How one directory killed my traffic and how Google sucks

[YouMadBro]

Fuark this and fuark Google. I have an aged domain that is very popular in its niche (in fact it's the number 1). It is a blog that is updated and bla bla bla, essentially an awesome site that offers lots of content.

I'm very careful with this site and any backlinks I point to it. When I started the site some 3 years ago I did some stupid black hat stuff and soon I was ranking for money terms (2011) yet a couple of months later I had a filter applied (it was before Panda/Penguin 2) and I was out of the SERPS for the money terms. It goes without saying that I learned my lesson and through very carefully adding high quality links, one year later, my site started to rank and these days I'm ranking for absolutely everything I want to rank in my niche (and the site makes me good money). Good times.

So, I looked into directories and selected a few very carefully through researching them. About 1 month ago, I got my site into an extremely exclusive directory that Google loves, BANG, more traffic instantly. "Awesome" I thought, so I got my site into another directory some 20 days later, but this one doesn't look 100% white hat and has some advertising and sidebar OBL. This directory seems to be very well regarded and recommended by sites like MOZ although this was back in 2011, I could not find any feedback on the directory in 2013. Anyway, I got my site there some 10 days ago, the page my site is in has a PR 3 and very few OBL (the homepage has a PR 5). Two days after submission, my site started losing some 20% traffic. I thought nothing of it since it was a day only, yet as of today, the site has being continually losing 20% traffic every day. 8 days of 20% traffic loss and for all the keywords.

All I have done is get my site into those two directories, no other backlinking. My content gets shared on Facebook and Twitter like crazy, I have a genuine Facebook page with thousands of fans. The one exclusive directory raised my traffic a lot (by about 20%) yet the other one has killed 20% traffic. The difference between directories? The exclusive one has no advertising and is human edited and rejects most sites (you guys probably know whom I'm talking about), the other one is a paid submission to have the site reviewed and has OBL in its sidebar to sites that don't look very white hat. The sites in the directory are genuine though, no spam.

Google, fuark you. You are into a crusade to kill all directories, how the fuark am I going to advertise my business? Yeah I know the whole nofollow but directories are there to follow the fuarking link, and it's only normal I pay 20 USD to help the dude who owns the directory. By the way this directory that has killed my traffic is from 2006 and survived the whole take down game of 2007. It's a genuine directory owned by a dude who reviews the sites!

Google, fuark you.

P.S: sorry for the rank, I'm angry at this. These days we have to manage our sites with so much careness and beg for a damn backlink and don't even think about sending one miserable dollar to the guy who has to pay for a VPS to manage his directory. Everybody, use Adwords to advertise your site!!shift111111!!!

EDIT: I will be removing the link tomorrow, I'll give the guy double the money I paid for the submission and ask him to remove my link. It's a shame as this is one of the few directories that has pages with PR 3. I'll update with how it goes if you guys want.

 

[ceosam]

Yes, Google will fall soon at this rate and it'll be no ones fault but their own.

 

[Rua999]

Sorry to hear bro, but thanks for the heads up, i was thinking of adding a few high pr directory backlinks to my profile but you saved me by posting this :-/

 

[SkyrocketSEO]

I don't get it, your site is huge, you are earning huge piles of money, you're No.1 yet you decided to build a link on a black hat directory...? So, why did you come here, so we can tell you that Google is bad and you're good?

 

[YouMadBro]

Yes, Google will fall soon at this rate and it'll be no ones fault but their own.

100% agreed. It's getting to a point that many people that are outside the black hat circle are too getting fed up with it.

I don't get it, your site is huge, you are earning huge piles of money, you're No.1 yet you decided to build a link on a black hat directory...? So, why did you come here, so we can tell you that Google is bad and you're good?

LOL I lurk this site and I recognize you, you are the small man who is always posting worthless comments and going around the forum with a silly obnoxious attitude despite the fact many times you are actually wrong and an idiot (you are an idiot 100% of the times, though), so I will go easy on you and ignore you for the sake of the rest of this community.

Like I say, I can update if you guys want. It's a real shame as this directory was recommended by MOZ and wasn't penalized back in 2011 when they did an audit. It has always kept it's PR 5 by the way and the submission fee is very low unlike the rest of directories, so it makes sense I pay a little amount to help the guy out.

 

[YouMadBro]

Sorry to hear bro, but thanks for the heads up, i was thinking of adding a few high pr directory backlinks to my profile but you saved me by posting this :-/

Sorry I missed your quote in my reply above. My pleasure, but, as I say, a backlink from "you know who" is still golden.

 

[procam]

I think it's just a big dance. I lost some traffic and I don't even build links. Everyone I know has been dancing all around the SERPS for almost a week now :| it'll settle soon I hope.

 

[YouMadBro]

I think it's just a big dance. I lost some traffic and I don't even build links. Everyone I know has been dancing all around the SERPS for almost a week now :| it'll settle soon I hope.

