Google Webmaster Guidelines was updated today and "directory submission" is no longer included!

Here is what was removed:
"Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.”

beussery.com/blog/index.php/2008/10/google-no-longer-suggests-directory-submission/

Wow, great find. Don't know what the thinking behind it is, but a bit of a tectonic shift (well, maybe just a slight shudder).

Thanks man, could be a big shift or an accidental omission! Either way, I thought it was interesting... We'll see!

Nice catch mate... did blog entry and sphunn it

though the removal of having other valued sites linked to you was also deleted some maybe they are just down playing link promotion given the constant filtering of where they come from

Interesting... I wonder if this is Google's way of saying that link popularity is less an important focus? Although DMOZ no longer seems to have significant page rank with Google, and hasnt for sometime, I wonder if Google is now saying that directory "submissions" are moot. I have always believed that local directory sites like superpages.com, local.com, citysearch.com, yellowpages.com have more weight for local businesses.... other directories like Wiki.com etc also bear the same value.

Well if it did mean that links become less important, then it would also mean that focus had shifted elsewhere to "compensate" for want of a better word.

I just think they don't want to promote link building - say nothing and lower expectations... they are based on links so will never fully drop

I just think they don't want to promote link building - say nothing and lower expectations... they are based on links so will never fully drop

Agreed. It's just not such a big deal really. When you've based your engine around links, it's a bit hard to move away from that, and you "just" have to work out what a good link is and assign a score, on a very basic level. Unless you have something really really cool to unveil. Then ditch the link strategy and let's see it :)

Here's the Google Groups discussion (http://groups.google.com/group/Google_Webmaster_Help-chit-chat/browse_thread/thread/f943766fde76e87e) on the change. Notice also that the "Have other relevant sites link to yours" point has also been removed.

G's John Mueller chimes in on the removal of the directory recommendation:

I wouldn't necessarily assume that we're devaluing Yahoo's links, I just think it's not one of the things we really need to recommend.
And, on the removal of the "Have other relevant sites link to yours" point, he states:

This line was removed because we feel that you should not "force" other sites to link to yours...I don't think we need to make it a part of the guidelines that you should "have other sites link to yours" -- they should be willing to do that on their own, it should be their decision not yours.

Nice catch mate... did blog entry and sphunn it
Thanks man! Google's position seems a little clearer now, thanks to "JohnMu's" post.

Does it mean that Google will have its own directory/

Does it mean that Google will have its own directory/

Hey Markov, Google has a directory:
http://www.google.com/dirhp

I think this move is more a way of saying directories may not be as important as they have been in the past.

Hey Markov, Google has a directory:
http://www.google.com/dirhp



Agree with it. But Google's directory is a mirror of DMOZ. Isn't it?

Yes, it is. Google still uses DMOZ, so I am not sure what the discussion is about.

Nice catch mate... did blog entry and sphunn it

Maybe doing a blog entry and posting that any news whether factual or not can be great linkbait!

Sphinn the hype then facts don't matter.

http://forums.seochat.com/showpost.php?p=622506&postcount=8

Hasn't Relevancy always been the main idea behind search results ?

It's great to see it being carried over to link building.

One question is if the major players for a KeywordX all have links in section themed by niche together the DMOZ would be a relevant themed third party added link...

Relevancy is so keyword, industry and niche specific...

Maybe doing a blog entry and posting that any news whether factual or not can be great linkbait!

Sphinn the hype then facts don't matter.

http://forums.seochat.com/showpost.php?p=622506&postcount=8

Thanks for pointing this out Fathom. I hadn't seen the post you mentioned.

In response I'd say that "linkbait" requires a link, whereas I posted a URL and not a link. (I'm not sure how better to illustrate something removed after the fact.)

Fact is, content was removed from Google's list of Google's webmaster guidelines.

Fact is, Google no longer suggests "directory submission" and/or submitting sites to DMOZ or Yahoo's business directory as part of their main Webmaster Guidelines page.

The sentence you mentioned, isn't included in the main version of the page you mentioned
http://64.233.169.104/search?sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fsupport%2F webmasters%2Fbin%2Fanswer.py%3Fanswer%3D66356

If you notice, the page you mention is a UK version (hl=en-uk), not the main version and focus of my blog post.

Sphinn the hype then facts don't matter.[/url]

Thanks for the tip fathom, I've just blogged about this issue at the following URL:
beussery.com/blog/index.php/2008/10/another-google-directory-submission-update/

Google consciously (http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/018387.html) removed it and talked about why, so maybe it is a glitch that is still available in the UK version?

Is it possible that they are tired of people buying domain names simply for the DMOZ link to get a quick shot of adrenaline to their "built for adwords" insta-site?

Did anyone take that survey a few weeks back that they sent out? it had questions about directories and the value of google as well as the perceived nature "do no evil" of google today compared to years past. Maybe they got back enough results that made a decision based on that....

When are they buying T-Mobile again? :)