I think the top hits pages are a really cool feature of PHPLD's, if they are active they help with spidering and give me an idea about which listings are pulling in the most traffic. this link: http://www.biz-dir.co.uk/detail/link-179.html Has had naturally had 89 clicks and has probably pulled in a good couple of hundred visitors into my directory, I know they probably won't convert but the traffic is nice. Admittedly about 10 of the sites on there are my own clients but I like to keep the other ten open because of the reasons mentioned at the top. I have set it in my control panel so that any 1 IP can only have a click counted once every 24 hours, however I still get the feeling that I am being gamed sometimes and I don't blame the people for doing it one bit, I too have tried to click myself onto a top hits page before. But if I bust someone blatantly I zero them, the way I bust them is I look at the search engine statistics and what phrases people are finding me on and I check to see if the page ranks for something generic that pulls traffic. I think some people could be getting smarter though, I had this one submit a couple of weeks ago and it pulled 35 clicks in two weeks and made it onto the top hits page, I check Google and it ranks 2nd page (UK Only) for a popular phrase, I check my statistics and I am getting traffic on this popular two word phrase, so everything checks out and I am thinking this guy has earnt his spot, however in the last week it has only had 4 clicks, the page still ranks where it did before and I think that is quite a sudden drop in traffic. Who thinks this guy has cheated? Does the 1 click per IP per 24 hours work? Is the 1 click per IP per 24 hours gameable? Anyone know away to ensure no cheating?
I think that many are experiencing the same problem. I know that by getting in early on a new directory, it's possible to get onto the top hits page from the initial traffic a directory receives at launch - there is a curiosity factor there. Depending on th edirectory, I might buy a featured listing for this reason alone. Many are curious about featured listings in new directories. But as far as being gamed, I'm sure it goes on. I see certain listings in several directories that are on the top hits page that I'm doubtful of (the subject just isn't that popular and the directories don't rank for any related terms). I've even considered nofollowing the page to discourage this. There was a time not long ago where I had a problem with a mouse button sticking and to explain my problem to someone I clicked their listing in a directory which had zero clicks and it registered 20+ clicks the first time and an additional 30 something clicks the next.
I have 100 websites listed on the top hits page. That somewhat reduces the value of making it to the page, so hopefully reduces the spamming.
What about getting top XX websites and then randomize it? Think battle and cheating should stop a lot.