Forum Moderators: open
I don't think that google would grey bar a human powered directory as authoritative as yahoo
What do you mean you don't think they would? The rest of us are seeing that they already have.
Good move by Google. There will probably be a significant drop in directory link sales now making Y even more reliant on ad deals with G.
That said, if I were Google I might feel comfortable dismissing Yahoo's directory from their algos. At least in my area they don't do a good job of removing spam, updating broken links, etc.
And the $300 barrier-to-entry, rather than signaling a site's quality, seems like it might just attract the wrong sort of sites.
Do you happen to know if this is a recent change? If so, seems like Yahoo shooting the golden goose.
There's always been other bad craziness like d2.dir.ac2.yahoo.com too. Search engines never have been that good at SEO ;)
Edit: delinked
[edited by: Receptional_Andy at 7:52 pm (utc) on June 5, 2008]
Isn't that what Yahoo's Directory became when it started charging?
Why would Google treat Yahoo different than any other site selling paid links?
Why would Google treat Yahoo different than any other site selling paid links?
Because Yahoo charges for reviewing your site, and the charge doesn't carry a guarantee that they'll include you. They also have certain editorial criteria that are fairly strictly adhered to, certain more than on most free directories or paid link networks.
That human review is in itself a measure of quality which I believe helped Google's search quality a lot when Google started out, seeded as it was with Yahoo Directory pages.
It's generally been assumed that inclusion in Yahoo still confers "trust" of some sort on listed sites.
But don't the actual links in the yahoo directory look the same? And those where able to transport link love (but maybe not TB green?).
It seems to me that the Yahoo directory is grey barred because its got no pagerank, because the links from the home page [dir.yahoo.com...] are all via non-search engine friendly redirects like:
[us.rd.yahoo.com...]Considering that there are thousands of external links to each category in the yahoo directory, that is not the reason.
The us.rd.yahoo.com/dir/home/cats/*http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/ style links are not new - I think the format has changed a little over the years, but they've done redirects from the directory homepage to cats as far back as I remember.
and
Considering that there are thousands of external links to each category in the yahoo directory, that is not the reason.
Couldn't agree more. All those internal linking redirects use a 301 anyway so Google is still able to see them and count them in.
Why would Google treat Yahoo different than any other site selling paid links?
A web portal that provides news, search and a whole host of other user-friendly web outlets cannot be deemed inappropriate for having a directory. Creating "lots-of-links-r-us.info" and charging $5 a pop with no review has only one aim. The two are very different ... of course, I'm not saying that Google actually bothers to try and tell the two apart ... ;)
Did find it curious that MattCutts chimed in that early on a thread. Almost panicky? ;)
Edit; I also noticed that our internal pages (and may other sites on net) such as About us, Help, TOS, Privacy policy lost page rank after Google algo update. Something is changed for sure. Our home page PR jumped to 7 but internal PR dropped. Luckily they have not dropped product sales pages, as we get some sales from search engines tooo
Sub domain 1: [d3.dir.ac2.yahoo.com...]
Sub domain 2: [dir.yahoo.com...]
Both resolve to the same to the same exact listings. One is not being redirected to the other in order to eliminate the duplication.
Did find it curious that MattCutts chimed in that early on a thread. Almost panicky? ;)
I think he saw it on some blogs. He was in Seattle and I think he replied quickly and didn't look at the deeper links. I can be wrong.
I appreciate that perhaps the directory passes some trust right now, but I'm not so sure that the SE's won't use it in the future as an easy way to sort out people doing SEO. That's a bit paranoid perhaps - but given how much things have changed in the last year or so, I wouldn't rule anything out.
Shows you how warped web promotion has become, by the Google algo, that the prime consideration for getting a listing in the Yahoo directory (Yahoo, mind you) is PageRank.
Pardon me if I am wrong, but we know that Google frowns on paid links and sites selling paid links for SEO purposes.Isn't that what Yahoo's Directory became when it started charging?
Why would Google treat Yahoo different than any other site selling paid links?
I'm with you there. It also makes me wonder about Business.com. They will link to anyone that wants to pay them. What makes them any different than any other paid directory? They also now rank in the top 5 for all my targeted KWs (1 or 2 in a lot of cases) with the Dewey update and their pages are complete junk, IMO.
Shows you how warped web promotion has become, by the Google algo, that the prime consideration for getting a listing in the Yahoo directory (Yahoo, mind you) is PageRank.
That wouldn't be the case if Yahoo actually promoted the directory in any visible way. The link to it is tucked away under the "more" tab, where few will bother to look. It's not as though they're trying hard to drive visitors that way.
Did find it curious that MattCutts chimed in that early on a thread. Almost panicky?
No, he's just setting the record straight and like everything else that is automated about Google this would have corrected itself over time. With human intervention (Matt's) it might just happen faster than the next cycle.
I would also like to remind everyone of this bullet point from Google's webmaster guidelines:
Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.
[edited by: BillyS at 4:16 pm (utc) on June 6, 2008]
They have always had a redirect server handle the clicks in the directory to go to the individual sites, but PageRank has always been passed. It seems this has ceased?
