used to populate these forums weren't particularly interested in doing.

 

I'm quite happy to see all the little link selling rodents scurrying back to the holes they crawled out of. In a couple of years or so we should be able to correct all the damage they have done.

 

Google is trying to push more people into buying adwords. Links, no matter where they come from, can't help a site rank over Google's own sites and paid ads that appear in the search results. A paid search engine is what Google is becoming. Unless a directory has a source of traffic apart from Google, then its value will continue to decline as more people wake up and smell the coffee. Even the major directories will find it harder to justify the high fees they charge.

 

Search engines still use quality human edited directories as sources for good quality data. They would be foolish not to use quality data fed to them freely.

 

It might prove to be most interesting if Google continues moving to a primarily paid model. It will only make the results even less relevant. People will look even harder for alternatives and who our favorite websites link to will become even more important.

 

They are already less relevant as a result. Its really hard to discern what is a paid position vs. what is a paid advertisement.

 

I really think the way Google is going directories will once again flourish. This time not as a link building tool but as a clean trusted source of information and references for the web

 

Google already did this (went full paid) with Google Shopping or whatever they call it these days. The results are horrible, have very little variety/competition and contains mostly sellers with inflated prices. Does Google care about the user experience? No. They are making more money off of that then they ever did. The same is happening to search but in a less immediate way so they do not cause an uproar.

Some directories will survive these troubled times, but I think most will not be profitable enough for their owners to keep around. Search engines will rely on directories as stoner said, but the type of directories Google will rely on are very popular. Unless you can compete with Yelp, Yellow Pages, etc., don't expect Google to rely on your directory or to give it much love in search. The other search engines won't give directories much love either, and getting found in them will be more difficult then it is today.

But the point is if Google does not value links in the same way as they did before, what do most directories really offer? If they have a lot of buyer traffic, that is good and provides insulation from becoming obsolete. But buying traffic mostly visits websites like Yelp, Yellow Pages, etc.

 

Google still values links, quality links from reputable resources.

 

I think many of the folks here have forgotten how the world operated before Google. Not every link is about SEO or PR. People spend millions to advertise on the homepage of Yahoo! I can guarantee you that SEO and PR are not in any way shape or form part of the decision to invest big bucks on prominent placement like that.

A directory doesn't have to send a "lot of buyer traffic" to make submitting worthwhile.

There's a little known professional directory that sends me 1-3 clients a year. I wouldn't run it anything like they do. In fact, I think it's more than a little dishonest. I could pay to advertise that I'm a writer from NC, CA, FL or any other state I want to target. Yet, the last time I looked, I'm either the only or one of two listed for my city. Ironically, I've never had a client from my home state. But, none of that matters when a free listing, submitted 6 or 7 years ago still is sending me clients. After the first one, who cares if that listing provides PR or higher results in the SERPs? I've certainly recovered the five minutes or so the submission took. It provided highly targeted direct traffic that led to selling my services. Who cares about SERPs or PR when a site can do that for your business?

I know my arts and crafts directory has directly led to sales for a number of sites listed...the shop owner's have told me. Betcha they like their directory listing too.

I've been telling everyone for years that if they build a true resource, it won't matter what Google does. Sure, traffic will drop, but if you want to use any of the directories you've mentioned, do you really start at Google? I know the better directories in my niches. I go to them directly. I don't need a search engine to find them. My traffic logs would indicate that others do so as well.

 

I agree google is getting less relevant but directories have the same problem. The listings are paid to be in there. Not because they are relevant because they paid for a listing.

People don't build directories by sitting around choosing the coolest sites anymore that went out with the 90s. A few are stuck there like domoz, but 99.9% of directories have the intention of making money on listings.
Directories worked(collected paid links) when the links were worth something to google now the links are worthless.

If you are trying to sell listings on the promise of traffic good luck unless you are yelp, yellow pages or one of the big players that has listings display on the front page of google.