What's the future of these directories? Looks like a new directory is born every day!

Wheat do you guys think about the future of directories? It looks like daily 100's directories are born? Will they have same importance future?

 

Certainly some will create quality resources over time, while others will not be adequately maintained, so imho it will be the ones that are innovative and consistent in their efforts to improve that are successful.

 

Just like any other internet site whose genre has been saturated. dvduval has hit the nail on the head, some will succeed some will fail. It's a matter of how well maintained and how passionate a site owner is about creating a quality resource for both visitors and seo'ers.

 

just create a nice directory and it will go just as you create a good working website. otherwise everything is useless.

 

The passion level of the owner/administrator would have to be extraordinarily high to sustain momentum for a directory. I'd bet against 99.99999% of them lasting two years.

 

It's not quite that bad (yet), but I think the figure is quite high, compared with other types of website. I think what directories are likely to suffer from more than any other kind of site is a lack of purpose. Maybe people start them thinking it'll be an easy way to make money, and lose interest once it becomes clear that it's not as simple as all that.

So the question arises, what are the pointers early on that suggest a directory is going to be a keeper? The number of listings isn't necessarily a good guide, since an owner could start off fired with enthusiasm (or a database of sites taken from elsewhere).

My first suggestion: effective filtering of spam submissions. Can anyone suggest any other signs that predict a long-lived directory?

 

I agree with Obelia, effective spam filtering will increase the life of a directory,
spamming is the worst enemy to keep a clean updated directory.
Another problem is the quality of the script in use, most directory scripts are buggy and of poor quality.

 

Blogs and directories are both going through a "its cool to have one" fad and as such will suffer the same growth cycle. The good and well maintained sites will survive and prosper, whilst the crap will end up in the garbage. The key is to sort the quality from the sludge.

I think any directory owner that does not take the time to customise a default template for their directory is clearly not committed and will not stick around, especially if their growth is small. These sites are easy to spot and are to be blunt ugly.

I also agree that anyone not committed to continuous improvement and fighting the spam submissions is going to produce a crummy resource. This will cause a lack of interest, and the site will also fade into the abyss.

So over time a large percentage of directories will disappear, however the cream will rise to the top and remain.

 

Use a script with a 1 click ban button in the admin panel. Let them spam all they want, and once a site has been banned, it cannot be submitted again. Eventually the spammers visiting your directory will figure it out and leave.

 

I would like to see directories oriented to specific categories, where the owner will pick the links and decide what's really worth and what's not, the way a good magazine works.
Then those directories will be worth visiting.

 

How does a SEO friendly medical directory where each submitted site was screened for admission then personally reviewed and rated by medical professionals?

This one will be just that as soon as the rating & review mods are installed & tested . Medi-Smart Medical Directory - at medi-smart(DOT)com/directory

(Forum won't let me link yet *lol*)

 

same goes for blogs, a new blog is created every 5 seconds or so. Only those who keep working hard on them making sure the content is valuable gets to the top.

As I'm maintaining my own web directory, I can tell it's pretty hard to get it running with all of the already existing webdirectory but I'm able to handle it.

I'll be fully customizing my script and might be even thinking about writing my own as PHPLD v2.0 is quite poorly written and commented (it's my opinion0 and is missing many options I think would be really valuable for a web directory administrator such as why people are denied (email feature), give better advantages to those who reciprocal, statistics about the webdirectory and so on.

It's hard for web directories to work because people are generally looking for websites, not place were you find websites.

You have to think about why you'd get to a directory. If I know there's a directory that list the latest websites about basketball events, I might consider getting there, but if there's a website that list them all, I'd rather go there.

Webdirectory are, in my opinion, used as simply ways to get reached by SE, nothing else. Sometime you'll get people to come to your directory, but the directory you administer will have to be rather "spam and marketing free" otherwise people won't come again.

 

if you want to survive in the directory arena ... make sure you directory is more than just a canned script which just builds links to sites. Does link fram mean anything to you? Seriously consider building a nice niche site with many services/products for that niche. If you are just planning on throwing up a general directory with no supporting content - you will find yoursefl at the bottom of the heap.

 

Very well put and I agree 100%.

It's really unfair to group all the new directories together and say they are trash, because I have seen my fair share of new 'quality' directories.

 

Seems like everyone more or less agrees.

Successful directories are/have to be:
1) niche
2) continuously maintained & improved
3) spam free

Otherwise, don't bother.

 

don't forget supporting content ... like articles, news, classifieds,forums etc ... a stand alone directory is worthless even if well maintained.. Consider building a vertical portal for your niche and have a directory as one of the services available

 

Directories by its nature are very hard to maintain. Even worse with free directories. Directory owner like me who got 3 directories, have to dedicate atleast 1 hour per day to maintain and review all the submission. Thats the minimum, when the directory prospers and gets more traffic, the submission rate also increases. This is the time where the directory owner is tested and eventually will decide the fate of directory. Also, other thing that is important for the directories, the marketing and link building. The directory owners like any other site owners have to build links for the directory as it is the main criteria for the success of directory. The higher the PR, more is the traffic into directort and more it is successfull.

One thing is for sure, one who has passion, dedication and discipline will be a successfull directory owner.

My directories: Index Rated Web Directory -PR4, Seo Care Directory - PR4, Agile List Directory - To be Launched.

Regards,

Admans.