Google PageRank – the holy grail of search optimisation?
Maybe, maybe not. As always, no simple answers for anything related to search engine optimisation. Before Google, Yahoo ruled the Internet and they started out as an Internet Directory listing every web site that was available. I was first interested in the Internet in 1993 and they were absolutely dominant.
As the years passed, and Google reigned supreme, the listing of your web site in many directories was seen as an important way of boosting the importance of a web site through their backlinks in the eyes of Google’s algorithm.
Until recently this was the case and I would always recommend a day sitting at a PC and searching for relevant places to ask for a link / pay for a directory link. Then quite recently they introduced the ‘no follow’ meta tag which means that if you pay for listings you should put this tag on so all search engines know that it is a paid for link and hence not give you any value.
So has that completely devalued the listing of your web site in directories? It has and it hasn’t!! I still suggest it so you can have as broad a base as possible to promote your web site – even if you do not gain any additional Pagerank. Some directories do still add value to your Internet prescence. The most important is DMOZ. However, it is now practically impossible to get listed as it is a volunteer based system. The best method I have found is just to have yourself listed in a local listing with a general listing pending – ie never reviewed or listed!! The reason DMOZ is so important is that the directory is used in many other web sites – including as Google’s directory.
Yahoo still has some value to it – but it does cost quite a lot of money for an annual listing. Not quite the philosophy it started with all those years ago.
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