Should I remove the links that I have in my database (over 6000)? Or should I keep them and keep accepting more? What are your thoughts?
If they are free links you are free to do as you please... If they are paid links I'd advise against it...
The thing is when I first started a directory was for fun and accepted everyone. Yes they are all free links with only around 100+ linking back.
if it was free directory, then you can go ahead. but if paid, lol people will jump on you as soon they find out u have removed their paid link.
Some webmasters will still be pissed if you remove them even if they were free reviews. But at the end of the day it's your directory.
Do you mean your database is too large to accept submissions? if not, there is no reason to remove quality submissions.
Why do you want to remove them? Unless those sites are not working or you only want paid listings, it doesn't makes any sense.
if free, you can remove it. if paid then that would be a not so nice thing to do. just upgrade your hosting. but i suggest you delete links that are not working.
No offense but read all his posts. When he started the directory he accepted everything that was submitted, porn, gambling drugs, viagra, etc....
I am strongly against removing any links after being accepted into the directory. You may move the listing with in the directory index but should not remove the link completely.
First, go ahead and remove them if you have no respect for other's work, I mean.. I lost some time to submit to your directory and this is how you appreciate this? Do those listings stay on your back and are too heavy? I think that all listings with quality description and titles should stay and remove the spammy ones. Second, you must understand that listings in a directory, are your content, remove them and Google will remove you soon as they hate white pages, and again, remove only the repeating keywords titles and descriptions P.S. I don't think I ever submitted to your directory but you get the idea...
Are they dead links? Are they low quality, or do they include keywords you want to avoid? Be aware that if you remove free listings you will annoy all the people who took the time to submit, and they will not be back. Some of the people who start off making free submissions will later on be in a position to upgrade to featured listings. The other thing is, as shutzu points out, these listings are your content and without them all you have is empty pages. Nobody would want to pay to submit to a directory with no content. However, by all means delete those links that are dead, or no longer meet your guidelines. For instance, if you want to clean things up you could just run a query to get rid of all the regular links with "viagra" in the title or description.
Hello... Free or Paid... If i accepted it and the link is still valid then i wont remove unless the quality is very poor and/or your site has been de-indexed or changed... thx malcolm
My advice: If you want to turn your directory into a quality link directory as opposed to a free for fall then some steps would be required. This can be a long manual process... Keep the ones linking back to you - optional but if they are linking to you and took the time to fill in a proper submission they deserve to keep their listing. Next, remove any listings that are not the type of site that you want in your directory (obviously depends what type of directory you are going for). After that, remove any sites that are no longer valid - depends if you want to check over a 24 hr period or longer - 3 strikes rule and they are removed (if site isn't up after 3 checks... could be an automated task). After that - maybe you could email the remaining webmasters advising them of the change in nature of the directory status... perhaps you are introducing a paid option? or listing reciprocal links only if not paying for a 1 way listing? At the end of the day, it is your directory and your decision what to do. However, if you do introduce a paid listing then you will increase the responsibility on yourself to maintain it and improve the quality (and effectiveness of being listed there etc). Good luck whatever you do with it.