The future of directrories

Maybe SBD Directory Software's the exception - there's currently versions of this being provided for free. It'll build a pretty darn good directory But it's relatively new and thus not used as much as say, a free copy of PHPLD or eSyndicat, or in the same spammy ways as you sometimes see these scripts. It also has a lot more functionality than the free copies of the other scripts.

Everything else you said swedal is spot on. It's about time directory owners stopped feeling sorry for themselves and got back to it. Creating directories with quality listings certainly takes more time, but doesn't it feel more right anyway? As an industry we should have seen it coming. Google aren't going to ban you unless you do some wrong - like being a link farm and listing bad websites. We knew that before Google took action, and we know it even more-so now.

 

I'm not sure if you needed two posts to say that afghan. You can go back and edit previous posts if you have missed something.

Speaking of traffic exchange programs, if you're interested I've recently started one for directories (link in sig). It works by users putting a link on their 'submission received' page, which if clicked on redirects to another directory. I personally think ideas like this is what's going to get directories back on their feet, if we aren't already there

 

I think quite narrow niche directories may become more the norm, rather than general directories that are 99% of the time not much use to a searcher. A directory should be useful to a searcher, then it becomes useful to a subscriber. Hopefully this will eventually become common knowledge. So if for example you have a fantastic collection of thousands sites that offers information about link building, then you can become THE resource for link building - more useful than Google for this. Google will want a slice of this action, and will promote the site high so that you use Google to find the directory to find all the related resources. But then again, maybe not...

 

Don't just make a directory for selling links but also make it a resource for users to get some advantage. Cause google hate selling links. Cause links are the major source of ranking high in search engines.

 

Seriously now, how many people do you think actually look into directories to find websites, versus just Googling what they are looking for?

Case in point: Yahoo is clearly a premium directory, full of well-categorized websites. Yet I can't recall personally ever going to the Yahoo directory to look for a website.

 

Lots of people use directories because all they need is to check and get results in first 5 pages compare to Google’s 100,000,000 whereas first 5 pages nothing but SEO spam.



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You should have posted the solutions in your blog also instead of posting it in PHPLD forums alone..

We should not depend on Google .. I strongly feel directories should be independent of Google..

 

I'm not giving up on the directories industry yet. In fact I do believe that directories still has and will have an important role to play, both for search engines and visitors alike. Its just a matter of how you present your directory that counts.

 

You said it.

All I can add to that is; how well you maintain your directory and level of your Editorial Integrity.



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Like it or not, Google controls a lot of traffic on the internet. You can have a perfect website/directory but without traffic no one's going to see it. It's not the only search engine to be concerned with though, Bing & Yahoo also control a lot - it just so happens that we were talking about Google.

If you want a range of certain things on one topic directories can be extremely useful. Search engines aren't very good for this. Hotscripts is a good example of a niche directory that achieves this. If I'm looking for a PHP script I go there - not Google, because there's a huge range. It doesn't depend on silly little things like how many backlinks the website has, the title or keywords on the website, etc. It lists by type of script and that is extremely useful.

Google's nice if you want to find something on the web that's popular, and you only want to find one website. If you're wanting to find a few it's harder without wading through tonnes of results. And even then, just because something's more popular (in terms of link popularity) doesn't make it better. This is an area where directories can be useful. As JonRhodesUK said niche directories might be more useful than general ones in this sense. But only if they avoid spam

 

I certainly agree with you that Niche directories is an area where we need to concentrate upon instead of General Directories..

 

It's an area where there are clear advantages. That's not to say general directories can't succeed though.

 

When you’re saying General Directories, are you talking dead on arrival or well establish directories?



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You cant be serious about that comment. lol

 

I am serious as I can be.

Based on search data we're getting, I tried Google search and yes you get the answers but the one that people are getting and click on from our directory normally on page 1 or 2, in Google… lets just say, it took me 11 pages to find the same subject they clicked using our search.

And you wanna know what was it?
Link to our directory where that site was listed and not that site by itself.
I would guess that site never hit first 10,000,000 in Google

As to how many people are using directories for data,
lets just say, we limited searches from the same IP to 5 per 24 hours



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this example that you are talking about... what keyword are you searching for?

 

Oh Man.... we'd run this test more than 1 year ago, so...
sorry, but I don't remember the keywords we have chosen then

If you have time, then you can run the same test and see the results



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hey guys i was just going through the thread

sorry , if this is a stupid question...

what is the problem..?? means is google punishing directories or what is it..?? plz rply..

 

If you ask me.... the answer is: not enough
Google should start banning directories that fail to pass "Hydraulic Test"
http://info.vilesilencer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7527



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It may be a little challangin but not impossible.