Agreed. However, my site had been receiving 20% traffic since I got the link from the first directory. Some of my ther sites have been dancing since the beginning of August though. In some I use black hat tactics whereas in others I keep it 100% white hat, yet both dance. I actually think there has been at least one "big" update in August.

Edit: to put it in perspective, this site I posted in the OP receives some 10,000 unique visitors per day (it's actually closer to 11,000) and about 40,000 page views, it is now 8000-9000 u/d, same page views pattern (so 4 pages per visitor), same bounce rate, same everything except for influx of visitors from Google. Must I say, I tested another directory that advertises itself as "SEO friendly" on one of my test sites (I have a couple for tests) and the directory has a PR of 5, the test site too had a decrease in traffic, this time it was a 50% drop!

 

[mickyfu]

Put 1 and 1 together and come up with 78. So let me get this, every time one of my sites gets hit, it is to do with the last back link I made?

 

[YouMadBro]

Put 1 and 1 together and come up with 78. So let me get this, every time one of my sites gets hit, it is to do with the last back link I made?

Not neccesarily. However, if you keep all variables the same, you can certainly get something out of a pattern. I didn't mention I have a test site and also did a directory submission on another directory and it did the same.

There isn't much information on directory submission as of 2013, most of it goes back to the Penguin days, so I wanted to bring out the fact that Google seems to be killing just about all directories if they include a small fee for inclusion. And I'm talking of directories that back in 2011 worked.

I know it is not 100% bullet proof, so feel free to correct me if you have any information on updates through August despite no one has reported any outside of anecdotal evidence.

 

[neo]

Is it botw? I had a similar experience with botw. But that was couple of months before panda. And never bothered with botw after that.
Have you tried a yahoo listing?

 

[procam]

Yeah that's a mega update to say the least. I wish you the best of luck that it's just temporary. I see a dip of about 35% in my niche after big updates but after a few days I see a 100% increase in traffic compared to before the update roll-out date. This time it's different but I'm hoping it's temporary for the both of us. Keep positive!

Agreed. However, my site had been receiving 20% traffic since I got the link from the first directory. Some of my ther sites have been dancing since the beginning of August though. In some I use black hat tactics whereas in others I keep it 100% white hat, yet both dance. I actually think there has been at least one "big" update in August.

Edit: to put it in perspective, this site I posted in the OP receives some 10,000 unique visitors per day (it's actually closer to 11,000) and about 40,000 page views, it is now 8000-9000 u/d, same page views pattern (so 4 pages per visitor), same bounce rate, same everything except for influx of visitors from Google. Must I say, I tested another directory that advertises itself as "SEO friendly" on one of my test sites (I have a couple for tests) and the directory has a PR of 5, the test site too had a decrease in traffic, this time it was a 50% drop!

 

[YouMadBro]

Is it botw? I had a similar experience with botw. But that was couple of months before panda. And never bothered with botw after that.
Have you tried a yahoo listing?

Not it is not BOTW, it is a directory that is one level below (if we could say so) that doesn't allow spam and has a few links on the sidebar that lead to high PR sites that don't look 100% white hat. The submission fee is also extremely low (a couple of dollars), which is why I accepted to submit my money site in that particular directory. The rest of sites on the same page as my site are good sites too.

I would never submit my sites to any directory except for testing submissions for my test sites, and this is the 3rd directory my money site is in throughout it's lifespan. I nailed it down to 3 directories (after careful research) to submit my site to, of which both the directories reported in this thread are part of. For what is worth, the exclusive directory my site was posted is DMOZ, and yes, I got in after a couple days.

 

[SkyrocketSEO]

I'll give the guy double the money I paid for the submission and ask him to remove my link.

So, you payed $2 and you're gonna offer $4 to remove the link? If I was him I would add one more footer link, to juice it up a bit

 

[YouMadBro]

Yeah that's a mega update to say the least. I wish you the best of luck that it's just temporary. I see a dip of about 35% in my niche after big updates but after a few days I see a 100% increase in traffic compared to before the update roll-out date. This time it's different but I'm hoping it's temporary for the both of us. Keep positive!

Thanks man, good vibes to you too! I actually saw a post some days ago of someone asking if there was an update on the 20th or so. I think it was Search Engine Watch that asked its readers if they noticed anything on the 20th, but some said yes others no.

I noticed a dip of some sites in early August and searched for anyone reporting the same, I only retrieved some threads but nothing worth considering. It goes without saying that I'm aware Google is nowadays pushing out algorithms on almost-daily basis and doesn't announce the majority of them. I do think something in August that was "big" occurred and it could well just be a Penguin update.

Good thing is that despite the drop in traffic, my income with that site alone has stayed more or less the same and I'm making a very good amount of money thanks to Google. It's just irritating (and yes, am mad brah) how these days we have to be so extra careful and how how Google wants to play a game that has us begging for a backlink from some blogging dude who doesn't know anything about SEO. Not saying that this is how to excel at the SERPS, but Google wants to make it look like it through its propaganda.