#de-indexing

At first glance, one might be compelled to worry, especially if relying on free directories as a primary source of backlinks. But it's a bit like chicken little, the sky is not really falling. We do not have all the data to say definitively at this point whether Google is really de-indexing free directories, but it seems many types of low quality sites are being classified as dead zones. A comment posted by Steve Gerencscer takes a more scientific point of view.

"There are quite literally tens of thousands of directory websites out there and to claim that they are being de-indexed with a sample of "5" or even 100 is not terribly scientific. Even at 1,000 being checked we are still only getting anecdotal information because I doubt too many people were tracking them to begin with.

I keep a refreshed list of about 1,000 directories for a lot of reasons...even that list sees about a 5% de-indexed or simply closed/shut down website percentage. between refreshes.  Until someone takes the time to track a statistically relevant number of sites over a period of time longer than 'right now' no one can claim anything."

Well when you put it like that it's hard to disagree with Steve's logic. But the truth is in SEO you do have to speculate a lot of the time. Google makes changes so rapidly, and our clients feel compelled to react one way or another. We have to try to make sense of what's happening and advise clients the best course of action. 

The take away.

You should not rely on these directories for your link building strategy. If you provide SEO services, you have to focus on creating quality relevant content and optimizing it for social media. If you have relied a lot on directories for link building in the past, you may want to focus less on that and instead focus more on creating relevant content and getting quality links from more diversified and relevant sources.