If a website owner submits a site with the domain: (Just an example) ie. audiotools.com Clearly, the name of the site has to be "Audio Tools"; however, you already have a listing in your directory with anchor text for "Audio Tools" in the same category OR you have the site audiotools.net in the category with the site name "Audio Tools". What would you do? Change the Listing of the previous submitted site? Favor the .com as the site name? Add keywords to make each unique? Now with all these extensions available, they can be multiple sites like audiotools.net/.org/.ws/.us/.info/.biz that have the exact same "site name" , etc. How do you distinguish them?
I don't think it's a problem for directory owners, it shall be a problem for website owners. My directory will accept any websites only if they can pass the submission and meet the submission guidelines.
I would also check to see what the actual title of the website is, i.e. the <title> tag. This can be considered the official title of the site regardles of what the domain name is.
Personally I don't think directory needs to enforce unique titles for listings as a policy. Phone book has a list of people with the same name. If it's a script not the policy that enforces such thing, you can tweak the script or manually enter the duplicate title as an0n suggested.
I edit most titles submitted to my sites as they are usually seo keywords and not the name of the site. In your example I would try and identify if they have different niche markets within the "audio tools" sector and if a new category could be created. I'd also make it very clear in the description what the relative merits of both sites are. And have no qualms about revisiting an existing listing. A page full of "audio tools" serves nobody.
Thats very true. It is the submitter who should check the page they are submitting to, too make sure there are no duplicate keywords or titles.
A bit extreme, something submitters are not going to do. NRLMedia, Depending on the company name of the site, the site title and other info such as whois, copyright statement on the site, listed contact info, you should be able to create a suitable site title. Many companies use vanity domains when creating an online presence so you could include the actual company name listed on the site to create a title; NRLMedia Audio Tools. Some companies may use the ".com" as part of their online brand; Audio Tools.com or AudioTools.com without the space. Using your example there could be a few variations for the site title: Audio Tools.com AudiTools.com Audio Tools AudioTools NRLMedia Audio Tools The ".com" added to the title will not affect how search engines see the words audio and tools or AudioTools. Your descriptions can distinguish the difference between sites using similar titles, such as adding some geographical info to the listing. Or if the site is geo specific (sells/services small area), you could list it in a Regional category.