My Yahoo Directory listing isn't being indexed by Google - what do to?
-
I couldn't find this elsewhere in Q&A...so here goes.
I recently (a couple of months back) shelled out $300 for a Yahoo Directory listing. My site got included, but my PageRank didn't budge. Figuring it may take a while, I kept on checking Google's index for the link - still nothing.
Now it seems as if some Yahoo & other directory categories are excluded from the Google Index, rendering the links useless from a PR point of view.
Anything I can do about this? I've heard of suggestions like linking to the specific page of the category where I'm listed, in the hope Google will crawl and re-index, but I don't know. Any thoughts / suggestions?
BTW the directory category link is: http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Communications_and_Networking/Telecommunications/Wireless/Software.
Thanks in advance...
-
Thanks Jane, Alec, for the great answers. I'll concentrate on SERP more than PR from now on. And avoid directories!
-
Hi Dusan,
I'm in agreement with Alex here - there is plenty of reason why Google would pay little attention to many web directories, but the primary reason today is going to be a lack of good content. After Panda, pages are being held to a higher standard for the quality of their content, and web directories rarely include any original content at all.
For SEO purposes, being linked to from old fashioned directories isn't a bad thing, and could either be of minimal help, or a little bit helpful. However, it's not a link building tactic that you can really rely on anymore.
The PageRank advice is true too: at best, toolbar PR is a good indication as to whether there's something really wrong with your site (i.e. you lose your toolbar PR overnight, or it drops from very high to very low). At worst, it's misleading and outdated, and no indication of how well you can rank.
Cheers,
Jane
-
I don't have any insight into this, but am interested what people in the know think...
Google not indexing Yahoo Directory listings makes 100% sense to me - they don't like taking signals from paid links, Yahoo directory is one of the biggest paid-only link directories. It wouldn't take many manual reviews for Google to entirely devalue every Yahoo Directory listing.
Also, I don't think you should be worrying about your PR all that much - part of the reason it's updated so infrequently is because the big G doesn't want webmasters to obsess over their pageranks... SERP rankings however, are updated as often as they need to be, and so are a far better measure of your SEO success.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Deciding on directories
Hi guys, I've read lots of different opinions on directories and it seems that directories are still a useful part of an SEO strategy. What I'm struggling to understand however is how to know which directories are worth listing with and which may get the company a slapped wrist from Google. Is there an easy way to know such as its domain authority? Cheers in advance for your help! Leo
Link Building | | Leo_Woodhead0 -
Open Directory Project
Hello. Is it useful to have a site listed in the Open Directory Project? Thank you.
Link Building | | nyc-seo0 -
Where do I find directories for Aerospace?
My company sells aircraft parts. We are trying to find web directories for aerospace and Latin America, where do I go?
Link Building | | yntgmz0 -
301 to main page or deeper page for best 'link juice'.
I have two rafting websites. One ranks high for one set of keywords. The other ranks okay for a different set. I want to redirect the whole second site to the first to give the first more link juice and hopefully lift the first site even more in the rankings. Would it be better to link to a deeper page of the 1st site. I have a page that does well for some long tail keywords or would it be better to link to the main page. Or is it a bad idea over all.
Link Building | | tkobrien0 -
My google rankings went down
I've been working with a company to get some incoming links since April 2011. We are targeting only 2 keywords. For one keyword I was ranked number 1 until a couple of weeks ago. In fact, most of my rankings went down including those keywords that the company was not working on. They are writing 5 articles per month and posting them to their proprietary network. Could those backlinks could harmed my rankings?
Link Building | | cardif0 -
Importance of Directories
Hi there, I just started using the pro tool 6 weeks or so ago. I have done all the on page optimization I can and am starting to think more about building links to my site. What I want to know is how important are directories as part of this link building program? Should I treat doing an audit of what directories we are in, identifying what ones we should be in, and actually signing up for these ones as an important and vital part of the link building program? So basically how important are directories? We are a b 2 b business if that helps.I am kind of assuming directories are (still) important and that we should spend some time on this, but just wanted to get some expert thoughts on directories, approach to use etc etc. I reckon it should be easier than other link building, as we can at least pay a fee and get in the directory, so it’s less a case of someone doing us a favor as other links sometimes seem to be….
Link Building | | inhouseninja0 -
Multiple submissions to article directories
Hello, I would like to ask if I can submit the same article to multiple article directories. I have read that while only the first published article will gain credit and show on search engines, but the all the links generated from the publishing the article at different sites will still tally up and count as separate backlinks to my website. Is this true, or is 1 or a few links going to be counted from the 1 article?
Link Building | | jingliang3_rogers.com0 -
Why isnt google picking up my backlinks?
Over the last 2 months, my company has had almost 10 articles placed on very established websites. When I search for my company's backlinks on Google Advance Search, its not picking them up. Why?
Link Building | | BYSM0