Correlation between Google directory and search results

Great directory ranking, yet can not break 100 in search results

[Ook_Ook]

One of our sites has a page rank of 6 in Google's directory and is listed second. The site that holds the number one position is a 7 and is also returned number one in the search results for our most desired keyword. However our site is not in the top 100 search results for those same keywords.

Secondly, sometimes in the search results our site has a directory link next to it other times it does not.

Lastly when searching for our for our exact domain, Google's summary is a version of our index page from at least 4 months ago, yet the summary info in the keyword results is fairly current. It does not appear that order of the search results have changed at all or very little in the past month or so.

Is this just part of the Google update that we need to wait out? Why such wild shifts (old to new) in our summary info found in the returned results? The only thing that seems consistent is that we are stuck at around 150 in regular keyword searches.

[ciml]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, Ook Ook.

I can think of three main reasons for the lack of correlation.

1. You have high PageRank (2nd in your category), but you're not as optimised for that phrase. For example, perhaps other people have the words in their link text.

2. The two databases are out of sync. This tends to happen at update time, but even though the update has settled, things may be subject to continuous change now.

3. You have tripped some kind of filter. If you find internal pages of your site beating your home page then this seems quite likely.

[takagi]

Secondly, sometimes in the search results our site has a directory link next to it other times it does not.

The text will only be shown when the page linked from ODP/Google-Directory appears in a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Usually that is the for the home page. So if a sub page is more relevant for a search than the home page, the text will stay away.

[Ook_Ook]

Let me clarify. The directory link shows up for our index page when the current summary information is returned. However, if you search for our exact domain, you get summary info that is at least 4-6 months old and there is not a directory link. Note: the site may have not been listed in the Open Directory 4 - 6 months ago. So I guess the question is, why is Google returning summary info from so long ago? Google was returning correct info for a long time. This old summary info just recently (1 month ago) started appearing.

[Marval]

The results Im seeing in the Directory seem to be old stuff..circa Feb/Mar timeframe...although there is some flux in there as 4 days ago the directory had updated results?

<added> just to check what I was looking at an hour ago has changed to the new results now?

[takagi]

Let me clarify. The directory link shows up for our index page when the current summary information is returned. However, if you search for our exact domain, you get summary info that is at least 4-6 months old and there is not a directory link.

Looks similar to the problems reported in the thread Different titles for deferent queries. [webmasterworld.com] Like in message 6:

they must somehow use a different data center for different queries. for 'buy widgets' and 'buy really cool widgets' i get a link to the index page, but each has a different version in the google cache - one about a month older than the other.

Message 7:

I can confirm this also. All day today, I can search for keyword1 and find my page Fresh tagged at #5. I can search 2 seconds later for keyword2, and find the exact same page, with no Fresh tag. Even when I search site:www.mysite.com, both identical pages come up, one with the date and one without.