Recently I came through a question asked in SEO Quiz by SEOmoz "Which of the following directories had its ability to pass link value removed?"

The answer to this is "Only BlueFind suffered this penalty - having had its ability to pass link value removed by Google, ostensibly for "selling PageRank."

Is there some place where Google posts any such announcements? If not, how could one recognize whether a directory is penalized by Google?

This is the most important part to evaluate the directory before availing a link (free or paid).

If its banned then the site: command will return 0

Regarding juice you will just need to do some research on either a site or a page basis..

Google do not list banned sites.. Load of tools out and about that "guess" the quality of sites.

Look at the url in the directory if you see MFA or affilates sites or just low quality then keep away imho..

I run a UK directory and reject some 70-80% of submissions due to being "crap" site imho...

Other pointers to consider are casino / porn links = keep away for me....

One of the main things which make you a seo as the fact you can tell the differnce between a link that will be counted vs just a link..

My main tip is, think of the directory as a website... Is it useful.. Would you say to people its good, let your kids on it, show your mother in law etc.. If yes then go ahead and submit imho...

Good luck..

If its banned then the site: command will return 0

Regarding juice you will just need to do some research on either a site or a page basis..

Google do not list banned sites.. Load of tools out and about that "guess" the quality of sites.

Look at the url in the directory if you see MFA or affilates sites or just low quality then keep away imho..

I run a UK directory and reject some 70-80% of submissions due to being "crap" site imho...

Other pointers to consider are casino / porn links = keep away for me....

One of the main things which make you a seo as the fact you can tell the differnce between a link that will be counted vs just a link..

My main tip is, think of the directory as a website... Is it useful.. Would you say to people its good, let your kids on it, show your mother in law etc.. If yes then go ahead and submit imho...

Good luck..

Well said! gabs
This is an informative post by you.

What about if the directory sell the page rank literally but accepts only good websites to list in their appropriate category?

Analysis is a good idea but again that would be an assumption.

As of now, I do the analysis of any such directory manually. What site or tool you would suggest for accomplishing this kind of job?

Have you heard about SEO tools from Mozilla? It's a tool that gives information about web sites including the start of their operation, the site's status (banned or active), etc.

Following up on SEOmoz, and seeing this in practice with a potential client myself, not ranking for your own name is a problem - good sign of a penalty. Ditto if you're not topping out for very specific phrases likely to be found only on your site.

If a directory is linking out to "partners" that are link farm bidding directories that is a warning sign to stay far away from them, even a free link from such a source is not going to help, but may hurt you in the end.

If you see a ton of interlinking to and from a group of web directories or all their listings happen to be other directories it is a master link farm, stay far away from sites like that unless the sites you publish have no hope of ever getting indexed in the first place, meaning if you run affiliate landing pages, online pharmacy or porn affiliate sites and so on.

If that is the case you can link from every link farm on the net, you will never get those sites indexed period under any circumstances long term and have little to lose by linking to and from link farms.

I've lost one level PR, I wonder if we always can add the link partners at the footer of each page ?

Thank you