It's official Google has opened up a can of whoop ass on directories

Didn't the first wave of "SEO friendly" directories suffer much the same fate?

Some managed to recover others didn't, apart from linkage factors one thing they had in common with the couple of members' directories I happened to view was lots of empty category pages with AS on them.

 

Google has seen the need to take issue with some of the top insiders in this industry. This is having repercussions through out and is scaring off a lot of genuine buyers. What can we do to reassure our clients that they are not wasting their time or money?

I happen to believe that in technical terms, one link is much the same as another but many would disagree. Does it really matter? Whichever way you turn it the value of a link is determined by the cost of a review and the expected life of that link. And what we are looking at here is the credibility of the directory owner.

This is something that some of us or even at a push all of us, could do together. We could then leave the buyers to decide on the finish they are most comfortable with. I would like to see a list or for that matter many lists where directory owners declare themselves to be adhering to fair and equitable business practises and where they subject themselves to the judgement of their peers. Why dont we try it?

 

Its unlikely directories will die off, some will suffer for sure, but they will come back, a bigger problem exists and that is one of Google not providing relevant search results, something I wrote a quick blog post about here.

 

I dont really know much about Google search results but I sure could do with a few more submissions. Getting real tired of twiddling my thumbs. This is hurting all except Google.

 

I guess google doesn't like competition.

 

Dear Dr.Phil,

First of all I would like to thank you for listing my directory and i appreciate that. But I don't think you got the point also that many are trying to deceive Google with their SEO tactics. Most are bannering Human Edited when they accept every sites that PAY, Hundreds or Thousands of Categories without even a listing just to have Page Rank in case a buyer drops by and submits, Family Friendly when they even had gambling and viagra listed, muscling their way to high irrelevant PR websites, I think Google now knows and are still finding it.

 

Have to say I agree with everything you say, PR chasers are like alcoholics, they just can't admit they have a problem and try and hide from it at every opportunity.

I've dared speak out against this 'Monopoly' I guess would be the right word, and got nothing but red for it, but hey will that put me off, the hell it will, you wanna see how many people agree with both yours (popotalk) and my honesty with this situation.

 

I got the point, however my point, which you seem to have missed, was that Google, if it is to provide relevant results as it states its primary aim is, should return Aviva if someone searches for 'aviva directory' for example, no one can argue that its the most relevant result Google could return, if it doesn't return it then there is a problem with the Google ethos. Suspect, deceitful and spammy SEO practices were not what my post was about.

 

If a site always has to show up for its name, Google will never be able to ban any site.

Google must have found something wrong with these directories; else it wouldn't have taken such a step.

 

Here Here!

 

is there any change yet today?

 

True enough, but Google hasn't banned them, over 6000 pages are still indexed for Alive for example in Google, Google has simply chosen not to return them for any searches, including their own name, which is clearly against Google's own aim of providing 'relevant search results'.

 

That's just splitting hairs wayner, fact is if your not on the first few pages of your chosen keywords your going to have problems. What can be more relevant than a domain name if one was to search for that?

I type in avivadirectory because I want to research them and see if they are credible, they don't turn up first page I'm worried why? So as much as its not a BAN as just as good as.

 

i am sure there is a some legal issue here that a good attorney can work out. Look at it like this Some Lucky directory owners do not have another job, they make their income off of their directory. They were living off the fact that their domain name came up first and they make more sales because they were top of the list. Now since google removed it they might loose income. Its the same thing if you are in the business of home improvement, if you loose your hand you can't work anymore because you now have one hand and you don't make any more sales and money .

BTW google e-mailed me this morning saying that they were removing my ' Google checkout badge' because they could not find the google checkout button on my website. The worse part is that they Went to the wrong website!. So now I have to be punished because of someone at google's mistake.

 

I think wayner makes a good point. Not listing a site for it's own name is not in google's best interest in my opinion, unless they have completely banned the site.

Think about it like this. Joe-average-not-very-web-savvy-surfer is looking for a site he visted earlier, but can't remember the exact url. So he searches the name, but doesn't find the actual site. He gets frustrated and thinks to himself, man sometimes google sucks at finding stuff.

I've had periods where the serps were screwy and I'd have a hard time finding obvious stuff through google. At those times, I myself said man google's search engine sucks. Normally it doesn't, and it's the best, but when it returns obviously screwy results, it becomes a different story.

 

It doesn't work like that. It's been tried before. Nobody has a "right" to free traffic from google. They can list what they want, when they want, how they want it.

 

I don't know about Google's best interests but it sure as hell ain't in the best interests of the penalized sites.

 

Dear ladies, stop CRYING. It won't change anything.
Just get back to work. Still there is a room for directories, just look around.
If not - your domains are still strong - always can be turned into something different also profitable. However it's too early for that I think.

 

lol, that's for sure.

 

the best part i just noticed. is that when you search for a directory a thread from digital point will appear with your link inside!.