Thread: Are Directory submissions Still Effective After Google Panda Update?

When we hear “Directory Submissions”, some of us think it’s an old approach of search engine optimization strategy. Though directory submission strategy is a very old SEO perception, still it has good impact after the Google Panda update. Because many websites have been strike hard by the Google Panda update due to issues with bad content quality. Web directories are only intended for listing websites.So those who landing on a web directory will not expect informative and good content there. That would be the major reason why the directories are Panda secure.

Not hardly.
The new Penguin update has devalued links found in directories.
Even directories themselves are devalued and have been since a few years back when google dropped page rank on all directories.

Only directories still safe?
Local directories and quite possibly niche directories (eg: specific subject only).

Bottom line?
It is a waste of time and money to go with directory submissions.
And it may hurt your site via google if you end up in bad directories!

My take is this:
Any person, any seo company, promoting a directory based on some page rank of the main page are just lying and cheating webmasters!

Google is currently hunting for sites that use bad linking schemes.

The only PageRank that matters is that of the page where a link appears. When Google removes all of the PageRank from the inner pages in a site, that should tell you something about what Google thinks of the site.

Originally Posted by meeralizz

So those who landing on a web directory will not expect informative and good content there. That would be the major reason why the directories are Panda secure.

That would make directories a primary target for Panda, but most directories were slapped by Google long before Panda.

There is a pattern that I have seen with a few sites over the past month. I observed this with several blog network sites. I suspect the same thing will soon happen to most directories.

1. Google traffic falls to near zero.
2. All inner pages lose their PageRank.
3. Site starts to get de-indexed.
4. Site is banned.

From Google's perspective, this is the easiest solution for dealing with sites that they don't like.

This is what I have noticed in the past few days on my blogs.
I removed all banners and most of the links on the sidebars.
Boom!
Traffic from google search engine has gone up more and more each day.

Leads me to believe that google is also looking at the outbound links on sites and blogs.
More there are, the more google devalues the site/blog.

Will see how page rank goes if and when google decides to again do a page rank update.

It looks like there will be a scramble with good directory owners to try to salvage their directories.

David DuVal at PHP Link Directory posted this.

Google Over Optimization and Keys to Success

It is good advice, but will probably not help the overwhelming number of directories that have already been tagged by Google. I don't think the large directory networks will do anything except continue to sell useless links.

It looks like there will be a scramble with good directory owners to try to salvage their directories.

I agree, although there still are a few token directories out there that are still worth submitting to--Yahoo Directory, Botw.org., dmoz.org, etc.

But really, in the greater scheme of things, does a link in any directory worth it?
If paid, I say nope!
If free, maybe, just maybe, if the directory is good like dmoz.

Just as google devalued link exchanges, directories are even lower as far as google goes.

Originally Posted by bhartzer

I agree, although there still are a few token directories out there that are still worth submitting to--Yahoo Directory, Botw.org., dmoz.org, etc.

Oh yeah. I fully agree. The directories that I am referring to are the tens of thousands of crappy directories that simply sell or give away links. Yahoo, Dmoz and most local business directories are trusted directories, but they are less than .0001% of the number of directories on the web. Google's next step will likely be to start de-indexing directories like they did with some of the major blog networks.

David DuVal wrote some good advice for directory owners, but few will follow it because the task is too enormous for anyone with thousands of entries in their directory.

That means we should have to neglect the directory submission from marketing strategy list and look forward to new techniques to fulfill the seo purpose?

Originally Posted by pentawebexperts

That means we should have to neglect the directory submission from marketing strategy list and look forward to new techniques to fulfill the seo purpose?

Google is looking for natural linking patterns. Submission to most directories have had no positive effect for several years, but there wasn't any obvious penalty attached to that type of link building. Now there may be a penalty attached, especially if most of your links come from the crappy directories.