Hi everyone, It looks like I am going to go ahead and use In-Portal for my new Links.com directory. Initially, the directory will be listing high quality entertainment links (video, TV, movies, games), etc. Over time, I will expand the directory to include more categories, if the directory exhibits any reasonable visitor retention. These are some of the things I intend to do, in order to help maintain a high quality directory. I would appreciate any additional advice: 1) All entries are manually accepted and edited. Each site entry will have a least a fifty word description and will have high quality content. 2) Registered members will be able to rate and review entries. All reviews will be manually edited. 3) The homepage will list: a) Featured sites b) Most Popular c) Highest Rated d) New Sites 4) The homepage will have a news section that will be updated at least three times a week. 5) All entries will follow Google rules for directories including No Follow for paid entries, if there are any. There will be no requirements in order to get listed other than being a high quality site. 6) Anti-spam/Anti-bot features to minimize spam content. I am thinking about a forum for visitor interaction, but monitoring a forum may be more work than its worth, so I would appreciate comments on this. I would appreciate any comments on other Do's and Don'ts for building a new high quality directory. Thanks. Rich
Rule 5 sounds stupid to me. Just because they pay for a link rather than get it for free shouldn't make a difference. If you charge a fee to review a website that is seen as acceptable, rather than selling PR.
Hi, The primary purpose of abiding by Google's Guidelines is to ensure that the SERP of the site is not jeopardized. While I am hoping that good word-of-mouth will help attract new visitors and retain them, Google is still a very valuable source for traffic. Links.com does very well with the appropriate SEO and visitor traffic, so understanding and conforming to Google guidelines is important to the development of the site. I hope this clarifies. Rich
In 3 or 4 years, customers may be willing to pay a fee for a "nofollow" listing. That is, if you manage somehow to become one of the top sites (of the tens of thousands). That's a huge if in my opinion, especially when other sites have huge head starts. Forums are really hard to get to the point where they are sustainable. I wouldn't recommend it.
Hi, Thanks for the comments and recommendations. I am lucky that Links.com starts off with with very good organic and Google traffic in this niche. Where I am having trouble is getting some sort of retention and repeat visits. I am not sure this is the right path, but I think it is worth a try. I am not so much looking for revenue as I am looking for repeat traffic. Building traffic is the highest priority for me, and this requires quality content as well as working within Google guidelines. Thanks for the recommendation regarding forums. I will certainly give it a lot of thought before I implement it. Thanks again for your recommendations and insights. Rich
Well the good ole days of having "inner PR" to offer any website (whether quality or not) seems over with so in the end it dont matter what google wants and dont want.. Your focus should be on your index that will someday grow to become a search engine or more. Many will question whether submitting to a directory that cant offer inner PR is worth the time... I suppose that you will have to ask that question to those that are sitting in the top 10 spots for their keyword rich titles if it was worth the time submitting to directories compared to the PPC campaigns that are growing more expensive every day with no guarantees of a sale or traffic. Actually im waiting for thier stock report today to see if they have been reduced again as they where at $800+ per share and now only worth $400+ thx malcolm
It's only toolbar PR that's missing from many directory's inner pages. They may be passing PR to listings, it just isn't showing on the toolbar to deter link buyers away. Besides, those directories with plenty unique content on the inner pages have no problem retaining PR. Articles and plenty listed sites do a great job Long live content
Hi there Malcom, Google's guidelines are important since they do, on the whole, play fair, and do give all sites fair play if the sites stay within guidelines. With the right content I have received excellent SERP for active keywords. But content is king, and I have to make sure that the content in the directory is very high quality. I also think that Google is now using traffic figures within its algorithms, which means that repeat visitors will also support good rankings. It is simply a confirmation that the content is good. As for Google's price. The whole stock market is just a casino where people are trading stock as webmasters trade links. Each player is looking for someone who might pay more for the stock than they just purchased it for. And when they run out of buyers, the stock drops. It has very little to do with the business or business model. If it did, Google would be probably trading at $200 or even less. Google is an advertising platform - no more, no less, and the business can crumble very quickly if better alternatives become available. It is a much more vulnerable business than, let's say MS, which owns the desktop operating system platform as well as the Office software. Rich
Whether they pass juice or not is beyond me as that little green bar is either transparent or solid white in most directories that i visit. When submitting to a directory i only worry whether that page is 1. indexed and 2. amount of links on the page where my link will reside. While we can debate the PR issue till we are both blue in the face, i have already seen those sites that submit to directories are usually within the top 10 search results and most are paid reviews... so whatever works But on a real note.... id worry about trying to get indexed by http://searchme.com/ as its tomorrows superior search engine thx malcolm
That's two excellent criteria for a category in particular, amongst many more on the directory as a whole. I signed up for the BETA there. It looks great although is very inaccurate atm.
searchme will not get going and I don't like it... To much bandwidth to use it and not good for lower end internet users such as dial-up and lites You should check out the browser spacetime.com just the same as searchme but waaaay better
Thanks for that. I really needed the laugh today. IMHO, Google is rarely fair, especially when it comes to directories.
nice domain name, to bad your using that script I would suggest using phpld, and the key to a quality link directory, is only accepting quality sites... It doesn't matter if they are paid links or not, I have a Quality Link Directory and we accept paid links, it helps pay for hosting and the scripts. Google isn't going to ban my directory because we allow paid links.. To detour this is just giving away money in my opinion... and as far as inner pages not showing Page Rank, I'm not sure what you all are smoking, but I see tons and tons of directories with inner page PR... Just one example
That is a load of BS, gooogle plays for their own profit, period! I will be interested to follow your project and see how the no follow thing goes, you will have your directory on a premuim domain so that might help?
Hi, I've experimented with Google queries on my domain of interests (entertainment) and directories and sites with good content all appear in reasonable order. I realize that many directory owners feel that Google is being unfair, but let's be reasonable. Google is trying to run a business, and they want the best content appearing at the top of the SERP. Most directories just do not justify top rankings. Rich
H, Thanks for the comments. I will probably accept paid submissions as featured links as long as the site has high quality content. I do not want to compromise the user experience for a few dollars. I believe that Google's guidelines suggest that paid links should be acknowledge as such - e.g. with nofollow or some other indication as Google ads have. I looked at PHPLD. For the price I think it has excellent value. But with all of the customization and mods I would need, I decided to go with In-Portal. In-Portal has many integrated features that are well worth the extra cost for me. Plus, the support is superb and local. If I am going to be successful with this effort, I will need this kind of technical support. I am not sure about the Inner Page comment. I think it is probably directed to another message. Thanks again for your suggestions. Rich
For me, quality will be pretty obvious. If I get visitors returning to my website, or if I hear of good word of mouth, I know that I have succeeded. If my traffic gets stuck in the mud then I know I have to find better content. I think visitors are the best judge of quality and it is my judge to find it and deliver it. Rich
Totally agree. Google plays for its own profit. In this case, our goals are aligned. Google, by virtue of its mission, must continue to present high quality sites in its search engine rankings. This keeps visitors coming back to its engine. Google also wants to find publishers who serve as a good platform for Google's advertisers. This is exactly what I want to do. Provide high quality content and a good platform for advertising monetization. If I cannot do it, then I have to go back to the drawing board. Rich
Best damn post i've read in aaaaages! rep'd @richrf - great domain name. all the best to your endeavour.