Google nukes lots of Web Directories

by Patrick Altoft on September 3, 2007

An interesting topic has started up on Sphinn about Google apparently giving a penalty to a lot of popular web directories.

Sites such as Aviva Directory, Alive Directory, Big Web Links, ewebpages, Directory Dump, Elegant Directory and probably more now don’t rank for their own names.

The sites are still indexed indicating either a manual or algorithmic penalty has been applied. There is more discussion in this thread.

Why is Google doing this?

Google is either penalizing sites that link out to bad neighbourhoods (unlikely) or has given the penalty for either buying or selling links (more likely).

Why Google doesn’t come right out and tell everybody why these sites have been hit is beyond me. If they told people and gave specific reasons everybody would take notice. As it is people will carry on as normal.

What do you think?

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Published in: Search Engine Optimisation

{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }

1 pete 03/09/2007 at 10:02 pm: For many years Google have been attempting to design a system that has a level playing field. By hitting platforms that can manipulate PR by payment, Google has taking another large step in their struggle to keep their system fair for everyone.
2 inflatable 04/09/2007 at 3:02 am: It’s a very bad news to me!I lose my rank,
3 Ben 04/09/2007 at 5:39 am: Hah someone has been drinking the kool aid.
4 David Castle 04/09/2007 at 1:12 pm: Greetings from me. OK we all know that paid links has always been a topical debate. But there are ‘paid links and there are other paid links’ - Many people originally paid quite a lot of cash to be on the Yahoo Directory. So will Google in turn ’switch off Yahoo’? There are people that will say that Google does not feed from Yahoo -true to an extent. But in essence Google apart from sitemaps has still never really disclosed what links it maintains anyway. And what about the submit to Directories market? Google can seek out the links ‘paid for’ by individuals using the system - too many sites with identical linking. Or simply Directories with a barcode entry that discriminates from attempted block entries. So what is Google seeking the SEO market into. Manual submissions to topic related Directories would be my guess. My solution? Very simple and one as a mod over at WPW I have been saying for years and years. Find out who your competitors are linked to (as best you can LOL)and the ones that Google is not discriminating against and link there. Ahhh - but what if it’s a paid for link?? Your move Google - Your move.
5 Alevoor 04/09/2007 at 2:56 pm: No wonder, given the google’s principles of following the democratic nature of the web. What left me wondering is that the untold story of countless number of ‘lesser’ websites that are penalized by google.
6 Lama 04/09/2007 at 5:52 pm: I run a small non paid directory, and I’m not anywhere to be seen in google for the site name.
So my conclusion is that it’s algo, probably based on the script signature.

Google is closing all the doors on easy links. Ranking is just getting harder and harder
7 David Castle 05/09/2007 at 8:54 am: I think that when you boil this whole topic down it relates to one thing and one thing only.
The ‘toolbar pagerank economy’- when Google introduced the toolbar it was clearly spyware with the added bonus of eliminating those annoying ‘I have a vid cam in my bedroom’ pop ups. So that was a bonus factor. Next thing all the other SE’s joined in. So Google turned to Larry Page and used Stanford Universities pagerank system on the toolbar. Then expert SEO’s found that they could access Google’s algorithm system and the whole pagerank thing begun. Google retaliated by updating it 3 or 4 times a year, but by then the damage was done. Anyone with a high PR Directory was selling links on the false premise that in turn the paying site would go up in the SERP. Now Google has to drop all of those Directories guilty of capitalising on an economy that they themselves created.
8 martinsc 11/09/2007 at 9:07 am: i think it was only a matter of time… Google wants to show its users relevant results and not those that belong to webmasters that can afford paying for links or employee somebody that can request links to directories all day long…
9 Simon 13/09/2007 at 7:31 am: Most dir’s are crap for users and listed sites…I think it’s a good thing!
10 Tony 05/02/2008 at 6:01 pm: I think we all get what we disserve because we depend on Google do you want to stop them DO NOT use them. The more we make noise about them the more they rob their hands just my 2cents
11 SnakeLady 28/02/2008 at 2:07 am: I’ve been following your blog with interest, and seeing as you’re obviously knowledgeable on the whole link-building subject, perhaps you could clear something up for me? Does Google penalise sites which are listed on directories containing words like ‘SEO Friendly’ or ‘Featured Links’ or anything else which indicates an SEO benefit? I’m planning on doing some linkbuilding for a site I’ve just built, but I don’t want to risk getting penalised down the line.

What would be the repercussions (if any) of posting to directories with something like this on? What exactly does Google look for on directories?

Thanks
12 Patrick Altoft 28/02/2008 at 2:21 am: The first thing you need to check is whether the directory has a penalty in Google. For example it might have very low PageRank or not rank for it’s own name.

Then check what sort of sites are listed and whether they are good quality.

I tend to steer clear of most directories and only pick ones that actually rank highly in Google for terms related to my sites.

As long as you don’t use directories for more than a small percentage of your linkbuilding you should be fine.
13 tony dee 19/07/2008 at 10:10 pm: Stop using google as a crutch and build content beefy sites and the traffic will come.