Why the sudden penalization on Directories?

Exactly my point - I am not trying to cause trouble - just pointing out (at the risk of being controversial) - that some posts do not do the Directory industry any Favors from a customer perspective - that is all

 

For those saying we don't care about our customers, you people must understand that this is a Directory owners forum and we're trying here to find a reason for the things that are happening with Google. If you're not reading about the care for our customers here, just open a thread called: "Directory Customer waiting excuses and apologies."



P.S.: all my directories are ok, in their place and none fell

 

This thread is in the Google Forum - but I do take your point - and equally I have made mine.

I truly hope it all gets sorted

 

Oups, sorry, I knew it was opened in the Directories forum. Anyway, it is though a thread and we're trying to find a reason not to apologise or to find excuses for our customers.
There is a reason for all these happen and only by discussing with other directories can be.. "solved" or at least found. if after every 2-3 threads one comes and says "Hey! I'm a customer, I'm waiting for a excuse" we won't get anywhere. If you are a customer, I think you should shut up and watch the thread, the reason, and the excuse, will come after all

 

Look at it logically, G have been saying they don't like people buying and selling links, directories have completely ignored this and continued, now, whilst G can't tell you what to do as such, they can change their algo to reflect what they do and don't think is key for their SERP's.

In addition there are so many directories out there now, the vast majority of which are only ever viewed by webmasters who are adding their own sites, regardless of if they are free, paid or recep. Very few people use directories for their proper use because the algo of the SE's is constantly improving anyway and results are getting better all the time so it's quicker and easier to just search something in an SE now.

Therefore the only conclusion anyone including G can come to is that the majority are sites which are there for selling links. Something which G has said they dont like.

Don't get me wrong, I think directories have had their place for SEO, and in the past for actually finding companies etc, but perhaps those days are now gone

That being said, it could just be a temporary fluctuation in the algo !

 

I like that logic analyse of things, and fully agree with it all. But somehow when "logic" is mentioned togheter with "google" an alarm bell rings in my head.
But I think you hit the nail with the hammer..

tom

 

All my client, partners, and my own sites are unaffected.

I have not paid for links from directories for the most part.

There are two types of links

Natural and Artificial

Google loves the Natural.......hates Artificial

'Paid' directories contribute to Artificial

Google has a right to defend itself however it sees fit.

Google has posted paid links would hurt your site.

Apparently this time they were telling the truth.

I will also predict that soon Article Directories will see a downturn.

Your best strategy instead of sitting here and complaining is to go out write great content and get NATURAL links to your sites!

 

Can anyone name a niche or subject specific directory that has been affected?

So a batch of general web directories have been hit. Hurts the owners of those directories ( I own a couple fo directories) but these general directories are SEO vehicles.

As a submitter your buying a link. (if these directories used nofollow would you submit to them?)
As a directory owner your selling a link. Sure you have an editorial policy to keep your site porn and pill free, but thats to aviod scaring off the majority of paying link buyers, because you link into dodgie neighborhoods.

I suppose what will happen eventually is that these general directories will have to reduce there prices as there seo worth gets reduced.

my 2 cents worth.

 

I would be interested to know if anyone has ever had a direct sale or lead conversion due to a directory???

My guess is no.

I do not see targeted 'buying' traffic visiting a directory to find what they want to buy.

I do realize ODP & Yahoo may be exceptions to the norm, and I would accept those as a yes answer, if there is some conversion data to support such a claim.

 

Absolutely right. And that's what's got these directory owners crying foul and running for the hills all of a sudden. They've managed to make some money scamming people with link farms and now the money is drying up. Don't feel sorry for directory owners. Feel sorry for those who got sucked into handing over their money to them.

Exactly. And no, I don't see niche directories being hit, or at least not to the same extent.

 

Next question

I have a potential client, and have seen others with websites, which have large directory's attached to them.

Will they get nailed?

While perhaps not paid like paid directory's, the overall 'Intent' is to improve rankings at times.

Another question.

Is it possible stand alone directories are not effected while directory networks are more severely filtered??

 

I'm actually starting to think that there is nothing wrong with google and we are worried for nothing.

How many directories were actually banned? alive, aviva, and some more of the big, big players right?
Now, DP has at least, 50.000 members and more than half have heard of these directories, so there is actually a big chance that those directories were reported to google for selling links by a big number of people around here. You know, that form google has up for reporting sites that sell link.. probably if a site get's more than XXXX reports than it is banned. It is also weird that only (as far as I saw) paid directories are banned.


my 2 cents

 

It's not just the ones that were seemingly penalized.

It's also the fact that taking action against these directories should be delivering a clear message about paid directories, recurring "review fees", bidding directories, and all the other money-grabs we've seen in recent months.

It's also about true quality control in what the directory owner lists - no one should be able to get a listing simply because they paid for it because that's just thinly diusguised link-selling and we all know it.

It's also, in my opinion, about the difference between niche directories which still have a contribution to make and general "catalogue the internet" directories which haven't had a whole lot of relevance for a long time now - and I mean years not months or weeks. People don't use general directories to find information; they use search engines. And that makes general directories link farms.

 

IMHO - I still don't believe Google is specially targetting web directories or penalizing them.

There are many other sites outside the directory industry that have been hit with this algo test (thats what I presume the reason for this phenonmenon).

Aviva and Alive still have Google's trust --that is showing those extra 4sitelinks - which most webmasters call authority sites.

Aviva still AUTHORITY

Alive still AUTHORITY

Please check that they are now trusted by Google for their domains ( prior to this incident, the domains didn't show those sitelinks - it was the search terms - Aviva Directory & Alive Directory that showed those sitelinks).

V7N -- forum too became an authority site at the same time with Aviva. There was a discussion about it on that forum. If you go through that discussion-- you will see that - Google was showing those sitelinks only for the capitalized term "V7N" --not the URL or other terms.

Please check it now-- you won't find those sitelinks with the term.

So - its just an algo testing.

 

Dont give up easily do you? Not like your elders and betters.

Boo

 

I agree with you as well as Malcom1's theory of a google filter somewhere for "repeated word targeting"

These sites are not banned they just have their brand name filtered because they used it too many times (usually in advertising). These sites still have high rankings for other key words.

I have non-directory sites that were affected in the same way.

I have been following directories for 3 years and I have seen quite a few penalized over the years. Most of these had grown too fast, buying too many sitewide links. In most cases, these penalized sites did not rank at all even for their domain name. In this case, alivedirectory.com and the others still come #1 for their domain.

 

I dont think all paid directories have been banned & as u said only very big Dir's which sell in huge have been penalized & I also think everything will be fine with some time... as the owners of those dir's are not going to sit quiet after making sooo muchof investment....

 

I hope they haven't been banned, but with Google, I wouldn't be surprised.

 

Directories are doomed into oblivion. Some members raised valid points. Directories provide a bunch of categorized links, which are to influence serps. I think it's obvious that Google wants to remove those link farms and let people find the information they need in the search engine and not in the millions of directories that are out there.

 

Malcolm's view (aka seobook) is the most logical.

I have only one of my sites hit and I always use the official title everywhere. I don't think it is the title- that is causing the filters to go RED. I think it might be the keywords on different categories which have been used through auto generation module.

I used it on the site which has been hit-- but never bothered on others wich are still where they were before.