Directory links – be careful

If you’ve read my Directories page, you know I’m counted in the links from trusted directories are still an important part of SEM camp.

Dan Thies (of SEO Research Labs) adds some more tips on finding trusted directories — namely, by looking for any paid links the directory may be selling, and how those links are being presented. This came in his newsletter Friday, and since I can’t find it on Dan’s web site or blog, I’ll have to cut and paste the key points here. In a nutshell, Google has apparently diminished links from directories that sell text links, such as GoGuides.org and Skaffe.com have been doing.

“In the meantime, when you are submitting to directories, think twice about submitting to any directory that is selling text link ads, with the following in mind:

Tip #1: If you see what appear to be text link ads on the directory, check the source code (view->source) to make sure the links are part of the HTML code. Robert at GoGuides is keeping the ads, but using a Javascript wrapper to prevent them from being seen by search engines. This should be acceptable to Google, since it’s the exact method they use to deliver Adsense ads.

Tip #2: If the text link ads are part of the source code, check to see if the anchor tags have the “rel=nofollow” attribute. Google will not follow such links, so selling text link ads with the nofollow attribute is also acceptable. This is the solution Bruce @ Skaffe is using.”