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Is Google Hitting Directory Links?

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By · September 6, 2007 · 95 Comments

Algorithmic flux or selective penalization? Nobody’s sure and nobody that can answer is talking so far, but paid link directories have been plummeting in Google search results. Many are not ranking for their own business name, according to reports, even though webmasters have not received penalty notices.

Is Google Hitting Directory Links?
Is Google Hitting Directory Links?

Editor’s Note: This article doesn’t address the robust discussion of whether Google should or should not devalue paid links, or even the value of directories themselves. This is a hot topic and we know you have an opinion. Speak out in the comments section.

Listen to the audio

As many as 60 directories, according to this report, suddenly dropped in rank, leading to suspicion that Google has begun aggressively (and likely, manually) targeting paid link directories deemed to be in violation of the search engine’s quality guidelines. Some have suggested competitor sabotage via the recently initiated paid link reporting form.

Some of affected directories included Aviva, Alive, Big Web Links, ewebpages, Directory Dump, Elegant Directory, and Biz-Dir. David Eaves, the owner and operator of Biz-Dir told WebProNews that about 550 of his directory pages have been dropped from Google’s index altogether.

Key Takeaways
Don’t panic, rankings fluctuate
Review Google quality
   guidelines
Clearly label paid links
Don’t Pass On PageRank
Don’t forget content
Resubmit for indexing

Eaves admits to buying links, which he considers a legitimate form of advertising, but says Google gave him no notice that his site was being penalized. Eaves is considering dropping his paid links in order to get his pages re-indexed by Google.

It’s important to note, though, that’s not necessarily the best course of action for everybody. Eaves is obviously quite concerned for SEO and directory clients, and says he can sustain a decent rank with natural links. And he says it wouldn’t hurt him to change the links he paid for to nofollow, as the traffic from those links outweighs the traffic he gets from Google.

Again, Google hasn’t sent out notice, and hasn’t returned request for comment, so it could be just an algorithmic flux. So the important thing to remember is: Don’t panic. This could be just the old Google Dance. I remember a man in 2005 ready to put a shotgun in his mouth because his site was de-listed after an algorithm update. "Don’t panic" was the operative phrase of that day, too.

But Google’s Matt Cutts has been firing warning shots in previous months, both from his blog and from the Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose, saying that Google was going to be more aggressive about paid links that violated quality guidelines.

During a session at SES called "Are Paid Links Evil?" Cutts presented a slide presentation, which he was approved to release, distinguishing the types of paid links Google doesn’t like. Cutts cited first a Federal Trade Commission ruling opinion that said sponsored or advertising links must be clearly labeled, and further differentiated between paid links by saying the only ones penalized were links that passed on page rank (PPP).

So whether or not you philosophically agree with Google’s point, if being in Google’s search rankings is more important to you than winning an argument, Cutts suggests labeling paid links in the following ways:

· Redirect through URL blocked by robots.txt
· Redirect through URL using a 302
· Use Javascript to direct the link
· Apply the rel= "nofollow” attribute to the link
· Add <meta name = "robots" content = "nofollow"/> to the page header

It may not be fair to say that Google favors buying links from certain places, but there are "certain places" on the approved list, and they include:

·    AdBrite
· Quigo
· IndustryBrains
· Microsoft AdCenter
· Yahoo! Publisher Network
· Any site that doesn’t pass PageRank

>>> Listen to the audio interview with Biz-Dir.co.uk owner David Eaves.

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There are 95 Comments. Add Yours.

  1. The FTC operates in the US and has no jurisdiction over people in the UK (where I live). Even if the FTC was to pass this ruling it would have no effect on my sites. Why should Google try to enforce US laws in the UK?

    • Figs
      Reply

      Because Google operates out of the US?

  2. I am not surprised at all if this is the case. Google has stated that their mission is to improve the web experience and paid link farms are making a mint off of small and large businesses alike. I am sure they see directory sites as attempts to thwart their algorithm. I would expect articles sites links to be next. Junk articles sites have sprung up by the hundreds in the last year(s).

    • Bring a directory owner,I would say Google is not looking into the quality that the directories provide!

      a site (PR 2) listed in 1000 directories is much better than a site that is PR5 or that has 1000′s of backlinks.

      They fail to understand what directories give!

      Google does n’t care about Quality source of information,they care only about their algorithm which does not provide quality results.

      • “a site (PR 2) listed in 1000 directories is much better than a site that is PR5 or that has 1000′s of backlinks.”

        Perhaps I’m misreading you (I hope). Being listed in 1000 directories does little for a site. I run dozens of high traffic sites and there are very, very few directories that produce traffic for them. Just like very few back links produce traffic.

