How important is fresh content?

Site dropped from directory, now in Supplemental Results

[geoinct]

Doing some work on a small site. This site was listed in the Google directory since at least June 2002 (and has been listed in the OPD directory for at least 18 months). There were also multiple pages in the Google index.

Unfortunately the site was not checked from October 2002 until this past October.

In October, well before the Fla update, we discovered the site was no longer listed in the Goggle Directory even tough it was still listed in OPD. Plus no pages appeared to be indexed.

Checking the now I see three pages are showing up in the Google index, but they are from Supplemental Results.

Is this happening because the site is small and the content is rarely changed? How important is site size and fresh content for staying in the main Google index and the Google Directory?

[HarryM]

A Supplemental Result usually indicates an orphan page. I.e., Google still has a reference to the page in its database, but the link to that page has disappeared. Usually the page will completely disappear from the index eventually.

I would suggest Google no longer visits your site because there are no links pointing to it, or the PR of your site is too low. I would concentrate on getting some fresh links, and updating the pages. The updates only need to be fairly minor for Google to see it as fresh content.

Just a thought, but possibly Google discounts links from ODP when there are no other links to the site.

There is also something very strange about the Google Directory. On the page where I am listed it states that sites are listed in PR order, but my site is listed below sites with lower PR than mine. My guess is that the Google Directory is using data that is months out of date.

[thumpcyc]

Hey HarryM, you said:

There is also something very strange about the Google Directory. On the page where I am listed it states that sites are listed in PR order, but my site is listed below sites with lower PR than mine. My guess is that the Google Directory is using data that is months out of date.

I would totally agree that the G directory is out of date, but I would venture a guess that PR may be reflected by the position of the sites in the directory, but PR has not been updated lately to where you can see what it truly is for these sites that are listed before yours. They may have higher PR, and we just cannot see it yet.

Geoinct, I agree with HarryM, refresh the content a little, and get more inbound links, preferrably from sites with higher PR, to get spidered sooner, and deeper.

Pure Speculation on my part.

Thumpcyc

[HarryM]

I would totally agree that the G directory is out of date, but I would venture a guess that PR may be reflected by the position of the sites in the directory, but PR has not been updated lately to where you can see what it truly is for these sites that are listed before yours. They may have higher PR, and we just cannot see it yet.

That's always a possibility, but my listing is on a regional page with only a few entries. There are 5 entries on the current DMOZ page, but only 4 on the Google equivalent. The order on the Google pages just looks so familiar with what it was on DMOZ a couple of months ago. Also the other sites are fairly static typical local sites (local history, local church, etc.)

It's possible that the one that my toolbar tells me is less than mine has improved its PR, but I can't see it leap-frogging mine. I have added many pages recently and some very good links so if that site had gone up I would have expected mine to do the same. My guess is the Google directory is a snapshot of a particular date, and the order of the sites is not done dynamically.

Anyway all supposition! What I'm waiting for is someone to confirm an actual PR update is in progress so that I can see what is really happening. Knowing Google, for me it's either going to be King of the Hill or suicide. :)