They arent losing page rank anymore then another blog or site. The only directories that lost PR where because they are promoted in this forum which google employees found and burnt to make a point about paid links or whatever bull*hit lie they want to give you. Dont believe me? get out of this forum for a week and you will find all kinds of directories with PR inside the categories and receiving submissions daily. laterz malcolm
So true. Heres some paranoia from me but you know what else i believe, when some threads have been started in this section by people asking to buy bulk or whatever in directories and ask you to link them here or pm them the Urls, or they do those threads in link sales section, i believe some of those people over last 12 months were and have been collecting lists to report as many as they could/can.
I agree with that... And why i take reservation before posting any URL whether mine or someone elses as when you can toss stones and never get caught then its an open door to take out your competition due to a technicality. laterz malcolm
Offering featured links for a fee-is it also considered link farming? Every dir offers facility to get featured links that stay on top of the free listings and collect a fee for that. Such directories also get penalized. My directory keeps getting high PR and low PR in every update. Last time, it came down to PR 1 from PR4.
I don't think anyone really knows exactly what Google Considers link farming. I look at it this way. If you have say, 5 featured links that are paid in a decent, non spammy directory, I cannot see how that could be considered a link farm given the small quantity. If you are truly worried, I guess that is what the nofollow is for.
Could you explain your position in a little more detail and perhaps back this up with a source? Why do you feel that links from directories will be discounted any more than a link from a search engine would?
If they give approval of dummy websites, then google give the penalty to directory and it lose Page rank
Exactly, search engine law is just like laws within society, its specifically setup that way so that people cant survive for long outside of the rules. Although it still never explains the occasions where people really haven't done anything wrong but still find a site penalised. Not just web directories following rules though, all types of sites should.
I think domainpubber is on to something when he says that page rank is irrelevant and the whole world of link building as we know it might be coming to an end.. to paraphrase dramatically. Of course, I don't think it'll happen over night (gosh, please don't let it happen over night), but it's nevertheless probably a good idea to look at the alternatives. First of all all this sucking up to google is making me sick. Neither are they the only search engine around nor are they the gods of the web, and to be entirely honest I don't think they will matter as much and in the same way as they did so far, in near future. Why? Well, social bookmarking. How many people get tons of traffic from stumble upon for instance? Digg? Delicious? That's where the "next google" is - not a single search engine index everyone tries to suck into, but a whole cloud of social traffic sources. I was wondering though, which is why I got to this thread, if I should pay for a directory submissions service (and which).. Now I'm not so sure...
It's not just directories, I know of blogs it's happened to and probably any other sort of site which G finds out is trying to game it's ranking system. I know of some directories that are quietly and industriously improving their sites and maintaining or increasing their PR. Some thoughts on how not to get penalised: Don't sell sitewide text or banner links unless you nofollow them. Don't buy sitewide text or banner links unless you nofollow them. Be very cautious what you post and advertise on these forums.
Exactly right - no way my sites are going in a DP sig - its not worth the risk just for a few extra PR0 backlinks
But if a directory got penalised, may aswell put it back in a sig link, once its been trodden on what else? You would be amazed at the folk that dont care if the directory doesn't rank for its name, or has no visible pr.
If a directory is driving traffic, well organized and indexed, PR and Visibility is pretty much secondary, if valid at all, don't ya think?