        If you’re going to pit 1000 directory entries against 1000 non-directory backlinks I’ll take the non-directory backlinks any day. Unless they’re all rubbish paid footer links the backlinks will usually be natural, use varied link text, link to various pages of the site, often link from within content or next to content that is relevant and from a place on the page that is more likely to generate a click through than a directory entry.

  3. Kinda new to the “Algorithmic” but i have a general understanding of it lol Well it’s a shame really but while they aint talking others are so they are just causing more harm to them selves in the end.

    Has this been reported with msn and other searchs?

  4. bj
    Reply

    At least so far. I have a directory on my site, and have a (few) featured listings, probably one for every couple hundred freebies. No PageRank loss so far.

    Though I know Google’s just reacting to the people who have tried to game the system, so they can ensure relevancy, I still think it hypocritical of them. Even though Cutts stated “the rules” it still just feels . . . slimy to me.

  5. Link pages where you pay to put your link along with many others are no longer ranked high with Google unless the link page has content that is related to the subject of your website.

    So if you want to have a high ranking for inbound links, make sure they are on pages with similar content to your own, and that they have a high page rank.

    Bonnie
    http://www.InternetRealmLLC.com

  6. Google are on a very dodgy path here. People might actually pay for links for the purpose driving traffic to their site and not influencing page rank.
    Google want the passing of PR forbidden in such cases to counteract this. That would be fine if Google removed all sponsored advertising above the organic results, because in effect, those sponsored links are nothing more than paid links which have nothing to do with relevancy at all. (The relevancy factor of how pages are returned in the results by the algorithm)
    What an oxymoron they have created.
    To the victor the spoils I say. If those who can be bothered to do the leg work of sourcing links and want a successful business online, then good luck to them for making the effort.

    • MRX
      Reply

      This is exactly why google is going after paid links. They compete with both adwords and adsense.

  7. you are right it’s just the begining of the new google, we will see new things in the next 2 years with the google change visiting msn buying yahoo or joint the search resultea and other fichers togther. we spend thousands of dollars for what use to be kosher links but not any more some of those link want show on google. we still like google but it’s need to be about the net users not only paid marketing.

  8. Yes. I’m 101 percent agree with you that some kind of controls have to be implemented and also have to enforce it from time to time to ensure and maintain fair pratice.

  9. Great article, google is changing what it looks for, mainly page titles, meta words, etc. If your readers want to improve there search engine relevance, try this new web 2.0 portal, http://www.whynotad.com it’s smart programming gives each page the feed google needs to place it in a higher relevance. It’s free to use and helps information rank higher in search engine relevance.

    Keep up the great work and tips.

    Jenny

  10. Considering how long Matt Cutts has been talking about paid links, asking for paid link reports, ala an updated spam reporting system, for the benefit of testing algos, should there be any surprise if the switch finally got flipped?

    I sometimes wonder if Google is also planning on doing away with one of the biggest motivators for the link biz, i.e. Toolbar PageRank, considering all the sites whose displayed PageRank has gone to 0 yet their SERPs and Goog traffic are the same as usual.

    Personally though, I’m not too happy about penalties actually being levied, if that is what actually is happening or is going to happen because if they can detect them, why not just devalue the link juice from them?

    But, no one asked me. :-( )

  11. this clearly means that google wants people to buy links from their “approved” sources and not paid directories. How can google dominate terms and conditions which are to be followed by everyone, this is monopoly and i thought the internet was all about freedom.

    • The internet is all about money!

  12. It’s an absolutely fair system which puts everyone on equal ground for competition for web surfers, no question about for various reasons…

    1) Unlike free web directories, more than likely than not, when you pay for a web directory submission, your website will get listed. So paid submissions looses their value against free submissions.

    2) Giving equal credit for paid submissions would put bigger business at a advantage. Since there are thousands upon thousands if not more web pages than there are visitors. Bigger business would get an easier rated because they can afford to pay all those directories…This would in turn damage small businesses, and personal pages in general. I call the whole paid directory submission nothing more than artificially inflating your rank.

    I do disagree with google’s view on links as it adds too much importance to higher ranked pages that are relevant to your site. I can understand why it’s important, but since the internet is so vast with pages, the amount of links should be considered with the high ranked pages as well, maybe not have pull that higher rank pages do. Links ranked great or small still give your website more exposure on the web.

    And you never know those lower ranked pages can get higher as well. But like I said, paid submissions are nothing more than just inflating one’s rank…I surely do not want to see an ad like this for google ranking system, “Need more traffic? Want a page rank 8 to get more traffic? For only 1,000 dollars it’s yours!” That would make page ranking a joke!

