3 October 2008
Google no longer promotes directories as a way to improve your site
If you're new here - welcome to Bloggle. Bloggle is an unofficial Google news blog providing a humourous slant on the day's most important, interesting and quirky Google news. You may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Brian Ussery yesterday spotted that Google had removed their encouragement to webmasters to submit their site to paid directories such as Yahoo. For years, Google have promoted this practice in their Webmaster Guidelines:
“When your site is ready…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 lines have now been removed in the US version of the Webmaster Guidelines but these changes haven’t yet been reflected in other versions. Presumably, Google is still counting directory links in their algorithm, but just not promoting directories any longer.