After reading how the big G is dropping PR from many well known directories I'm a little concerned as I've just bought PHPLD for mine and would at least like to break even I was wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to not come across as a 'pure directory'. The phpld program has the ability to publish articles, so I'm planning to write some relating to the particular categories so as to have some interesting content which would appeal to visitors in the hope of not being classed as a 'pure directory' and actually have some good content, but as it's main purpose is being a directory, I'm wondering if this would help me avoid the handicap somewhat.
You cannot disguise a directory, the categories are present search box is present and you can't remove those as their vital to the whole functionality and service. Only one way to do this, and that's a complete redesign - but you will still have to display a way of searching and the categories. See can't be done. As soon as people arrive at your site, they will know it's a directory. I see your thinking, but believe me I've tried to think of how to do this and the only way would be so expensive, well it's not possible for webmasters to do. You need an insane budget to do this eg: $10'000 + I'd say, and even then it will still look directoryish. No it can't be done with a stand-alone directory, you would have to build around the directory, then remove it or hide it, but then you lose your service. Even Yahoo hasn't removed their directory, they just hid it. Too valuable.
Do understand that PR doesn't mean that much. Its simply a bunch of green pixels that people drive them selves crazy about. I mean, I care about my PR, and recently I dropped from a PR3 to a PR2 but its not like I took a beating... Make your directory the best it can be and don't stress over your PR ranking, just try and concentrate on the traffic you receive, cause thats where it really counts!
That's good advice, should not let Google PR take over your life. Blogs can look weird on websites and don't always work well. Create a blog by all means, but use it to sell yourself only. Don't have a 'content' blog - it won't work. You gotta be careful with content on a directory, it's very easy to get it wrong, and then it can mess a website up. Be careful.
make a directory with uniquely written site descriptions and dont worry that its a directory google will penalise you (mostly) for a directory of poor quality not a directory per se unique articles will help too
It's not just directory, google dropped ranking of many sites, I don't think google will have problem with a directory that does not involve in selling and buying links.
I am not sure if this will help, but I have a PHPLD directory, and if you set the links to No Follow, could that help? It is just a thought. Mine is currently pr2 with about 80 links (go me) and without no follow, so I dont think I have been penalized yet. Josh
The answers no one appears to be giving you is to not do what those who were penalized appeared to do. (Note the word appeared as Google never has explicitly explained what the issues were.) Do not sell sitewide footer links. Only accept links from quality websites, even if they are willing to pay for them. Keep your categories on topic. Best to use unique ones rather than a dump. Use the category descriptions. Get a unique or little-used template - do not use the default. Do not advertise based on PR. That should get you started and you'll learn as you go. Take a look around at other directories. See what you think doesn't work when evaluating a directory as a submitter. Take what you think is good and build upon it rather than simply copy what has been done.
The reason gooogle dislikes directories is because 10,000 people started 10,000,000 crappy directories.