The_Contractor - 1:19 pm on Jul 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

Dayo_UK msg #:90

I have not seen any of the sites that have been hit so I can't really comment on why they have. I will give you my long-winded approach on what I would do and not do when building a niche directory. These are my opinions only!

Here are my do's and don'ts :

Do not build a niche directory on a topic that does not interest you or is built solely on high$ keywords. They are too much work to build correctly and if you are not interested in the topic they will become stale or crap, as you really don't care.

Seed the site yourself with sites you value. Do not scrape results from other directories or SE's. Set forth a clear set of guidelines for titles and descriptions and stick to them. Never let the submitter control the titles/descriptions or you end up with titles like keyword keyword keyword keyword and descriptions to match. Screams low quality. Do not let users modify listings or that is all you will spend your time on.

If you use an off-the-shelf script to maintain your directory (which you probably should), make sure you change all paths etc as to not identify yourself with that script.

Do not have one template that runs your whole site with the only thing changing is the call tags for titles, categories etc. Build the categories with at least a descriptive paragraph or so of text on the page which describes the category and the sites/listings a visitor may find in that category.

Have clear submission guidelines. Do not include sites you don't feel comfortable with whether they are paid inclusion or not.

Do not make a reciprocal link directory. It's a dead-end road imho.

Do not use all that ratings crap… the only ones who will use that are the site owners and it further identifies yourself as an automated directory whether you are or not.

Do link out without hiding behind some script/counter. You should not be afraid to link directly to any site that you have included. If you are, then that site shouldn't be in there.

Do build your site for visitors/users. If it's built for users, all the navigation, descriptive text, etc. will be in place for search engines.

Do not build for quantity, but instead for quality. I would rather have a 200 page quality directory that takes 6-months to build than a 50,000 page directory that is generated in 7-minutes with crap. Guess what, so would users…

If you are building a directory with only listings you have a tough road ahead of you to differentiate yourself from what's already been done many times before. I would build out content based upon the topic to supplement the listings.

Do not rent, sell, or buy ROS links.

Do not create a "shell" directory. By this I mean, don't create a bunch of categories that are empty. If you have nothing to put in a category, don't create it. They should be created only as needed.

Do not think of PR – ever! It will come eventually.

Do not include text that mentions PR, search engines, rankings, links, etc. unless that is the topic of your directory.

Do not build a network of related directories that are on the same topic.

Well, that's all I can think of off the top of my head. A directory is nothing more/less than a way to organize content, information, and resources. It's much like your folder structure you create on your own computer system to organize emails, documents etc. If you are one that can't organize your own information, you probably won't do very well categorizing an online directory.