Brian Ussery reported that Google has dropped two of the most relevant and vital bullet points from the Google Webmaster Guidelines. Those bullet points include:
- "Have other relevant sites link to yours."
- "Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites."
It was also noticed at the Google Blogoscoped reported that Google has removed the dictionary link in the search results.
"Google has removed the dictionary link in search results for at least a portion of users, or perhaps all users, I'm not sure which (who of you is still seeing it? I'm not seeing it on computers in two different locations tested). Before, when you searched for a word in the dictionary – e.g. "house" – there would be a link leading to a definition in the top blue bar. Some years ago this was linked to dictionary.com and since January 2005, to answers.com. Answers.com may be suffering some traffic breakdown if this is removed for all, and not just a results prototype being tested."
A recent comment was seen from Google John Mueller at a Google Groups thread where the main logic behind all this crust has been explained in details:
"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. If people think that a directory is going to bring them lots of visitors (I had a visitor from the DMOZ once), then it's obviously fine to get listed there. It's not something that people have to do though 
."
LINE THAT 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."
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Solid an very usefull informations..Thanks a lot!
Another hint that directory links are completely devalued now.
However, some I noticed that industry specific directories DO bring in some traffic to my site. I mean nothing staggering but maybe a few hits a day from a few of them. Just find the top directories for your industry and submit away!
end of a double standard
google is against buying or selling links for seo purpose but they were promoting paid link from Yahoo directory. that was bizarre!