Google directory regional listings changes

disappearing for your city/state?

[nmjudy]

I saw the thread about the Google Directory updating and went out to see if I finally got added to my main category (it's going on 2 years now). Nuttin...

I felt fortunate to get a regional directory listing about a year ago. This listing has appeared under my domain description in SERPS. For giggles, I clicked on the regional directory listing from a google SERP page for the few keyword phrases I'm still coming up for. I've been MIA for "mycity web design" and "mystate web design" since the Florida update. I got this message from the Google Directory page:

The requested category Regional > North America > United States > My State> Localities > City Letter > My City > Business and Economy > Internet > Designers could not be found. It is likely that this category has been moved to another location within the directory.

Suggested category:
Regional > North_America > United_States > My State> Localities > City Letter > My City > Business_and_Economy > Internet

Anyone else seeing this for their regional directory listings? Maybe has something to do with the "mycity keyword(s)" drop? Timing of the Google Directory update? Just thought I'd toss the idea out there...

[Brett_Tabke]

Ya, and pretty much everyone agrees the value of a odp listing is now close to nil and will move lower. There is so much spam in the odp now with all the editors shamelessly promoting their own causes, that the directory quality has went straight into the dumpster. Atleast google is paying attention. I look for google to drop the directory within 4 months and AOL to cut off funding within 6.

[seofreak]

is that your analysis or words are around for it?

[nmjudy]

The one thing I didn't mention in my original post is after the Florida update, when I clicked on my directory listing from the SERPS, my site wasn't listed there. I was a little confused because Google SERPS still showed me in that directory. The directory appeared to be an old listing for my region (from over a year ago).

Now that the google directory has been updated (HAS been moved and fine tuned) I AM showing up under a different regional category, but my directory listing in the SERPS is still the old no longer in existence category.

This is just an observation - maybe just coincidence to the "mycity web design" and "mystate web design" plumet?

[Bobby]

There is so much spam in the odp now with all the editors shamelessly promoting their own causes, that the directory quality has went straight into the dumpster

Brett, I really admire what you have done here at Webmaster World but I take exception to your comment.

As a Dmoz editor I have faithfully adhered to my duties and indexed worthy sites with fair descriptions, never once taking advantage of my position as editor.

I know many other editors as well who have done the same, and this of course is volunteer work which requires time - a known commodity.

While there are some "corrupt" editors in the ODP I believe you will find that most have tried to do their best at creating a valid directory, which in my honest opinion has much less "spam" than any of the major search engines.

I too have run into corrupt editors - I still haven't had a my own B&B site even considered after a year now!

Unfortunately, as we have seen with this last Google update, there is no perfect system for indexing valid web sites.

I think it would be useful if everybody kept in mind that Dmoz has a wealth of information which both Google, AOL and other directories can access as they wish.

[shawn]

I went to the Google Directory and found that my city is still listed under:
Regional > North America > United States > Arizona > Localities > T > Tucson > Business and Economy > Internet > Web Design and Development

In fact all the sites that are now missing from index are still there.

So it looks like they have simply moved them to another location in the directory.

I am not convienced this has a major role in the decline of web designers sites in the SERPS.

I am leaning more towards:

Google & IPO
Google + Money + Adwords
Google + New Filters

Its much like when I worked for AOL. All was great pre-merger with Time Warner. Once there was talk of the merger and once it was finalized all things went in the toliet.

I see Google not being the search leader after the IPO.

Time to start a new search engine.

[nmjudy]

Brett-
I agree with what you're saying about the ODP being spam with SOME (most are very hard working) editors doing shameless self promotion. However, I'm not sure I agree with you about the weight of their listings.
I did an analysis of the site that's showing up #1 for "mycity web design" (without the quotes). If you search their site just for the word "mycity", the city name is only showing on 3 pages, yet it still shows the homepage as part of the result. This site has multiple directory listings. In fact, one of the pages that uses "mycity" talks about getting multiple listings in the ODP.
The site I'm talking about has 5 dmoz listings and the owner is an editor. That explains the 5 listings. But I'm thinking the listings may be giving weight to "mycity".

[skipfactor]

>>I look for google to drop the directory within 4 months

Hmm...ongoing tech issues at the ODP, G directory didn't update for many months, SERPs now filled with directories post-FL, G directory searches have been mimicking standard searches, and they need a spot for that Froogle tab. ;)

[seofreak]

Bobby: I am an editor myself and agree with you. There are a few corrput ones but majority are doing very good job. And I myself am working on making it better. I do not know if the editor area of dmoz is to be discussed outside, so I won't, but it is easy to see what an editor does through his logs.

So anyone of you who thinks an editor is misusing his rights, use the report abuse form or even contact the editor of the main cats.

nmjudy: sticky me the info of the abuse you are talking about and I'll report.

[victor]

Brett:

Ya, and pretty much everyone agrees the value of a odp listing is now close to nil and will move lower.

I don't agree Brett. It would be nice to get an accurate count of who does and who doesn't.

Do you have a source for your statistic?

There is so much spam in the odp now with all the editors shamelessly promoting their own causes, that the directory quality has went straight into the dumpster.

Lucky you didn't post this in the Directories forum: a moderator may have had to delete it for exceeding the Charter. :)

[choster]

While Google may have updated its directory listings, the list of categories they try to match search results against appears not to have been. I have seen categories suggested that were moved, renamed, or disbanded well over six months ago.

[DRGather]

Ya, and pretty much everyone agrees the value of a odp listing is now close to nil and will move lower. There is so much spam in the odp now with all the editors shamelessly promoting their own causes, that the directory quality has went straight into the dumpster. Atleast google is paying attention. I look for google to drop the directory within 4 months and AOL to cut off funding within 6.

... and the voice of reason prevails. I couldn't agree more! I ALSO agree with some here that the ODP editors are "on the whole" on the up and up. But then again, Google's results are "on the whole" on the up and up as well. It's only some KW's that have been nuked, not the ENTIRE index. I don't see anybody cutting big G any slack though, so ODP is in the same boat. The corruption of the few, outweight the good deeds of the many.

The editor of my category in the ODP states in the introductory profile, "I've owned an 'XYZ' site for many years and look forward to providing my expertise to provide a great 'XYZ' category." (Paraphrased from original to protect those involved) There's something fundamentally wrong with this scenario. For those that don't do business in the category you edit, I salute you. For the rest... the above quote from an editor is ominous, and indicative of the inherent problems surrounding a human edited directory.