I think there a number of tools you can employ. You can check if the html is valid, check page speed, look for spam words or malware, and of course check page rank with the google toolbar.
At the end of the day, the best way to check the quality of a site is to visit it. You could do all of the checks already suggested and it could be a one page site on a dropped domain.
Yup. It's called the flower test Try this: Type flower into a directory's search box Review the results that are returned If you see hundreds of Indian flower shops, repetitive descriptions, the word "flower" used over and over in every description, pages and pages of identical listings --- RUN! That will knock out about 9000 of 10000 directories.
Yes, I maintain one "honeypot" directory just to see what kind of junk will come through. Other searches include watches and gift. You can get a pretty good idea. The sad thing is these people spinning their wheels submitting to these types of directories, and it is good there are site's like vilesilencer that help identify the good ones.
Now a days spam directories have really saturated the market but still its not hard for a submitter to find whether the directory is worth submitting or not,You can find the quality of directory by just looking at it at first glance,check the template design , organization of the directory and the latest addition page as already mentioned check for the "flower & jewellery" keywords in the titles and description.These mentioned will mostly show you the interest of the directory owner if you find all the above things passed and towards the positive side than most probably the directory will be worth submitting.... As david mentioned also check the pr as it will show you the image of directory in eyes of google... I am personally not in a favor of any specific test which will e.g till you is the directory good or not, "YOU EYES AND MIND IS THE BEST TESTING LABORATORY FOR YOU" You can apply all this rules to your own directory by looking at it and considering your self as a submitter....
I assure you there is more to come on this matter soon from phpLD. The comment about a few spammers overrunning the market is correct, and there is a lot going on right now that is dealing with that very issue. Nothing it perfect or foolproof, but I can tell you that some of the honest folks that have done a good job over the years are going to see a break in the clouds. Look forward to sharing more with you about this soon, and meanwhile kudos to silencer for his tremendous contributions.
I would also think you should use a tool that checks for duplicate content. No matter what type of site you are running, you don't want to have the same posts that are scattered on dozens of other sites. Not only is this a mark against you in the eyes of Google, but I have often times ran across duplicate material that I was able to identify with no other tools than my own eyes. When this happens, it totally discredits your website in the mind of the visitor and the damage done is irreparable.
Like dvduval said, Copyspace is a tool--and the most popular. It is a website and you can do a Google search to find it. Also another option you might find useful on occassion is to use software to check two sets of text to see how they compare with each other specifically. The one I like is called DupeFreePro.
Relying on tools to check the quality of a site is not a good idea, so many different types of sites, to me your question suggests laziness, what exactly would you be looking for in a quality site? If you dont know then how could you expect a tool to do that for you.
Yea, I think they are best for clean up work such as a site that has malware and you want to catch them before your visitors go there. But ideally the editor is doing their job and there is less need to do clean up work.
You do have a good point. Before you go through the trouble and expense of creating your own website, you should first go through the trouble of learning what a good site is made of. And if you don't know that from the beginning and put the time and effort into doing the tasks that make that happen, then it is pretty much useless for you to use software. On the other hand, there are many software that can let you know how you fair. They should never be relied upon to create a quality site though. Your own knowledge, hard work, and dedication are the only tools that can accomplish that goal.
msafi2, if everyone had your kind of energy and enthusiasm there would be a lot more great directories! If you are constantly looking at your site and thinking about ways to make it better on a consistent basis, it is going to show in the long run. It can take years to have a highly successful business, and too often people get discouraged to quickly.
I also tried this and got no results on my directories. I've 2 PR6 directories given below: Viking Directory . com Direktory . org Let me know if anybody has any suggestions about how i can improve them. Thanks.
Thanks. I have been working with and learning about SEO for a while but I just now got into directories. I now realized things like this happening in all areas of the web and it is so out of control. I would love to do something about it... or at lease avoid being one of the people who cause the problem.
Very true. This is the very reason why directories suffer their bad rep. People who use the net who once went to them expecting quality and help but eventually saw them flooded with massive amounts of junk. People don't seem to realize that pleasing visitors should be their first priority. If the people who surf the web are made happy when they find your site then you have already taken care of the hardest part. Success is easy after that.