Is Google Stopping Counting Directory Links?

You may or may not have heard that Google has removed the recommendation in its webmasters guidelines section to submit to directories. This started a panic as people though that having links in directories no longer held any weight. They thought this would have a nock on effect on there SEO results. In this article I discuss why people think this is an issue and reveal why Google really removed the recommendation.
Lets begin by talking about what directories do and how they affect your rankings. What directories do is allow you submit your website so visitors to the directory can find resources. Your listing has a link to your website and this is why it can affect your rankings. This will increase your link count and therefore increase your websites strength, in theory anyway.
So if Google was to devaluate these links then surely lots of people’s websites will drop in rankings.
So why did Google remove this recommendation from the webmasters guidelines? One of the reasons it was thought that they had removed this advice was that Google themselves were going to create a directory of their own that wasn’t based on DMOZ but this has turned out not to be true. So getting back to the original question, why did Google remove it? Matt Cutts the long standing Google spokesperson who I am a regular reader of his blog answered this very question. Matt says there is always the chance that Google may devaluate these links but the reason they removed it was because they where seeing quite a lot of novice people seeing this recommendation and submitting their website to many poor quality directories.
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My two cent worth: I think you are safe at the moment but as I have said before you should not put all your eggs in one basket and use only one way to build links make sure your website is of good quality and try different linking techniques. I do believe that Google will devaluate these kinds of links in the future based on the strength of the directory so if you just submit to quality directories you should be save. However like I say don’t just use directories as some are of poor quality. One good one I found is the MOO Directory check it out its free.

Author

Jack Mack

Jack's Website: Poker Rules