Directory Structure 103 - Listing Sort Order

How do you determine the order in which listings appear on a page? Why did you choose this method?

I'll post my comments on sorting orders after folks have had a chance to respond. I hope this thread leads to interesting and useful directions for DP directory owners.

 

We have multiple display options for displaying listings

 

regular listings are sorted by PR! i think that's default sorting method!

 

We do it by the time submitted.

To give the ones which submitted first a little seniority.

 

Premium ( per click amount )
Feature ( alpha numeric )
general ( alpha numeric )

 

Thanks for the responses so far.

I often see threads in here where directory owners are asking how they can add value to their directories and differentiate them from the rest. Using an editorial ranking (or rating) system is one tool that can be used to change a generic list of links into something unique and useful. AFAIK, there are only a handful of directories (GoGuides, Skaffe, JoeAnt, WebSavvy) that currently use an editorial rating system as part of their default listing sort.

From a user's persective, I think a list of links is easier to read in alphabetical order. If a list is not in alphabetical order, there should be a clear metric of value distinguishing sites at the top of the list from the rest IMO. PageRank is a metric which is often used, but it may not be around for the long haul.

Sorting by hits, date added, etc. really don't add any value for visitors and make a list harder to read IMO. If the page isn't attractive for visitors, it isn't likely to attract organic links.

Oh, and britishguy, offering sorting options doesn't let you off the hook for deciding on the default sort. Very few visitors are going to use the sorting options if they don't see what they need right away.