Why Most Of Directories Got Penalized

To get a better view of the fact why Google hits directories so heavily I decided to run a experiment and order a directory submission for a third site I have but is just sitting there and doing nothing.

The results clearly speak why Google took this decision and smack of the ground the directories in a way that they can’t stand up again as high as their status was before the penalization. To obtain better results I decided to order a relatively good amount of directory submission, 500, the dude I ordered the submissions is great in no time he had already started submitting my site to different directories.

During the submission here is what happened

• Some directories replied that the submission was successful but it will take some time to review the site
• Other directories required to follow a link to verify the submission
• The rest, had already submitted my site on their index

So far things look okey, apart that a part of directories required no review at all and directly after the submission my site was already in their index, which makes me think of how many low quality sites are submitted there, how many of virus spreading sites are there and how many of pure spam sites are there on their index? So already in the first stage it was clear why the head of the Google’s webspam team Matt Cutts decided it was needed to hit on directories.

After confirmation of some submissions and classification of the others that needed a manual review before approval the messages that the site was indexed started to come. This is the part that disappointed me mostly. From 500 directories I got my site submitted maybe 10 or 20 directories didn’t had a broken menu, wasn’t bombed with ads and showed a decent Alexa graph (not that it is not easy to manipulate the Alexa graph, and for faster view I used the Alexa toolbar for FireFox). The rest of the directories had all broken links, broken navigation menu, bombed with ads and what so not (even popups) and the only thought crossed my mind was…hope I won’t get my site penalized or banned for this experiment.

The Moral of the Story

Just as always has been said, the SEO technique that works today it will most probably not work tomorrow, so avoid any (or at least ask as much informations possible) seo services company that include directory submission in their services or heavily advertise that part of their services, you can never really know where your site is going to get submitted, until they start submitting and you see the final results. Even tho a backlink is a backlink, a backlink from bad neighborhood will definitively not help your SEO and search engine rankings.

If you are looking for a directory to submit your site at I would recommend you considering, V7N Directory, Botw and Botw for Blogs.

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