Webmasters who paid for links in paid-directories just chucked money down the drain. And turned on the incinerator.

You see, starting with the 4th quarter Google pagerank update, some of the largest paid directories (think Aviva, Alive and DirectoryDump) all plummeted from pagerank 7 to pagerank nowhere. Search google, and none of these sites can be found. It’s like they never existed.

Directory webmasters protested, link buyers griped, and Google- well, google stood its ground. Google says directories violated TOS by selling links which game big G’s algorithms (to pass on pagerank). It’s a mortal sin and one must pay dearly for violating Holy Webmaster Guidelines. Nothing can be worse than being sandboxed in Google’s anonymity hell!

I for one agree. For too long, I’ve seen Linux sites sponsoring gambling, porn and viagra businesses. Or SEO sites promoting snoring tablets. Wha???? What’s the connection?

These paid-links and sponsored advertising for unrelated (and crappy) services pollute the web with scum that waste our bandwiths.

Good going google!

For a full details on the shakedown, check out this blog