Why google penalizes web directories?

[gabrielle]

Why does Google penalize web directories? I own a web directory and it was penalized by google. I don't know why it happened. Is it maybe because Google thinks it has too many links like link spam?
My directory is almost all auto approved and some special categories are manually moderated.

 

[SEOPub]

Why google penalizes web directories. I owned a web directory and it was penalized by google, I don't know why happened that does google consider it too many links like link spam?
My directory is almost auto approved and some special categories are manually moderated.

This is the most likely reason.

Without seeing the directory though, nobody is going to be able to do anything other than guess.

 

[karmadir]

Actually, directory links do not count any more.

 

[PTTed]

PTTed

Yes they do count, at least some of them do. It depends on the directory. Most/many of them don't count (at least not meaningfully) because most of them are spammy in some way either with their inbound or outbound links. And many of them are targets for Google Panda because the content is too thin.

If you find/create a directory that has information useful enough on it that an actual human would want to visit it and use it, and if the directory is incredibly selective about where it links out to and where it gets inbound links from, then the directory will still be ranked in Google's search results and its regular dofollow links will likely still count. And the directory would want to take steps to avoid getting demoted by Panda.

 

[Hugop]

A directory needs to look like a blog. If your directory has only links or 10-30words of description(mostly duplicates), it is going to get penalized. Some directories allow you to submit articles which is a recommended feature because you won't look the same as the other directories. With DMOZ as an example, they have their own blog and own content (documentation) to stay unique.

 

[Tshepo]

Tshepo

This is a great idea that more directories should apply and do this way. Why you think a directory need long description on each link and their own blog with unique content? Is all about SEO aspects?

I don't suppose Google will ban directories unless they have too many spam sites/links on their categories.

 

[denvercardonations]

I think they wouldn't penalize a directory if all of the categories were solid and maintained with an iron fist. Isn't this why Google has such high trust for DMOZ so long ago, and places like Yahoo Directory were very beneficial to be in? What fly-by-night spammer would have the patience to get into either one of those? One of my older websites that I got to PR6 and localized incoming traffic fluctuating between 3-4000 uniques per day, had an entire core backlink structure hand submitted to directories, and when I would check Google to see where most of my backlinks were, it was from these directories that had been around for years.

 

[Lee06]

Directories with unique content and not duplicate, are not penalized. And most of auto approve directories are penalized for these reasons. And IMAO you should avoid directories with porn categories. If possible, find thematical directories.

 

[Hawker]

Why does Google penalize web directories? I own a web directory and it was penalized by google. I don't know why it happened. Is it maybe because Google thinks it has too many links like link spam?
My directory is almost all auto approved and some special categories are manually moderated.

Well, the same reason it penalizes any site. For some specific reason. If you use Google Webmaster Tools, it would tell you the reason.

Regards.

 

[SEOPub]

SEOPub

That is not true. They will usually list if manual action has been taken against your site in there, but they will not always tell you if you have an algorithmic penalty.

 

[Dewlance]

Very simple reason, Most of directory was selling paid link with do-follow, etc so I think Google count this as a bad tactic and penalize most of directory.

Other reason is:
- Most of directory put at lest 10 to 20 link on same or each page.
- Some of add 100+ links.
- Content is king, Why Google will not penalize a page which contain only link and nothing else?