Recently as many as one hundred plus directories, so far have dropped in search rankings or been removed from search engine results pages. Some are saying as many as five hundred directory owners have been hit with this new adjustment. This update has been going on for months proving that search engines have begun targeting paid link directories that SE's feel are in violation of the search quality guidelines (link buying). Just one more thing for website owners to worry about when they are fighting for website traffic. I would recommend people change the paid links to no follow if traffic from links is not substantial.

Search engines are not not sending out notices in most cases or giving website owners answers to directory with new guideline questions. This is clearly all about money and advertisers need to get web exposure in th results pages. Further more this is also another step in crushing seo companies, because natural search engine optimization takes ad space away from them.

I believe natural search engine optimization techniques and are still alive and always will, be so be smart and don't manipulate search. Remember that all your sponsored or advertising links should be clearly labeled the rel= "nofollow" attribute to the link. You can also use Java script to direct the link or add to the meta tags. Finally do not waste your time buying links from other websites. If it is a directory it should be free like a natural web site back link.