What happens if I drop my link directory?

I've had enough and want to focus on content.

[eurotom]

Hi all,

After reading the webmaster guidelines posted on Google and Yahoo, I feel like link exchange directories are dangerous. My gut tells me to disband the whole affair and just focus on content, but what will happen to the backlinks already out there?

I run four travel-related websites and each has a link directory and link-exchange program. We have about 800 links in the directory, divided meticulously into categories, and never listing more than 20 per page. All the pages are travel-related, so I never considered it "spam." All four sites use the same directory file, which I now know is dangerous, as that constitutes duplicate content.

My main site does very well on Google and has the #1 position for my main search. However, that same site just got dropped from Yahoo. I submitted a form to Yahoo asking for an explanation and received an email today stating that I had been dropped because my site doesn't comply with their guidelines!

But reading the guidelines posted on Yahoo and Google, I get the feeling that they would consider any link-exchange program to be a "link farm," and they explicitly state that webmasters should not participate in these "schemes."

So, my questions:

1) Is it possible that the link directories helped my site on Google but got it dropped on Yahoo?

2) Should I even care about Yahoo?

3) If I drop the whole directory altogether, retaining only the most relevant links on content pages, what will happen to Google?

Google states: Linking schemes do not increase a given site's PageRank, and will often do a site more harm than good.

4) Will Yahoo ever look at me again?

5) Is it a good long-term strategy to drop the directories? Both sites clearly state that webmasters should be focusing their energies on developing content rather than gaming the system.

Thanks for reading. I appreciate your input.

[justdave]

I've never heard of a relevant link directory being the cause of getting dropped from listings. Then again, I haven't really been around for too long. So I'm not really an expert.

From my experience, as long as the links provided in the directory are relevant and targeted, I haven't had any problems. The duplicate content might be the issue, as I have seen sites that were considered "mirror sites" dropped because of duplicate content.

Not sure that helps, but I just wanted to speak up.