What would revitalize the directory market?

Do you think its possible for the directory market to become as good as it was before?
How do you think the directory market can change/improve to become relevant in today's internet? In other words how do you think directories can become more relevant on their own merit (not by Google (or any SE) using directory links for ranking....)

 

The directory market is as good as it was before Google's linking error right now and I seriously hope it never gets the way it was during the link buying frenzy again.

 

It will become revitalized as soon as directories are of more use to the searcher/user than the webmaster looking for links .... which is unlikely to ever happen.

 

Aside from the "market", which I cannot affect alone, I can tell you what we have done personally.

We've made some slight adjustments and have redesigned our directory. They are SUBTLE changes, but all made to make the look, flow and organization a bit more user friendly and the underlying code a bit more SE friendly. I've toyed with the IDEA of adding a portal like Yahoo, but am not certain if that is something that will really garner more usage. We've never been very concerned with that since we're focused on delivering results and traffic from the site indirectly to the end user.

 

Depends on what you mean by revitalize...if you mean get back to the frenzy of a few years ago, hopefully nothing.

If you mean helping the quality sites continue to thrive...I think we're going to have to rebrand and get away from the "directory" descriptor and work at moving beyond being "directories" to advertising portals, site reviews and reference sites. I think site descriptions are going to need to get longer and more informative - become more of a true review of the sites rather than two or three sentences. More like a blog of true site reviews instead of relying upon meaningless Alexa metrics and other page fillers.

The irony is that it's a challenge to write good reviews about sites when so many site owners don't see the value in About Us pages - IMHO, the best source for learning about a site. In my case, it's hard to talk about an artist and what makes them special when you're lucky if you can even find their name on their site.

 

Depends on what you mean by "good" ? but probably not.

People putting dir scripts on dropped domains and selling them to suckers all week long ? or webmasters buying links on directories ?

I guess both depend on people actually buying links on directories which is over until google gives them any weight. Maybe in the next decade or 2 but old played out seo games usually never become relevant again.

 

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The ones that have no "weight" are the ones you mentioned in bold. Those established and consistent do have weight. I think most SE's are pretty good at recognizing the difference.

 

yeah like yelp and yellow pages (too bad links are "nofollow"). But your average(99% of dirs) dir script with 3 small pages of content and 1001 outbound links=worthless.

Even older directories 5-10years old and high pr are not giving any results as far as seo and that's why webmasters are not buying links. And so now you have a dead directory market.

 

Interesting, in my experience its the opposite.

 

Older established directories still provide a quality link to the website, ya know all the links the link rodents are asking to have removed.

 

But what does a quality directory link really provide? What I have seen is the front page of google search results loaded with ads and google owned properties. Checking linking profiles of the best organic ranking sites shows no directory links. The seo benefit of most directories is all but lost in my opinion. The big directories like yelp, yellow pages and a few others are still worthwhile because they send visits.

I'm not trying to talk down on the directory industry, but google has lowered the hammer to push everyone into adwords. Google wants the money that people were to spend at all of your directories and elsewhere. Google will continue devaluing directories and any other type of cash for link opportunity so they can make more money. This has nothing to do with how old your directory is, how much time you spend on it or anything else in your control. It is all about google wanting more money and they are going to continue using their dominant position to get it.

 

Strange because most webmasters have been getting nothing from them. and that's why the market has collapsed.

Seems like only directory owners are claiming benefits from dir links...?

 

I guess somebody needs to tell the many major marketing services to stop submitting then. They have no problem letting everybody believe internet rumors.

 

I still see the usefulness of directories, however I think that it's time to evolve beyond the standard format. Instead of just being a way to provide quick backlinks (which, let's be honest, the majority of directories exist solely to do) directories should start to add other features to attract visitors and add value to the site.

 

You're exactly right. Folks aren't buying links anymore. If that's all a directory had to offer, it deserved to die. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

 

If google wants the money spent listing in a directory, they are better off begging for government assistance.

To the contrary, its not google that is devaluing directories, its the SEO industry. Google has just been able to dupe them into chasing their tails.

I think the bigger misnomer here is that everyone assumes there is one SE and that Google is the end all be all of Search. Nothing could be more far from the truth. There are other SE's out there, and directories continue to perform VERY well in them, and there's a vast number of people out there that use other outlets for search, like BING/Yahoo, Ask, Dogpile, and AOL.

If I put all my eggs in the Google Basket, I guess I'd be thinking and saying much the same.

 

Exactly Mia, the only thing Google has said about link sellers including directories is they will take away the ability to pass page rank of the directory. You can easily detect the directories and other link selling sites this has happened to.

 

What I said was that Google wants the money people would spend at your directories and elsewhere. Google does not want anyone spending anything on internet marketing unless it is with Google. Directories are only a small piece of the pie, but this pie is still on Google's table to eat.

The seo industry is not devaluing directories. The seo industry was a buyer of directory listings and some now profit from running link removing these listings. Google is the one who has changed the public's perception of links, which includes links at directories. Unnatural link warnings in webmaster tools accounts often reference directory links. Even the DMOZ appeared as an example of an unnatural link that Google gave to one person. Instead of listing websites, most directories are now getting link removal requests. These requests are mostly coming from the ones that own the penalized websites and not seo companies, which is why public perception of directories will continue to worsen.

We may not like it, but Google is the end all be all of search. Even penalized website stats I have looked at show more Google visitors then those from all of the other search engines combined. Only people running hobby sites could survive off of such little traffic. Maybe that's what most directory owners here do - run their sites like a hobby. But the people who run them like a business, with employees that add their own listings and review the ones coming in, it won't be long before they become hobby sites too. By the way, AOL is powered by Google enhanced search.

What other baskets are there for directories to put their eggs in? Other search engines don't really have much traffic to send them. Ads on other websites? Expensive and not much traffic. Social media? There is nothing viral about a directory. Print advertising? Might work until the public perception problem gets even worse. TV/Radio ads? Too much money - not happening there either.

I know some good people that own directories that have worked hard on them and invested a lot of money. You are probably a good person too Mia, but don't underestimate Google's power to change public opinion. They are naming even big directories in unnatural link warnings. This is turning directory listing buyers into people that avoid directories. Big or small, niche or general, the entire industry is going down further then it has. Unlike past cycles that weeded out directories, Google has devalued organic listings in their search engine by displaying so many paid ads, youtube videos, images and more. Unless a directory can send traffic, it does not have much else to offer anymore. As I posted before, Yelp, Yellow Pages and a few big directories are the only ones that have traffic to send.

 

I'm not going to get into an argument with you, but in my opinion your quite wrong but, that's what is great about the internet everybody is entitled to their opinion.

 

Same as stoner, I wont get in argument with you but I'll disagree with your logic. You have some very good points but your conclusions are too general.

Yelp, yellow pages, and few big directories are the only ones that have traffic to send? I know for fact that's not true cause my directories send traffic to my subscribers
Furthermore its not traffic that matters but customers. I rather get 10 hits from a website of which 1 converts than 1000 hits from a website of which none converts.