WebProNews

Internet directories function in a way similar to a university's student directory or a telephone directory: it gives site owners a service that can bring exposure to their web site.

There are quite of few directories populating the Internet, with the most notable being the DMOZ/ODP directory. DMOZ is so popular that at one time, Google based their directory on the contents of DMOZ. Some of the perceived benefits of directory placement is they positively influence your search engine presence, while potentially improving a site's PageRank.

However, this may be about to change.

According to SearchEngineRoundtable, it appears as if Google is completely removing PageRank scores (meaning they have a score of 0) for certain directory categories, including those found in Google's. The DMOZ and Yahoo directories seem to be affected by this PageRank of death also.

Barry's post provides an example of directories who have had their PageRank removed:

http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Searching/Directories/

http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Searching/Directories/

http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/Searching_the_Web/Search_Engines_and_Directories/Directories/

Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest search news.