Directories Still Used by Google as Signal of Trust

Everybody is confident with browsing the web with search engines nowadays, as they allow us to find websites so quickly. This is crucial, never the less search engine results aren’t filtered by actual people, but by an algorithm. So why would that be remarkable? Imagine you’re browsing for a pub in Milton Keynes for example. You would type these keywords into Google (for example), then a list of search results would be presented. How can one know if these results are trusted if they’ve never been vetted by a human editor? Here’s the answer: search engines utilize human-edited online directories as a basic filter.

Directories still play a substantial part on the internet, and the best directories are unavoidably edited by humans. A person may recognize that (e.g.) : “that hotel has been awarded a particular rating for cleanliness and having certain standards, that’s a really good signal”. A good directory receives many entries everyday. An official will investigate these submissions, and if the editor is content that the level of the entry is of a particular standard, it is added to the internet directory. This is why search engines still love website directories. Both dmoz.org and the Yahoo! directory are looked up by search engines as filters to discover the trustworthiness of a website - whether it’s listed in these directories or not, since they’re human-edited and have rigorous rules-for-entry.

So don’t downplay the significance of website directories now that most people use search engines to find websites. A directory with rigorous guidelines can act as an important measuring device as to how authentic a website is. If you own a website, also look to get your website added in a niche directory, like a home and garden directory, a hotel directory, or a restaurant directory.