Webmaster Guidelines updated - Directory submissions become obsolete

As discussed across the globe in various newsletters or forums - Google recently has updated their Webmaster Guidelines and removed the directory submission bullets:

• "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.”

That makes all link exchange programs obsolete and all purchased links useless / worthless. Same applies for all links coming from the thousands of commercial or free directories specially setup to profit from this earlier quality requirement by Google.

There must be a reason for such a major change - that reason obviously only can be that links from directories no longer constitute to a quality / reputation increase of a site listed.

There also must be a most obvious reason for such guideline changes. Any attempt Google ever had in the past to measure, to quantify or display a quality level of a site, displayed in higher SERPS or higher PageRank ( PR ) always has been bypassed by the global publisher community. The earlier directory submission guideline was the origin of creation of ten thousands of free, paid or reciprocal link required directories. An entire web industry was built to get profit out of that earlier requirement. Those who could afford the hundreds of US $ for a Yahoo directory listing or smaller amounts for other directory listings had the advantage of better SERPS or higher PR.

With the new guidelines making directory submissions obsolete, the use of directory submission software also becomes obsolete. Hence we save $ on the administrative expense side and have more $ to invest on the creative productivity side of our work!

Next question is ...

What factor in web publishing is going to replace the directory-backlinks missing ?

If YOU are a true professional and fully dedicated web publisher, then you WILL find it out and most likely keep the secret for yourself to avoid any future abuse by easy money makers out there. As for me, the total traffic has slightly increased since the new rules are out. Means I obviously or apparently did something right from the very beginning.

The essence of all is that any attempt by the easy money makers of the web industry to bypass the quality guidelines and new quality factors every now and then created / added by Google always will be detected and penalized sooner or later. The only honest way to succeed is to work, work harder, work more, work better and provide ever increasing unique quality content. Instead of outsourcing part or all of your work - learn to do ALL by yourself. That may mean doing less, doing smaller sites or fewer sites, but finally learning to really do something all by yourself rather than by millions of others. Learn to stay within your own limits. If such limits are too small, learn to improve your qualifications, learn to streamline your work within reasonable goals of life. If you are unaware of your limits or your goals, then learn your limits, learn what goal to aim at before your life goes even more downhill!

Love and Bliss

hans