I think he was referring to Google being selective regarding the value of online directories. It could also be that there are too many bad neighborhoods on the same page meaning directories which Google has penalized. Then again, who knows, to me it just makes sense to see a message being sent to directory owners in general.
Well, if it was a message for directory owners in general, why didn't they just downgrade all directories? I'm sure it was more work to pick inidividual ones....
Quality directories have always been a good content source for search engines. I’m quite sure they will maintain this in the future. Google filters can easily tell the good from the bad directories by what is listed in them. What action I have seen taken recently is to remove the main page from being cached and the rest of the pages slowly disappear over a few months for the real bad offenders who were most likely hand reviewed. For those who do not have a “quality†database developed they are loosing all their cached pages and the page rank if any that was on them. Without the cached pages they have nothing to offer the submitter with no back link and no traffic. It’s a very effective way to weed out the garbage.
Stick with the older directories with developed databases and don't run to submit to the "I just opened my site and have no submission but submissions are free now" directories. If they had any experience developing and operating directories they would have sat on the directory and added quality websites for a year prior to opening.
However, one of the best ways of gaining experience in running a directory (or anything else) is by actually doing it.
As the owner of a directory on this page: http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Searching/Directories/ I am pleased to say that my traffic, PageRank and Adsense revenue have held steady (more or less) through all of April and May. If it weren't for all this commotion on the forums I'd never have known anything was happening. To be honest I wish I'd spent all this "forum time" just improving my site--that is my job and I love it. Andi
Andi, your site is an actual directory, so no one was dissing yours. We were referring to garbage like this: http://www.josh.nu/
I would never name anybodies directory. It would be rather unprofessional of me but a long list of web garbage directories could be made. Some are bad neighborhoods and I would not want to be listed in them if there is any value to the ranking system and it is in actual usage.
I don't disrespect people's efforts. The site I've named shows none. Just a domain that has been used for linksmanager if nothing else. Then it got called a directory and listed in DMOZ. Now the links on it don't even work.
Publishing a good directory that pays is difficult and the temptations to cut corners for monetary reward are many. A lot of second-rate directories are honest efforts that have "gone to seed" but still produce some residual Adsense income and so will not disappear until Google weeds them out. But a huge percentage of the directories currently in the Google index are a blatant attempt to cash in on holes in the algo without any regard for value to the user or the integrity of the internet in general. I consider this theft. Even theives sometimes work hard at their "craft." Andi
No, actually I'm talking to you. But often the process of forming a rationale or argument benefits from having posted it publicly. The need to be understood by some hypothetical reader is an aid to thought. Yes, I using you. Deal with it. I do have proof though that some (besides myself) have actually read and benefited from my postings. But that's just a by-product, I do this mostly for my own benefit... j/k LOL Andi
We are talking about the directories in DMOZ, correct? Not "those other ones" you have been mentioning. We are talking about the possible reason why has happened what has. And the chance of sites like josh.nu being the reason for that. Have you been talking about something completely different here? Yes, you have. Mike
Yeah, SEOMoz is a great tool for webmasters. I had a problem recently with it. I couldn't stop it to start automatically when I open my browser, but I re-install it and now everything is OK