Is Google Dumping Link Directories?

September 10th, 2007 - Jeffrey Henderson

Over 60 paid link directories have plummeted in Google over the last week, including Aviva, Alive, Big Web Links, ewebpages, Directory Dump, Elegant Directory, and Biz-Dir. So far none of the owners of these directories have received any notice from Google, whether by email or through their webmaster console.

While there are multiple theories as to the cause of this, including the old Google dance, most people believe this is the beginning of the end for paid link directories. Google, through various channels has said that selling links for the purpose of passing on Page Rank is a violation of their webmaster guidelines. They've even gone so far as to set up a place for people to report sites that buy or sell links.

During a slide presentation at SES by Matt Cutts the types of paid links Google likes and dislikes were defined. To start the presentation Cutts first cited an 'opinion' issued by the Federal Trade Commission that said sponsored advertising, including links, should be clearly identified. Matt went on to basically say that any link that passes Page Rank is bad, and any link that doesn't is good.

So, how should you distinguish your paid links from editorial ones? Cutts recommends the following methods:

• 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

While some may argue that it's wrong for Google to penalize people for selling links, seeing as Google makes billions of dollars from doing exactly that, the bottom line is Google can do whatever they want with their search results. If people don't like what they're doing there are plenty of other search engines to use. Unfortunately for the people running these directories the average Google user doesn't even know these directories exist, and they would be perplexed at the idea that people would pay to have their sites listed there to boost their "PR".