What do you an individual or small company running a directory needs to do to insure they are of quality? So on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best, what do they have to do to be at least a "7" in your opinion?
As per my opinion if you are running directory for your business then you first need to check the visibility of your website. The visibility on internet will be count you to build reputed online directory. The best practice is that make directory for search engine. You directory must be created by using all techniques which needed for making your directory search engine friendly. Search engines are the one of the source which may help you to promote it in front of world wide users.
First, welcome mddirectory Second, I could not disagree more. There was a time when "search engine friendly" was important, but now google and bing have no problem indexing sites. You really said absolutely nothing about the importance of the directory being useful to visitors, and that really is the best way to make a site popular with search engines as well.
They must edit. so that they set a standard of quality for content. so that the content contained within their directory is "unique". so that they reduce or eliminate spam altogether (99% of directory owners who think they are doing this, ARE NOT!) so that their content is useful to an end user. so that the listings follow a format of perspective, categorisation and depth. Without editing, the directory can have the best design, the best intentions and even good content, but it will never be considered quality because it is not doing enough to differentiate itself from every other directory out there. A directory, in order to be called a directory of any calibre, MUST EDIT. Any other argument pales in comparison, and always has. @mddirectory: People that are employing "best practice to make directory for search engine", are not making a directory at all, they are making a link farm. These are not wanted and not considered quality at all. They are junk. Always have been.
Silencer is totally right. The single purpose of a web directory is to edit and categorize websites. How can this be accomplished when those submitting sites control the content that appears on the directory? +1 coming to you Silencer I tip my hat to vmoptions.com which offers two unique descriptions for every listing. There's no way they are minor edits either because of the other listings I see for some of the same businesses that are listed in other directories. I'm not sure if the hard work is worth the rewards, but it is what sets one directory apart from another.
Similar to what the OP said, I think that working to be more visible to a search engine is not the most important thing when it comes to building up a good directory. This is in no way the same as creating a blog or affiliate website for example. Your primary function, just as several have mentioned here is to create a good list of websites and to do so in a well organized way. When you have fulfilled the main goal of your site, then people will greatly appreciate it. When people discover that your site is a useful tool for them, they will automatically share it with others. Catering to Google's arbitrary algorithms is not the only way to make your site popular. If fact, it is just about the worst way in many cases. It is true that you should give it some consideration, such as not having duplicate content. But if you do a proper job and work to build a quality site then most of the SEO stuff will get taken care of along the way anyhow. But by no means should your primary concern be to use SEO methods to build a castle in the sand or you will end up in the sandbox. Other than that I would say that directories need to keep close track on the descriptions being posted and make sure that it is not spammed on 100 other directories. You have to realize that the people who are posting links to your directory are likely to post the same content to other directories. In my experience, they are doing it for the back-links and the spammers are not going to worry much about rewriting the same post 100 different ways when they do so. If the directory owner sees that it is duplicate content then they need to rewrite the content and make it unique. I think this will take plenty of attention and effort, but it will definitely be well worth it in the end because when you go the extra mile and do what the other guy won't, you will be the one who sees much better results in the end.
Much has been discussed here. One important fact that most neglect is "unique description". Most people approve with junk content. If a directory does not have unique content, what difference does it make? Typically if we go to any directory, copy paste the description in Google, you will see tons of copies thus making the description, nothing but junk.
This is exactly what I would say. Duplicate content = junk and you really have to keep track of what people are posting to YOUR directory. You have to remember that are the owner of the site and totally responsible for what gets posted there, even if others are writing the material that is being submitted. People who post to your directory are visitors who will most likely not return often if ever at all. You have to take charge and not neglect your responsibility to keep the content unique--even if you have to check and rewrite every piece of material yourself.
Really Good info. I would like to add that sometimes making directories search engine friendly is a priority with certain niches. With mine being an artist directory, I do it because most music/band websites are not search engine friendly at all .e.g while a artist maybe a world class music producer, if his/her site is titled official page of "name" and no descriptions or leading text... it does very little for search engines.