People always ask how to determine if a website is worth listing in a directory or not and I have seen this question in many webmaster forums. Basically there are a few things you need to keep in mind when approving/rejecting websites.
* The website details.
I’m talking about the details that webmasters submit about their websites, such as the title, description and the category they choose. We can all agree that if the owner doesn’t have the time to write a proper title/description and choose the most appropriate category. Then its not worth our time to review it no matter how good is the web site !
* The website content.
We all know that content is king, so does the website offer any content, or is it simply an HTML page full of affiliate links and google adsense. If we find a reasonable amount of content, is it unique or simply copied from other websites. We can always search the content in google to see how many websites have it.
* The website design.
A very poor design with bad internal linking will mostly get the website rejected unless its offering some unique content/services that can’t be found elsewhere. Any design is good as long as its easy to navigate and read through, but if i’m reviewing a web design company, I would expect to see a quality design and I would even check their portfolio.
* The website loading time.
Its not a major issue but if the website is taking too long to load, then I would visit it after a few days. If the problem persist and the website is still loading very slow. I would have to reject it and might contact the owner informing him of the issue.
* The website chosen category.
If the category already has hundreds of websites listed, then there is no need to list any new sites unless its offering something new and unique. Remember that a directory is made to provide its visitors with quality websites, its not our goal to list every website on the internet!
These were the basic rules I use to determine if a website should be listed in my directory or not. I hope it will help you become a good editor and build a quality directory.
July 1st, 2007 at 5:01 am
I started a directory few days ago. I bookmarked this guide, it’s great.
July 8th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Lots of good tips here, many directory owners throw up a directory and do very little to make it unique or excel over others. The directory industry is clogged right now so you should look for ways of making yours better or it will be very hard to succeed.
Keep up the good work mate!!!
September 22nd, 2007 at 10:20 am
Good descriptions are the best, its great when webmasters submit unique descriptions for their sites aswell. Thanks for the read very interesting there are a few points i need to look in to for my sites. Thanks