Google: Directories Often Not The Right Way To Build Links

Oct 3, 2016 - 7:52 am 20 by
Filed Under Link Building

Google Penalty

On Friday, Google's John Mueller and Gary Illyes both made stern comments about directory links. Gary's was the most telling, where he wrote on Twitter "directories are very often not the right way to build links." John Mueller's tweet was more cryptic using the "Directories? o_O" message.

Here they are:

Gary later said on Twitter that he was talking about an article they both read on Search Engine Land. I suspect it was related to this story which talks about getting links from "highly ranking and well-maintained directories that are relevant to the product or service you provide."

So it seems to me that Google is really not into the idea of getting links from directories. With the closure of the Yahoo Directory and dmoz really dying, do people still use directories? I don't.

So are all directory links bad now? Is that what we should take from these tweets from Gary and John? Possibly.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

This post was scheduled to go live today but was written earlier - I am currently offline today.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 10, 2025

Feb 10, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google Updates

Google Super Bowl LIX Search Ranking Update

Feb 10, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google

Google Search AI Organized Local Events

Feb 10, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google Maps

Google Local Search Results Pack - Share List Button

Feb 10, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google AdSense

Google AdSense Combines Marketing Email Preferences - Expect More Emails...

Feb 10, 2025 - 7:21 am
Google

Search Bugs: Google Weird Snippet Spacing & Bing URLs Cut Off

Feb 10, 2025 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: SEOs Noticing Google Penguin 4.0 Recoveries Now