Established Directories Penalised - PageRank Update Conclusions
Google has finally updated PageRank and this time it has really came more as a shock rather than a green bar update on the tool bar. This update saw many established & highly promoted directories losing the PageRank value & many new starting directories jumping on the PageRank value (many directly from 0 to 4 & 5 also). I know of Directory Journal (This site really has some amazing content) jumped the PR scale directly from PR0 to PR7.
Many established Web Directories like Alive Directory, Aviva Directory, Elegant Directory, DirectoryDump, Romow Web Directory and many more saw PageRank drop directly from PR6 to PR4. All the above directory owners worked really hard so that they offer the best link value to customers.
Now here comes the pinch with this Google Update when established directories (dropped by PR) and be compared with the new directories awarded higher PR. I really don’t think PR now is the metric for comparison right now & will be influenced with many other factors.
Here are some of the conclusions that can be drawn from this PageRank Update
1. Google is not against directories (I know that this will make a lot of people happy).
2. Google is only against PAID Links and attempts to manipulate PageRank.
3. Content will always rule Google, So if you can add relevant & quality content to your web directories, you will be always away from the problem.
4. Too Much Over Linking between Directories : A pattern in seen mostly where in a web directory links to other directories (or a group of directories). These are not necessarily sponsored sites, But mostly directories owned by the same owner.
Requesting every one to comment on this article & point out If I have made any mistakes while writing this article.
Amit.
13 Comments
european directory on October 28th, 2007
my european directory get pr3 in completely empty categories o the content is no so much in value for pr another weird thig is that the category web directories get pr1 ????
Amit on October 28th, 2007
@ European Directory, All I can say is that you got really lucky this time. It has happened me with one of my sites on last update, where one of my sites got a PR4 & on this update it dropped to PR3 & still it has no content.
Leopard on October 28th, 2007
Awesome
european directory on October 28th, 2007
i post that because the web directories category was the only full category(5 listings) and get pr1 and other categorys wich was empty got pr3.Doesnt that make you wonder?
Swapnil on October 29th, 2007
Google isn’t happy with the extra promotions the penalized directories were doing. Some of the penalized directories mentioned were spending good amounts of $$ buying links and getting a good page rank which obviously Google won’t like. Keep the promotions low, get natural links and add loads of content. That should save your directory from getting penalized and also help you get a good page rank. 
deluxdon on October 29th, 2007
Nice article amit.
Agree with you that ‘Google is not against directories but only against PAID Links and attempts to manipulate PageRank.’
Fear on October 29th, 2007
Best post
hlq on October 29th, 2007
Good article Amit, I think you make several good points. Natural linking and quality content will help to increase PR for the long haul.
bvspoguk on October 29th, 2007
Nice article.. I think one of the biggest factor that must have affected the big names was the rate of increase in their incoming links while not much difference in their content.
Articles Submission Directory on October 29th, 2007
Nice informative article. thanks for sharing and keep sharing such kind of articles, as these articles really helpful for experienced and new comers.
Slash Directory on October 30th, 2007
Very good post!
Demogro on December 5th, 2007
Thanks Amit ,good read.
i would like to ask something about directories.Matt Cutts always quality content. what is quality content. it means google serp rank 1- 10 sites?
Aditya Kumar Singh on October 28th, 2007
Yeah but dirjournal got a PR7. Google is certainly not behind all directories i guess. there is something wrong with the penalized directories in particulr