Info Vilesilencer Directory Owners Forum and Free Directory List » Search Engines » Google

[Dan]

You be the judge: http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015481.html

[lakecountry]

Originally Posted by Dan

You be the judge: http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015481.html

My bet is Google was called on this and caught with their pants down.Strange thing is this isn't the only example of Google saying one thing and doing another.

Not sure if or when this was done but Matt Cutts spoke of it. Here is an excerpt for his blog:http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/sellin...pass-pagerank/

"By the way, we also put redirects in place on that Enterprise search appliance testimonial page, just to remove even the chance that someone could claim Google was acting improperly in that instance as well."


I love how he tries to deflect and redirect here.

"Maybe instead of looking for an anti-Google angle on this one, you could discuss whether doing paid posts about brain tumors is or isn’t the best thing for the web? If you were doing this search, would you want search engines to be affected by posts like the ones I showed"?

[Dan]

People will always look at the anti-Google angle because they want to highlight Google being a hypocrite.

Can't fault Matt for supporting his employer, in his shoes I would do the same. He'd make a good politician, they are experts in deflection

One major point that he did cover in regards to directories (something that we are obviously interested in here) is the following:

Originally Posted by Matt C

I hope that helps answer the question of how (say) the Yahoo directory is different from the examples I showed in my post. I hope it also answers the question of why a “bidding directory” that just gives the top slot to the highest money bid might not be as trusted by Google.

The previous answer he was referring to is this one

Originally Posted by Matt C

Q: Hey, as long as we’re talking about directories, can you talk about the role of directories, some of whom charge for a reviewer to evaluate them?
A: I’ll try to give a few rules of thumb to think about when looking at a directory. When considering submitting to a directory, I’d ask questions like:
- Does the directory reject urls? If every url passes a review, the directory gets closer to just a list of links or a free-for-all link site.
- What is the quality of urls in the directory? Suppose a site rejects 25% of submissions, but the urls that are accepted/listed are still quite low-quality or spammy. That doesn’t speak well to the quality of the directory.
- If there is a fee, what’s the purpose of the fee? For a high-quality directory, the fee is primarily for the time/effort for someone to do a genuine evaluation of a url or site.

So the emphasis is on editorial integrity (rejecting URLs that are not quality - despite the fact they are offering money to be listed), quality of listings, pay for review as opposed to just paying to list.

So in that regard, bidding directories don't stack up...

[rainchild]

Originally Posted by Dan

So the emphasis is on editorial integrity (rejecting URLs that are not quality - despite the fact they are offering money to be listed), quality of listings, pay for review as opposed to just paying to list.

So in that regard, bidding directories don't stack up...

Dan correct me if I am wrong but you generally take the position that Google is penalising paid links. I don't see it that way. To try and put it politely they went after sites that lacked editorial integrity and there is a difference. There actions were deliberate, it was selective. Then as a follow up they changed the way they calculate PR and this affected most if not all of us in way one or other. Do you know of any sites that were penalised in the serp's that didn't deserve the warning they got served up with?

Then the question I have been asking and not getting answers to, is how does one encourage web masters to exercise editorial integrity and where does one draw the lines? Is it a question of paid links or is it not more a question of the ethics where paying for a link is just part of the issue?

Bidding directories are a case in point. Why does anyone believe that they are anything but a scam?