Level of reveiw you give to a submission.

I've taken on the task of re-populating The Orange Pages directory with its old database, (pre 2003) but can't do it just by import as I see shed loads of sites with changed content, but not necessarily on the index page, this prompted me to ask, just how far do you go with your reviews? do you just look at the index page and think 'oh that looks nice' or do you do a little more?

 

It takes more than that, and the optimum is that you approve based on unique description text, and of course the first process is that the review submission must qualify to each individual site submission guidelines
Good luck lots of work ahead for you

 

Tell me about it, I do have other people doing the reviews with me but boy its a bitch as I have a list of criteria as long as my arm to take into account. Won't grumble the BG I'm getting paid for it.

 

If the site is selling products for example, il click through and see how far i can get with their shopping cart, does it work up to just before payment, does it go off onto a different site.

Il check some of what their linking to too.

Does the Title they submitted make sense with the description, an example:

A web hosting site could be submitted, but the description talks of everyting but web hosting and the title says Web Design or SEO.

I remind myself that although spelling of a particular word may look incorrect to myself that many times they have infact used the correct spelling based on their country, the differences between British and US English.

Many other things...

 

I usually check a few pages as I find to many with great content on index but the rest of the site is the pits

 

I also tend to browse about 5 pages including deep down pages, since 70-90% of sites submitted to a web directory is "spam" sites with no real unique content.

I would say 50% of the submissions to my directory, is sites build around affiliate links. Often the design is nice but standard and the affiliate link is built in via a template provided by the affiliate company.

 

I usually check at least 3 random inner pages for most types of website.

 

I chase through a few pages because I don't want online pharmacies, or adult sites, or adsense sites. I only spend about 10 seconds, which is enough to see if it's a genuine or rubbish site. Other sites that I refuse are ones that are "under construction".

 

Care to share some of the criteria?

 

Sure, not saying I'm going to be correct but its how I do it. I use a point scoring system which includes but is not limited to some of the following.

• Complete index page, ALL links must be working from this. Dead links means an incomplete site.
  
• Failure to load images, I'll try and refresh them but if they are missing they fail. If the site owner can't be bothered to fix them why should I be bothered to accept them.
  
• Speed of load, if a site takes more than a certain time to load they fail.
  
• Immediate links to undesirable content, in other words if there is a direct link from the index page to an undesirable site it fails.
  
• Made for Adsense, I'm no different to others, I don't believe in providing a free platform for advertising, or a paid platform for shitty sites full of ads.
  
• Pop-ups, they are a strict no-no, you can forgive one, any more they get no chance.
  
• The obvious sites of undesirability, racisim, porn, and so on, gambling is allowed within reason.
  
• Submissions are checked way more than just three pages deep, I give a specific amount of time to a site as opposed to how many pages I go, the time usually allows me to scan through well past double figures.

There's lots more but these are just a few. If any submission fails three of the above or other criteria they get written to advising them of this and offering them an opportunity to amend or risk rejection.

 

Thanks.

If more directories took the time to actually review their submissions and established some criteria for acceptance, I think many would have a better impression of directories.

 

ultimately, you must recognize that your directory is only as good as the links they carry and display. If others see spam links, poor-quality sites and useless information on your directory, no matter how much marketing you do, it will create a bad impression of your directory....

thus, you just need to ask this question: "Will this website give valuable content that others may want to visit?"

 

Same Here...

You know it when you see it..
Refund is sent back and site deleted..

On the rest I usually end up running threw them a little longer myself as im
rewriting the main descriptions for some or adding deep links /descrips to detals
pages they forget

I also use SEO Quake...
So within seconds i have all data i need to know about the site
whether its new, # pages indexed, alexa rank, who is, and IF its been banned

thx
malcolm

 

Thing is Malcolm, I use old school techniques as I'm paid to use them (I do what I'm told kind of thing even if I don't like it), I do encorperate new methods to check out their credability but stuff like Alexa rating and that mean absolutely nothing to me or the directory visitor I aim at. (Maybe a new thread for that one)

 

Good list,

What if their description is crappy, do you let them ride or edit them?