I haven't launched the directory I'm working on yet, but I have looked in to the market and it feels like many directories have dropped in PR by 2 steps. Is this a correct observation by me? Is this something that happens to all directories or ju those with paid/featured listings? I will charge a non-refundable submission fee. This fee is for administration costs only and not an advertising fee. And once a site is accepted they are equal to all other listings. There will be no way to buy a better position in the list. Will my directory suffer a PR drop? It feels like PR6 and PR4 is a big difference.
No directories have not had seen any significant change of late. See PR stats from our list of 11,000 active directories. The stats were taken after the last PR update. Since then there has been a few manual adjustments by Google, in which some sites went up and others went down.
But I remember it like both DMOZ and Yahoo Directory had a PR of 10. And it doesnt seems like there are so many high PR directories out there. Is it really that hard to reach PR6 and PR7?
DMOZ has not been a PR10 for a quite a while. As a rule directories are not buying massive amounts of links anymore so you do not see as many really high PR sites.
I'm seeing the same thing as CanadianEh. Directory PR seems to be stabilizing. It appears that directories are getting manual PR adjustments if it appears they are simply selling PR (or if it looks like they're buying PR). Good directories with valid incoming links are maintaining their PR. So my advice is to try to build a good resource that Google finds valuable and you won't have any trouble. If you buy a bunch of links or do a bunch of redirects to raise your PR or traffic you'll get caught and suffer for it. Google wants good directories because it helps their search engine focus on the best sites. They really, really, really, hate bad directories because they mess up their SERPs with unrelated links. Make a good resource and you'll stay on the right side of Google.
I think you have something there. I hadn't thought of it that way but your analysis seems to make perfect sense of what has happened in the last year.
How does a manual adjustment work? Does a Google employee inspect the directory and override the calculated PR? Also, how do you know when this happens? Also, it seems unfair if this is done to some directories but not others. Thanks
It looks like they do have a team that does manual reviews, either because of a paid links reports they receive or maybe their algos throw out suspicious sites for review. I noticed that a couple of my directories that I used to buy and sell links on had their PR go up in the last month. I reran the PageRank on the directories in our database and noticed that there was a small percentage that had changed. Some went up by 2 or 3 and some went down to 0. I would guess that once they find a suspicious site they can easily identify and check sites owned by the same person.
I would be interested in see the directories that dropped to zero just to know what to avoid. You seem pretty up on this topic CanadianEh, any opinion what cause G**gle to drop them? You have great site too! I was looking through the listings. Do you have a list available for download of the directories without duplicate content, same ip, and other red flags?
The main sites that you want to look out for are sites that do not rank in the top 40 for their domain. To be safe, you can avoid the directories that are nofollow on the listings. Here are some of the nofollow reasons. I just have opinions and there are a lot of contradictory opinions. Some well run sites were hit and some bad ones received no drops. It probably comes down to buying and selling links, especially for some that grew very fast. I`m sorry but I do not provide downloads. Many people use any lists they get a hold of and use them with automated submitters without ensuring that they are the right types of directories or that they meet the submission requirements. It is bad for the directory industry as the directories get spammed with thousands of submissions that are in the wrong niche and do not come close to following their rules. It is important to point out that the Google reviews are not limited to web directories. All types of websites have been affected.
haven't seen any change recently on my websites. If Google employee do manually correct the PR, they must be busy...so many websites nowadays.
I've noticed no significant drop in PR on directories since the last round of directory bashing google did some time back. I've got three and they all seem to have pretty consistent PR, though one used be a PR 6 before the google doom and gloom troop slaughtered it for no apparent reason.
I Absolutely agree to you, Google goes for the content. So if you have not launched the site yet, than work on the content. Google itself will give you the PR. The fore most important think took in the consideration by Google is the content. I don't have much idea about the how and when the PR changes, but this is the thing that i cam to know about Google. So i can be wrong . .
That's what I've found. If your directory (or any other site) has good content you'll be fine with Google. If your site is full of spammy content or spammy links Google eventually catches up to you.
directory is the collection for different categories urls at one page............if you make some content related to categories then it will definitely get good google PR.
Just need to keep those recorical links active and perhaps make it a requirement on your Directory site for a while until your pagerank rises from the people linking back to your site. Wouldn't it be great if you could boost your pagerank by linking to different sites. I guess then there would be thousands of PR10 Sites though.
HI My directory just went up from pr 4 to pr 5 and all I do is build my backlinks and approve good useful sites in my directory, I do have paid and free options....for people that only have paid directories why not offer free listings and in the two emails you send out have links to related affiliate products to off set the free listing options... It works for me so it could work for you. to.... Tom