10 replies to this topic

[discountdomains]

Hi,

I run a few directories that I am looking to revamp and relaunch.

Google has targetted directories recently in a bid to tackle the sale of links, and has removed the PR from internal pages of most directories with the exception of a few such as Yahoo and business.com etc have suffered.

If I add the <a rel="nofollow" attribute to the links will this likely result in the return of the PR to pages that previous had them are now greyed out?

I am interested to know if its the structure of the page - or the fact that there are outgoing links that is triggering the penalty / filter.

Has anyone made this change?

I know PR has no importance for an SEO point of view - but it does have a bearing on the attraction of the page for submissions - ie that user believe the pages are penalised and the number of submission have reduced accordingly (achieving Google's objective)

Thanks

[Randy]

but it does have a bearing on the attraction of the page for submissions - ie that user believe the pages are penalised and the number of submission have reduced accordingly (achieving Google's objective)

You lost me with this part.

If you nofollow the outbound links they'll have no beneficial effect for the linkee anyway, right? In which case, wouldn't the same sort of thing happen to the number of submissions regardless of whether you nofollow, or allow Google to do it for you?

[discountdomains]

You lost me with this part.

If you nofollow the outbound links they'll have no beneficial effect for the linkee anyway, right? In which case, wouldn't the same sort of thing happen to the number of submissions regardless of whether you nofollow, or allow Google to do it for you?

Yes but the perception of a page or site having a penalty would not be there. The greyed out toolbar puts off potential submitters - nofollow would deter less users provided the penalty effect was gone. A lot of customers are looking for reputable places to post - rather than just link juice.

[qwerty]

I think you were more on-target with this statement:

Google has targetted directories recently in a bid to tackle the sale of links

That's a logical reason for them to target directories, considering the fact that spokepeople for the SE have stated that they believe the sale of links harms relevance.

But the idea that putting nofollow on the directory's outbound links would help doesn't make sense to me. What is it about making that change that would give a search engine reason to change its opinion of a directory for the better?

Besides, if a given directory has been penalized, that's the reason the internal pages show no toolbar PR, so a change like you're suggesting wouldn't change that.

[discountdomains]

Besides, if a given directory has been penalized, that's the reason the internal pages show no toolbar PR, so a change like you're suggesting wouldn't change that.

Isn't the penalty for having a paid service that allowed dofollow links - if nofollow is in place then the penalty is no longer justified - my original question was has any directory been able to recover by putting in place nofollow then requesting a re-inclusion / lifting of the penalty.

In reality the directory I am relaunching had some links that appear to have been good at one time but have now been hijacked / reregistered to bad neighbourhoods - plus editorial standards had dropped since. So I am cleaning these out and revamping the look and feel - cleansing the dbase etc but its only worthwhile if I can get a reasonable level of submission.

Thanks

[Randy]

Well, I can't see how nofollow would possibly do any harm with the engines, Google speficially. But I can't tell ya if it'll do any good either.

It is however probably your only option given Google's campaign against paid links these days.

[qwerty]

It is however probably your only option...

I'd have to disagree. If you want to get back into G's good graces, I don't think nofollow-ing all of the directory's listings is going to do it. That would imply that all of your listings are advertisements, and that would mean that, while you're not trying to hide anything from the search engine, you don't offer anything of real value. The whole directory is nothing but a collection of advertisements.

Instead, you should do all you can to signal that you're after quality. Go through all the listings and delete anything you wouldn't recommend. Get rid of links to empty category pages if you have any. Add some high quality listings based on stuff you've found yourself. And if you have any actual advertisements (which are not the same thing as editorially approved paid directory listings), they ought to get nofollowed or removed.

[Jill]

Great advice, Qwerty!

[projectphp]

That is about the best plan I have heard Bob (qwerty). A directory full of nofollowed link is one big empty site.

[qwerty]

It's not an original idea, but it does make a lot of sense. If you'd like to see a case study, the owner of the Aviva directory (which I don't think I've ever submitted to) wrote a blog post earlier this year to show directory owners how to come back from the apparent penalty many of them received: How You Can Get Your Google Rankings Back

[discountdomains]

Thanks Qwerty - a good read indeed - I am not sure that Google wants directories to recover as it makes it harder to get results and this presumably helps their adwords income! I will watch Aviva closely.