The directory industry got some good news of late  as Google decided to let a bunch of directories out of the penalty box.  Most of these directories spent over 2 years in the sin bin.

History

In the past, Google has periodically penalized individual sites.  In September and October of 2007 they hit a large number of web directories.  The sites in question had their PR dropped to zero.  These sites did not appear in the top 40 rankings of Google‘s search results, not even for their own domain.  For example, a directory called abc.com did not appear in the top 40 in a search for abc.

 Today

Today‘s analysis is based on a list of directories that received Google penalties back in September & October 2007.  I have updated the list with their current PageRank. As for PageRank, I would have to say that it has recovered well. It is very close to the level it was before the reduction. In many cases, it is a point or two lower but this can be explained by the fact that the owners were not motivated to promote these directories over the last couple of years. These sites also lost many links because of the penalties.

The table below is a subset of the directories involved.  For a more complete view follow the link above.

I admit that I have not followed most of these sites closely over the last 2 years so if you have anything to add I would be grateful for your comments.  Thanks.