  13. Chris B
    Reply

    It’s funny how webmasters all agree on the fact that content is king, then they go and spend hours working on directory sites that are on the web solely to make money, but are no real use to anyone. The fact that Google is penalising directory sites now will hopefully make these talented webmasters work on more interesting and important web sites, leading to a better web for everyone else.

    • I wholeheartedly agree, who use directories these days to find information or products? Only the ones who haven’t heard of search engines before. There is nothing more frustrating than to do a search on something, only to find directories containing links to sites that are not even related to what you searched for. So what is the use of submitting your site to a directory when:

      (1) You do not get much traffic from these sites,
      (2) There is no real benefit in terms of pagerank for your site.

      Buying links to increase your pagerank is stupid. Lets say you are a cookie factory who sells cookies at a well-known hypermarket, but you advertise your products in some of the magazines, also sold by the same hypermarket. Do you place ads in these magazines so that the hypermarket will “rank” your cookies higher than those of other cookie factories? No, you buy advertising space for exposure, for client “traffic”, for brand building.

      The same applies to websites, you buy links for quality, targeted traffic, in other words for advertising purposes. If you buy links for any other reason, you are trying to game the system.

      • Alan P
        Reply

        Companies and Advertising agencies do take advertising to influence how products are stocked. We designed a poster campaign which was put outside houses and on the routes to work of a Supermarket’s executives. This led to us having a higher brand awareness with them and a better listing in the stores.

        We also had demands from supermarkets for us to support our products generally. So instead of Advertising nationally we took Ad spots in areas where the buyers and executives lived to make it look like national advertising.

        • I submit only to free directories how will this effect my submissions?

  14. Last Friday my impressions went to almost zero. I spend the day Monday trying to get help from “Chat” and they didn’t know and really didn’t get back to me but with the other garbage on their help pages. My bid is now $1 from $.55 for only the St. Louis market place. My ad was created by me and has no <heading><metatags> and one of my picture links doesn’t work plus I am hosted by godaddy.com for Free and have ads across my banner.<br /> Do you have any suggestions.<br /> Thanks!<br /> Why would I be penalized…could it be that they are not getting enough clicks from my ad? They particularly have hurt me in my two main keywords painter and painters where I was getting the impressions.<br /> It would be appreciated if I did get a suggestion.<br /> Thanks,<br /> Sonny</metatags></heading>

  15. Since most of the discussion here is about Google, it is ridiculous to require posters’ homepage before they can submit a message. What webmaster in his or her right mind is going to post comments critical of Google alongside the URL of their website? Maybe that seems a bit paranoid to you, but the fact is that Google is becoming increasingly dictatorial and is now actually targeting the “little guys” to make its point (ie, that Google, and only Google, controls the commercial web).
    The discussion today is about directory websites. I own a directory website. It’s been online for nearly two years, and it still has a Google PR of zero (the site does not break any Google rules). Virtually all the traffic to this site comes from other search engines (and links from other sites).
    Google doesn’t want websites to sell links because Google wants to sell these links itself. It’s as simple as that. Google is competing – aggressively – with its own customers, while at the same time holding them to ransom (if they lost their Google listing, many of them would be out of business).
    Anyway, my point is that Google appears to have developed a vindictive streak, and is increasingly using human operatives to monitor the “behaviour” of websites, to make sure they don’t infringe any of Googles growing number of rules. And no one can afford to be knocked off Google. So maybe I’m being paranoid (and then again maybe I’m not), but I for one am not going to post comments critical of Google in an open forum where my hiomepage is displayed.

    • I do’nt see any difference between paid and free directories because they will both place you on ZERO PR page…

      • You still get a higher pr when your site is submitted into directories….

  16. We listed this website in a number of directories to drive in more traffic and our Google ranking immediately feel from 4 to 3. I’m still wondering if this was a coincidence.

  17. We paid ” Google” for traffic with ZERO positive results. We also noticed it did not matter what we set or budget or when we turned the program on of off somehow Google would alway max out thier profit.

    Google adjusts the ranking of your web site if you don’t pay them. Our site fell way down when we stopped the pay for click ad’s.

    I think Google started off the hottest thing on the net! Now, I refuse to us it. Great company seem to go down hill when greed sets in!

    Lynn Ladd

    • Too many advertisers- too many organic search results. Good paid advertising isn’t the way it used to be… when you actually got quick and guaranteed results.

