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End of the Road for Directories?
It has been well documented recently that Google has taken steps against some of the main players in the directory industry. Speculation is rife in many forums regarding this issue as well as Googles delayed PR update.
I personally was not surprised with Googles action, I view it as a warning shot to the directory industry as a whole. What’s clear, is the targeted directories that now under penalty, have been networking with other directory owners with the specific aim of increasing their sites PR. It is common to see a new directory with a PR of 7, however most of these directories have no weight to their inner pages. They really are like a retail store with a cracking window display with no stock inside. People paying for a link in these directories believe they are gaining a strong inbound link, the truth however is these links hold little to no value at all.
Google has certainly viewed this action as manipulation, which if going unchecked could result in the devaluation of Google own page rank system. Webmasters who have been hit have certainly not helped their cause by making their tactics public on a well known forum.
Link building providers now stay well clear of directories when providing links for clients, they are now working the social bookmarking networks to provide their clients with high scoring inbound links.
So is this really the end for directories? My own feelings are, to some extend yes. Directories should have been built around the concept of delivering targeted traffic to a website, instead of being a veiled PR farm. The fact is to deliver targeted traffic they are putting themselves in direct competition with search engines, a competition they could never win.
I personally believe directories are finished, in time I see the herd moving over to the social networking scene. No doubt they will employ similar manipulation tactics based around PR. The good days will last for a few years before Google takes out its big stick and the herd are off again to pastures new. It will be interesting to see if they learn by their mistakes or will they continue to openly discuss their manipulation of Googles PR system in a forum that is monitored daily by the Google hierarchy.
Only time will tell.
Pete
I personally was not surprised with Googles action, I view it as a warning shot to the directory industry as a whole. What’s clear, is the targeted directories that now under penalty, have been networking with other directory owners with the specific aim of increasing their sites PR. It is common to see a new directory with a PR of 7, however most of these directories have no weight to their inner pages. They really are like a retail store with a cracking window display with no stock inside. People paying for a link in these directories believe they are gaining a strong inbound link, the truth however is these links hold little to no value at all.
Google has certainly viewed this action as manipulation, which if going unchecked could result in the devaluation of Google own page rank system. Webmasters who have been hit have certainly not helped their cause by making their tactics public on a well known forum.
Link building providers now stay well clear of directories when providing links for clients, they are now working the social bookmarking networks to provide their clients with high scoring inbound links.
So is this really the end for directories? My own feelings are, to some extend yes. Directories should have been built around the concept of delivering targeted traffic to a website, instead of being a veiled PR farm. The fact is to deliver targeted traffic they are putting themselves in direct competition with search engines, a competition they could never win.
I personally believe directories are finished, in time I see the herd moving over to the social networking scene. No doubt they will employ similar manipulation tactics based around PR. The good days will last for a few years before Google takes out its big stick and the herd are off again to pastures new. It will be interesting to see if they learn by their mistakes or will they continue to openly discuss their manipulation of Googles PR system in a forum that is monitored daily by the Google hierarchy.
Only time will tell.
Pete
Total Comments 3
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I wonder how this will affect the likes of yahoo (who lets face it have the best known directory) and google's own implementation of DMOZ?
Will they distinguish also between 'paid directories' and 'free' directories? I truly believe that directories, if done right are a very valuable resource to businesses from the angle of I need a plumber.... let look in my local area in the plumber category and find one. To me that makes about as much sense as typing in 'eastbourne plumber' into google but with google you never know how many results you need to wade through until you actually find a real plumber. Categorised Directories on geographical levels which are well maintained are a critical need in the business world for many reasons including marketing (list compliation and targetted exposure) and for just thje simple reason of finding what you are looking for (finally). Google's natural language search can never ever be a replacement for a human edited categorized, geographic directory.... nothing automated could ever be that targetted.... ever! |
 
Updated Oct 10th, 2007 at 12:55 by Rob |
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I totally agree with those comments Rob, however I think we are creatures of habit, do you go to a kelly search when looking for a plumber? For me its generally a toss up between Google and a hard copy of the yellow pages.
Of course mine is just one view on a complex and interesting subject. I found a lot of irony in the fact directory owners on a large forum were pulling Google to bits, for modifying their own system. By the way I own a niche directory and I plan to develop it so it is traffic driven, if I was asked, am I confident I can pull it off, my answer would be, "hell no", but I will try. |
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I have heard the same thing so I am working toward article marketing, social bookmarking and other methods of building traffic and links.
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