Adding Content to Directories

Directory owners who solely rely on unedited submissions for each category's SEO are only short-changing the sites listed and are unlikely to see many non-submitting visitors coming in from the search engines.

IMHO this about using extra content as a way to help with SEO and topical indexing rather than recreating Wikipedia. On my first directory, a single mention for a term in a category description vaulted that page into the top 5 of the SERPs (it's #3 right now). It was one of those happy accidents - apparently it's a topic not well represented on the web. That page was seeing traffic for that term and a few others before I even had a listing in place.

I agree, the vast majority of the extra content being used on directories is useless fluff. Using Wikipedia, article directories and PLR content for category descriptions along with RSS feeds for news is useless - posting duplicate content is a waste of time on any site. Yet, that's exactly what most folks are doing when searching for "directory content".

 

Unless your directory is an authority niche directory or an extremely rich general directory (dmoz, botw,yahoo,...), nobody will come to it to search for sites. So you end up with a directory to list sites... (only for submitters). Nothing wrong with that as long as you admit it.
However in this case what you are calling "useless info" is the least a directory can do to provide an added value.

 

While I think listings (including it's title and description) make the most important content in a directory, its sometimes advantageous to have something else to "retain" visitors for awhile longer...

In one of his speeches, Matt Cutts had mentioned something called "Value-add" for directories and added that directories that actually go out looking for quality websites add value to itself than those that just sit idly waiting for submitters.

I had considered a blog before and I am happy for those who are able to keep their directory blogs updated but
many good directories do not update their blogs (unfortunately) & I don't think this is desirable when it comes to visitor satisfaction and business credibility.

 

I believe that the next stage in the evolution of directories is for directories to offer content and latest news, the same way Yahoo! evolved to the stage they are now. Directories do not have to be extensive as Yahoo! however, they can still remain in the same format and provide additional and useful content related to the categories they are offering. The key now is how to attract visitors to directories and actually use them for that purpose, instead of simply visiting a directory, submit a listing, and then blast off without exploring further?

 

Not true. People find their way to our directory via SE's and indexed listings. Other's actually search the site. This is fairly easy to track via the referrals shown in our logs and those that list with us.

 

They come from search engines is not the same as they come to your directory to search for sites. They may use your search feature if they actually find nothing in the page they landed in.

 

Like I said, they do both. Referrals do not lie.

 

I don't think the choice matters all that much for ranking. If you decide to use a new directory, just be sure to integrate it into the linking pattern of your site - so you are circulating some PR. It's pages that have PR, not entire directories.

 

Just did that blog post about how to write a *good* description. I see a lot of submissions where the submitter is lucky we arent into simply clicking "accept" on whatever they shipped. I do try to make sure there are good usable keywords in there... cause the SEs do look.

See... Tips: Submitted Descriptions
http://www.botwblog.org/submissions-tip-writing-good-descriptions/

 

Very nice topic swedal and excellent posts and… thanks God forum spammers have no idea what the hell all these people are talking about or we would have 20 advices to go to directory critic.

To answer you question swedal, everything goes when it comes to bring crowd to directory site. We tried to create content from the beginning by using Yahoo as beckon and even got listed by DMOZ in Portals Category and since then we’re trying to give to public more than just place to submit their links but something they may find useful as well.

News, stock, humor, music, tools, blog, forum etc. will find it user if you care enough to offer some but what we should never forget, is our main intent, our directory. No gimmick in the World will replace quality of good titles and descriptions and that is what we all should aim at.



fastreplies

 

@robjones nice post on descriptions - I just read it and loved it.

@fastreplies thanks we have been trying to get some good posts going here again. Hopefully it allow everyone to exchange some ideas on things that can be done to make improvements to directories and the industry going forward.