I think the real question about these directories is how long they will be viable for. Paid link listings are clearly against Googles terms of service, and as these directories degrade the quality of Google’s primary product (search), I think you’ll see harsher PageRank penalties for paid-link directories.

What this might end in is a battle between SEO professionals (who are using paid link directories), and Google (currently the only game that counts). I don’t think either is a safe bet.

I think that the success of your site will soon be proportional to your (positive) participation in the web community. I now get most of my site ‘recommendations’ from social bookmarking sites (del.icio.us, digg, reddit), and now only ‘google’ something if I can’t remember the URL, or if I need an answer to a very specific question. I am not the average internet user, but I’m not the only one of my kind, and it *is* a growing trend.

I think the new face of search will be based off of some sort of ’social’ aggregator. 50matches.com is a great example of a search engine leveraging the social web to get the most effective results.

What does this mean for SEO? Not much. The current ’social web’ is flawed in the same way as the Google algorithm, and it will be cheated by the SEO industry in the same way. But I do believe that the ’social’ web is the next phase of the web. That means that to successfully market your business on the web, you’ll have to do it the same way as you do it in the ‘real’ world: get out there and talk about it.

Post (insightful) comments on blogs, and leave a link (hey, I just did it!). Be an active member of the community. Start your own blog, and promote discussion. It’s no different than helping out the local Scout troop, or participating in your Chamber of Commerce, or having a sidewalk sale.

The current mantra of internet marketing seems to be ‘get your link on every page you can, and surround it with the right words’. It’s an unsustainable model because it’s in-genuine, and people *want* genuine. As the technology that powers the web evolves, it is going to be harder and harder to cheat the system. Pretty soon you’ll have to build your business online the same way you build it in reality, and that’s by contributing positively to your community (in this case, the web).

For users, a movement to a more social web is a positive thing. It means that *people* are the taste makers, not the Google algorithm. For the relatively young SEO industry, it spells almost certain doom. Fortunately for them, Google is will remain in its position for the foreseeable future.

Ugh, I just wanted wanted to post a link and I left you with this huge rant! Maybe I’ll finally get my own blog and spare the comments section of yours.