      Good Luck-

  18. For several years, I have enjoyed top 10 (usually in upper half so make that Top 5 )listings with Google…but about 40 days ago, I used a directory submitter…immediately, I was wiped out of Google although I continue to have high listings in other search engines. Interestingly, my google rankings were based upon actual visitors search terms, not my own terms…meaning that I was doing something right that helped visitors using google search…so what happened…it had to be the directory submission…

  19. It seems that this has been coming for a while. Could anyone be really shocked about it? Has anyone been able to determine if it is a result of a change in algorithms, or was it done with human eyes? I can see evidence of both.

  20. Has anyone come up with a body count on this issue? I have been searching for some updated information, but haven’t found much. It would be interesting to know the extent of the situation.

  21. Forget links try Advertising 2.0

    The Term Advertising 2.0 is relating to web-based user controlled online advertising.

    Advertising Web 2.0 Portals change the ways users interact with the web as a platform. Advertising Web 2.0 simply put is how website developers use the technology and tools available in order to simplify the website platform for the end user.

    Advertising 2.0 relates to Web 2.0 portals that allow users to control many of the sites settings, not previously available for users to edit and or modify, this then gives the information and or the advertising a higher relevance on search engines when people search for specific information.

    People are passionate about controlling the choices they have. The web is full of complicated and confusing log-in screens, forms, applications, approvals and user panels, specifically controlled and regulated by the site developers. Advertising 2.0 portals eliminate the complicated and unnecessary ho-hum of the Internet and so create a simple but very effective end-user solution.

    This is a so called world’s first web 2.0 advertising portal. http://www.whynotad.com

    Lots of hype…we tested the advertising portal a few weeks ago and can see the benefits are enormous to Internet advertisers and search engine marketers.

    Try it for yourself it take only a few minutes.

  22. Most of the PAID directory websites that remained unscathed by Google offer free links in exchange for a reciprocal link. All the directories that got hit offer no free links (only paid). I am of the opinion that they got too greedy. So I wonder what will happen to yellowpages.com?
    Yellowpages allows listings, but no links.. unlike Verizon SuperPages who allows a basis free business link. More shall be revealed!

  23. Being the owner of a directory I have a biased opinion on the subject but I can tell you this. 4 years ago on alexa.com webs411.com was ranked at 34,000. We are hovering at 980,000 right now.

    • Too many websites out there getting popular overnight- this trend will definately cause a large impact on sites that have ranked well, and been around for a while due to confidence, and previous page rank of the older, less advertised websites. Just my 2cents…

      Justin

  24. Monica Rogers
    Reply

    this whole paid directory links fiasco is yet another reason why we generate traffic and SEO juice for our clients via relevant low volume link exchange using editor based products such as linksmanager. We never paid for links and we don’t see benefits for buying links when we can obtain relevant links for our clients via reciprocal linking with quality sites in a slow manner. so many people dont realize link exchange works better than ever.

  25. Robert
    Reply

    I own a small company and cannot compete with the big fortune 500 companies BECAUSE their paid links help them. I feel that if Google et. al. would not give paid links more weight, this would level the playing field

    respectfully
    Robert

  26. Hey, Isn’t there some way to read the comments without making a comment? Did I miss it?

  27. Trying again

  28. So directories are the things of the past now ?

    Will G be hitting Yahoo! directory ?

    However, I tend to agree. When webmasters milk the cow a bit too much, something is got to turn up.

  29. even my directory has been hit buy this recent debacle. I ranked high for few terms but now not even for my own Business Name. :(

  30. i also own a web directory but I am not in favor of the people who have cheated the system. Web directories are also cool to have better positions if the intentions are right and not by just manipulation. The directory industry is so infested that they manipulate the system in every way. I hope Google could spend some time on them really if they get back they could do more damage than good and since they could tell that its ok and Google has an approval and the saga of deception, manipulation, cheating goes on. A prime example of one of those that has been affected is a PR6 with thousand of pages indexed that has no listings and is primarily intended of passing PR and getting the top of serps so that submitters can view it. If it really is an ok site you could have spend less on category adding rather build a content on each individual category. Now most of these directories dont have this and have loads of high PR links which leads to an impression that is intentions is manipulation.

    • I am new to all of this, but it has always seemed to me that the primary purpose of the internet was to share information. In some cases, that means commercial information, and in other cases information solely for informations sake. There is every conceivable combination, and that is great. The problem is that when one site gains an unfair advantage over another by the use of any method other than the inherent value of the sites information. Buying links for page rank is a big part of the unnatural manipulation process. I think that page rank means less all the time, except to those who are invested in it’s false economy. I see a lot of sites, with little or no page rank listed higher for the same keywords, than pages ranking much higher. That should be the bottom line.

      What I question, is the use of advertising to gain better search status. If someone wants to buy an ad on a high profile site that is fine, but when the ad affects the search position, that is a shame, and is about the same as buying links for page rank in my estimation.

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