Google removes linking and directory suggestions from Webmaster Guidelines
Up until recently, Google has recommended that webmasters build links to their sites, and to use directories. They had these two bullets in the guidelines:
- Make sure that all the sites that should know about your pages are aware that your site is online.
- Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.
These used to be part of the webmast guidelines at http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
With Google removing these, does that mean they do not want webmasters to build links, or that you should not use web directories to build links? Does this mean that Yahoo directory, DMOZ and other authoritative directories are no longer trusted?
I think not. While Google has been on the war path lately against paid links, including low quality, spammy directories, I don’t think this means they are ignoring all directories. It also does not mean that they want site owners to stop building relevant, quality links.
I think what they are really doing here is deemphasizing link building, since it has gotten out of hand, and site owners might take these as signals that it is OK to use link schemes that involve directories, reciprocal links and other artificial linking. Google absolutely is trying to prevent that, and will penalize sites that go too far. I could see naive site owners getting banned by using link brokers and automated reciprocal link schemes, and then pointing to these bullets when Google said that was why they got banned.
So, continue to build quality links, and by all means submit to quality directories, especially those that have human editors. Also avoid spammy directories and link schemes. In other words, no change from known best practices for SEO.
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Interestingly, on the October 22, 2008 Google Chat event, Matt Cutts gave the following answer to a question on this topic:
“There’s always the chance that we’ll discount directory links in the future. What we were seeing was quite a few novice people would see the “directory” recommendation and go out and just try to submit to a ton of directories, even if some of the directories were lower-quality or even fly-by-night directories that weren’t great for users. Right now we haven’t changed how we’re weighting directory links–we’ve only removed the directory suggestion from the webmaster guidelines.
Matt Cutts, Bay Area, CA”