I know that some people here must have a long list of complaints. There are many directories doing some pretty horrible things out there. I hope to avoid such practices and also would like to help others avoid them too. In your opinion, what is the worst thing that a directory can do in order to ruin its rep and the rep of other directories who try to provide the web with quality? Also, feel free to mention the main thing that they are NOT doing but should.
The worst thing? Not taking the directory seriously. A lot of admins treat it simply as a money-making tool, instead of a proper site that they need to grow and look after. The way I see it, the directory owner should be trying to make his directory as valuable as possible to make the links worth as much as possible.
I have mentioned that myself and seen others mention it too. This seems very true. Easy money is the goal of many and then when they find that a lot of work will be involved they abandon their directory.
worst part is Most of the people setup free scripts on free hosts and once the Site starts getting enough visitors it will now change it some other thing.
The worst thing is that directory market is getting worst because of the worst directories that are run by worst editors ....
Any worthwhile directory must approve submissions within a day or so, and get their pages updated in the Google cache within a few days after that. When I evaluate any directory, those are my main criteria. If Google is crawling new updates and indexing the links within a few days, that gives the directory some solid SEO value. If it takes weeks, there is some value, but not as much. The crawl rate is a measure of the authority that Google grants to the directory. Also, categories should be specific enough so there are less than 100 links per category. It should be easy to add categories if a new one is needed.
One thing I hate is categories filled to the brim with pages and pages of links..where many of the links are dead. If you're going to run a directory keep it clean. Check links often and remove the useless crap!
Anchor text for every listing that matches the category. Going to a "travel" category and seeing 10 listings that are all "Cheap Airfare"...ouch.
Sadly, its become more of money game... and the amount of money these people charge is Rediculas $10 per listing, what is that?
Sadly, its become more of money game... and the amount of money these people charge is Rediculas $10 per listing, what is that? what are the parameters, And of course, most of the directries are dead to search engines now..
Most of the high PR dir sites are strictly moderated our submission and eventually reject your aspplication.
Assuming this is a discussion about directories that actually have a fairly decent editorial standard and does not include the hordes of directories that are just plain garbage... letting categories grow to hundreds or even thousands of listings long instead of creating additional categorization which would benefit both the directory and the sites being listed.