Thread: Directories continue to get slapped by Google

JoeAnt directory had its Page Rank slashed recently.

Aaron Wall talks about it here Official: General Web Directories Are Dead - JoeAnt is PageRank 3, More Aggressive Hand Editing by Google : SEO Book.com

I've been cutting back from submitting to directories for the past year. Saw this coming from miles away.

Even funnier though is Google re-instated a PR5 for JoeAnt after Aaron called Google on it.

One of mine got slashed big time, to a big fat 0 from a 4

It however was changed back to a 2 recently. Makes me wonder if Google actually hand edited it from being called on it, or was it something else that effected more sites than just the one listed

Think google goes after those directories that;
A. have advertising throughout the site.
B. allow reciprocals
C. where the directory owner purchased a bunch of links on other sites and directories.

One of my new directories jumped to pr2 last update, another dropped to pr0.
That one was because it was down too much.

Yeah... I would like to know why they just splapped my directory... from a 3 to a 0. I never purchased or sold anything for this directory... which is what I thought they were after. I had always allowed free and reciprocal links... until recently I dropped the free as I was falling way behind on approving worthy submissions and they just come in way too quick.

Think maybe some larger directories that I may have been listed in were hit... thus reducing the PR downline ? Or what if I had approved some sites that had a PR of -1 ? Is there such a rank ? I swear I seen that once in the admin section of phpLD... but I could never find it again.

Take a look at the overall numbers:
Web Directories » Blog Archive » Small Google PageRank Update - New PR Stats
Some of what they are saying is the result of a few well known players that got slapped. It is often people that are off the radar, and just working on building a quality directory that get good rank, and have few troubles.

Good thing we are not affected during the last update... hoping not to get slapped as well in the next updates

does pr matter so much...coz one of my site had a drop in pr after the last update but traffic from google in increase constantly...

Originally Posted by raedthakur

does pr matter so much...coz one of my site had a drop in pr after the last update but traffic from google in increase constantly...

It does but it doesn't.

Mostly it's for 'pride' and or selling links Bragging rights, a pr3 site however can outrank a pr8 site.

It matters for a directory, or for submitters to a directory.

Many directories still holding page rank on their home page don't appear to be passing it to inner pages. That's key if you want your submissions to be valuable links.

The days of quick and dirty link building are going the way off the dodo.

Interestingly, you are seeing internal pages of all sorts of sites getting zero. From profiles and threads on forums, to straight html pages, there was a trend for this on the last update. This may or may not be permanent. It could be that they are just reevaluating the rank of internals and that it will return on the next update or two. This would be an excellent time to work on your site and make sure you have quality outbound links.

Does it have any effect on sites that are submitted into directories?

If you are asking me, looking at the statistics from
Web Directories » Blog Archive » Small Google PageRank Update - New PR Stats
directories as a whole did not get "slapped". A few did, but as a whole they did not. So for sites that paid for submissions to directories that got banned, the benefit of the paid submission is now gone, but submitting won't hurt you.

I've definitely noticed negative effects of getting links from directory networks. Some sites have lost all PR.

I'll still be submitting for free links on directories..as long as they aren't over crowded

i knew this was coming and I'm sure it'll only get worse.

You know what is weird?
People obsessing about google page rank!

There are lots of directories out there who never got slapped, who have been doing good in all respects, and others with great promotion and traffic.

But no, too many webmasters trash any directory (or site) with no page rank!

And the same webmasters who trash, are awful vague about their own sites page rank!

Wild on Dp not too long ago, looking for an exchange, one person who wanted to exchange with me was the same person who would not buy links as no pr on sites, yet his site? PR0!

I am worried about my directory mg:

Directory business is not my main business but I do it seriously and want to take it high... don't know how long my directory will survive in this market... God knows and Google knows only lol

You survive the simple way.
Just like one does with a site, blog, etc.

PROMOTE!

Well google is still the best in town but they are saying wikipedia searches will be the next new thing.