What are the strongest directories?

And here we go again...

www.squidlink.com PS 4 ! Please update it Jeff.

**Now I'm starting to be very happy with squidy **

 

I'm wondering something.

On the directory rankings, are you going by the top domain, or the URL of the directory itself.

For instance, ExactSeek's categories are all listed on search.exactseek.com, like v7n directory is at http://directory.v7n.com

http://www.v7n.com - Page strength 7.5 / 10
http://directory.v7n.com Page strength 6.0 / 10

I would think it should go off the top domain, not the strength of the subdomain or folder which contains the actual directory. Just my .02

 

You may be right, but what i feel is if i have a high PR and quality domain and install a new directory, dont you think listing the homepage PS may get it wrong? Because i do have a website with PS6 and the web directory installed on it is a new one with PS3, the visitors may think my directory is a quality one seeing the homepage PS though the internal directory is not having any good PS.

Though i agree with you on the pharma, gambling sitewide links point you posted earlier.

 

I don't have any directories that are "non-top domain", in any case I believe it's the full URL that should count, and not the top domain.

 

You really got me thinking there John!

I'm not really sure about this.

Certain things will be the same between both the top domain and the subdomain or folder that contains the directory: alexa ranking and age of domain. So those factors aren't in issue.

Other factors are more difficult to figure out.

For instance, if v7n.com has 43 .edu links and directory.v7n.com has none, the .edu links would boost the page strength of v7n.com significantly, yet have no effect on the page strength of directory.v7n.com. The reality though is that having 43 .edu links pointed at your domain is going to be a big boost for your directory.

Yet I'm not sure the directory benefits fully. I mean, if you had absolutely 0 links to directory.v7n.com it would probably still be a strong directory, but it sure wouldn't deserve a page strength of 7.5.

Also I'm not sure that directory.v7n.com benefits fully from people tagging v7n.com on technorati, nor is using the pagerank of v7n.com relevant for directory.v7n.com (although I note in your case it's the same).

On the other hand, you could get around all of this just by placing a few links to the directory categories on the home page of v7n.com and calling it the directory home page. There would really be nothing sinister about this - a home page is supposed to have links to a lot of the important parts of the site. This is what exactseek.com did and why I didn't notice their directory was actually on a subdomain.

So, in short, I'm really confused. There seem to be good points for using both the main domain and also good points for using the subdomain or folder the directory is in. I'd like to know your and other people's thoughts on this in more detail...

 

It's really a toss up, in my mind. How much value is transferred from the top domain to the subdomain? Without knowing that, it's really hard to say.

 

I suppose that's what the issue boils down to. Right now though, IMHO, the transfer value is high, but I'm sure that will change over time...

Let me sleep on this...

 

Well many people consider that google sees subdomains as completely different domains... so in this case it would be better to keep them separate...

 

That's funny, because I've been told the exact opposite, whereas google sees site.com/folder the same as folder.site.com

ahhh he neverending guessing game. fun fun fun

 

Actually the directory was there...?

 

I've decided to change the way that directories on subdomains or folders are listed. I've added the following information at the beginning of the list:

"Update: There has been some debate about whether a directory located on a sub-domain or folder should use the page strength of the domain itself or the page strength of the sub-domain or folder. The issue boils down to how much value is transferred from the domain to the subdomain or folder. Obviously, only the search engines know what the answer to this is, and it likely varies over time and between search engines. However, the fact is that at least at the present time, sub-domains and folders do appear to inherit a good chunk of the main domain's value, so when a directory is on a subdomain or folder, I have chosen to list the page strength of the main domain. I also put the actual directory home page's page strength in brackets after the listing."

By making both values available, this also allows people to make their own decision as to what the appropriate page strength is, in case you don't agree with my decision.

 

I think you guys are looking at this in wrong manner. The page strenght tool basis it's information on links that point to the exact domain name being searched not the entire folder. When pulling these results yahoo does not care how many links are pointing to whatever.com nor does it consider those links in the query, it only does a search for links that are pointing directory at the specified domain.

So in this case with directory.v7n.com, the site does get credit for having links from v7n.com because yahoo has found links pointing to it from that site. It does not pass the credit of a .gov link from v7n because that site is not a .gov domain. The only way you would get that kind of credit is if some sort of redirect was in play. Therefore whatever links are pointing directory at directory.v7n.com is all that matters and is all that will be calculated in the query. Hope that makes sense.

 

Thanks for the lists, should save time submitting to sites with poor PR.

 

The idea that some .edu links to the root domain are somehow going to help people with links in category pages is sort of comical to me.

 

Very true Seiya. Thanks for your wise advice.

 

Hi Jeff,

Could you please update:

http://www.mplook.co.uk/ is now PS 3.5

http://www.webzdirectory.com/ is now PS 3.0

http://www.edom.co.uk/directory/ is now PS 2.5

http://www.spravka.co.uk/ is now PS 1.5

Thanks...

 

Hope many of them are paid directories.

thanks

 

Posted by Onlinedude:

Sorry your words not clear to me.

 

Mines only a page strength 4, boohoo!!! *tear*

 

directorydump = 4.5

nice. i must be doing something right.