What are the good ways to rank (sort) the websites which are already in the directory? Pagerank is not a reliable parameter for me. Amount of incoming clicks is also easily manipulatable. Maybe Alexa rating? But actually I don't want to depend on external services. Any ideas guys? PS: amount of visitors/day is a good factor, but how to obtain it? A banner with javascript on the client side?
You say RANK - exactly would do you mean by this. Will it be a general directory or directory of directories?
I hate to be the cranky one here, but this question has been asked a number of times before and there has been some great information exchange in those earlier threads. For the most part the choices are alphabetical, first in first listed, last in first listed, PR, Alexa, or an internal editor-based rank.
vicdigi: under rank I mean how to sort entries, those with more value go to top, lower - bottom. I was talking about a directory of sites. In this case a niche one, but could be general too. YMC: really sorry if I opened an unnecessary thread. I'll search for other older talks and read them. Anyway, let me please answer here. by alphabet: this is a good choice if you don't want to mess with ranking at all. Very loyal to submitters, because they cannot claim you in their low positioning. by submission time: a blog-like, kind of live method. Disadvantages are: a valuable resource may be lost somewhere deep in the links forest. The oldest/newest link may get maximum/minimum referrers (depending on the kind of sorting) by PR: to record PR-value on the time of submission or periodically check it with your own script? First - is not actual and up to date as PR changes. Second - as I know there is no standard API from G to check PR, so all unofficial methods to do this are not reliable. G will most probably close this hole for webmasters sooner or later and only show PR in the G toolbar. Aside from this problem, checking PRs for a huge directory is a very resource-consuming thing. Another concern, if there are say 20 sites in the same category of the same PR, how to sort them then? by Alexa: This is the best so far method from all discussed. A-la let visitors to decide what's the best for them and has more value by counting amount of visitors for each site. Does Alexa provide an API to request this info? Could be a very nice option. by Editor: this is hell of a job for a big directory. And also difficult to rank sites relatively to another site, as the editor must know items in the whole category very well. Also this is a bit non-democratic. What if the editor is mad and his ranking make no sense?
First and foremost - if it is a directory of sites then I do not see the benefit to any visitor to show PR or Alexa unless it is a webmaster . If I submit to a directory I expect to be added in the position I could see where I was submitting to. If it was a featured link then above all standard listings, if on the 1st category page then in the appropriate position after the rest of the submitters. This would be fair but it really depends on what site you are trying to created and what websites you would like submitted.
Why not choose a sorting option you feel would be beneficial to those who may actually use your directory.
I guess there is no good way to sort the listings. I was planning to make a vote system for the listings, but then it can be manipulated to. Hits are already manipulated, i have seen that happen, people usually do this to get in the most hits page.
Yep, one of the most abused directory features. What a difference it makes when you remove the top hits page from your navigation.
The PR Snatchers always click to get on the higher PR page. I nofollowed mine, and sorted all links by hits.
I think when they are sorted by hits the one with more hits gets keeping more hits. It would be nice if there was an easy way to change the sorting according to hits, alexa, pr, submission date and alphabet; weekly from the admin. So it is fair that everyone has a chance to stay at the top for a while.