Has Google Begun to Devalue Directory Links?

A few of my smaller sites that were relying almost totally on directory links have all begun to drop their rankings quite a bit. Sites that held page 1 rankings for months are now dropping to page 2 and 3.

This began a few weeks before the current PR update, so i doubt PR that has anything to do with it. In fact tool bar PR snapshots have no relevancy on SERPS before, after or during a PR update. (fact may be too strong a word, but most of us will concure that tool bar pr has little to no influence on serps)

But has G begun to devalue directory links?

Or has the larger wave of Supplemental Pages struck many directories making those back-links pass less (possibly no) weight?

Or am i grasping at straws here?

 

It does appear that Google is cracking down on all non-natural links.

As SEO's, we now just have to work harder to get around Google's latest anti-SEO algorithms.

 

Yeah,Until now directory submissions helps my site in getting back links.

 

Directory reviews still carry weight, and in fact directories that are strong on unique content and human edited reviews are very strong in page ranking
We got a whole bunch of PR5 for inner pages with reviewed unique content
However there is a but, and that is NON UNIQUE content may become supplemental and then will relax back on PR
Directories that are continually updated and edited will still be very strong both now and in the future

 

i also think something is going on about directory links.
axemedia can you tell me if you are using page links or sitewide links ?, and did you link to the same ip maybe ?

 

It's possible that something is going on with directory links, but the real lesson is not to put all your links in one basket. A wide variety of links is preferred.

 

A lot of directories sell sitewide links and link to questionable sites.....I've seen diectories with gambling and porn sections....I stay away from those...

 

Directory links have been dropping in value more and more since years ago. Maybe Google is really starting to crack down and figure out how to isolate which links are paid.

 

These were normal directory submissions to about 300 free directories. So they would be page links.

What do you mean by link to the same ip?

Time to diversify the link profile on some of these sites. They are low competition keywords. Directory links alone were doing the job fine, till now.

As britishguy says, there are still many strong directories, and of course he pushes that view because he runs one, or more, strong paid directory(s). Not putting you down Pete, for the most part I suspect your right.

But where it really sucks is for small sites targeting low competition/ low traffic keywords and paying $10, $20, or $30 per directory is not worth the investment when you need to be in a fair number of directories. Especially now that many of the "strong" dirs have recently switched to a yearly payment model from the one time payment model.

 

they are FARRR from it.