by Bruce Stone - Skaffe

This is a question I hear frequently now on the webmaster forums. The answer is no directory links have not been devalued. Google however rates directories differently now then it did in the past. A directories page rank used to start with the index or main page rank; for example PR 5 and the page rank would be ascending. The second topic level would be 4 the next topic level a 3 etc. Now you will find directories have the index or main page PR and ascending levels are rated on the content within them. This appears to be not just the volume of content but also the quality of the content in the topic.

If the volume of content is sufficient and good quality Google will index the page and give it page rank accordingly. This seems to be a continual process by Google of caching low or no content pages and within a few weeks dropping from the search results. These low quality topic pages will frequently come up as supplemental results.

If your submitting to a directory with little or no content or one that is filled with low quality submissions then your submission will probably have no value and the topic page will not be in any search results.

There are techniques used by some of the newer directories that can boost page rank considerably. The most common is to use a small and very generalized topic structure. For example; placing all shopping sites under the shopping topic rather then a specific sub topic. This can bring great PR to a small directory but of course in just a short time the topics are going to be 20 pages deep and your website will never be found by the search engines. Google in particular doesn�t seem to go much more then 4 pages deep on many scripts. Google somehow and I believe it�s done manually will drop directories of high page rank using this practice when they are found because they are predominantly just link farms.

Google expressed to me in a mail reply that directories are forbid to buy and sell page rank. This accounts for some of the directories that had their page rank removed. Others had duplicate directories set up under different names and the rest fall under the title of link farms.

With directories content, natural linking and quality content is king. This cannot be achieved quickly or easily. A good directory takes years to develop.

In the past year directories have been springing up at an astronomical rate. Many to make a quick buck off the back link frenzy. Don�t expect a link from the majority of these directories to have any value. They have not been devalued; they never had any value to start with. Most are just the modern version of a link farm. This does not include all new directories. A few dozen show potential to be great directories that will be around for many years as a good web and webmaster resource and are of exceptional quality with professional management.

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