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A new SEO directory is in the process of being built. This one is different and better than those that have come before it. It features a top notch prolevel design and operation. It is also affiliate and self promotion free. It looks to be a true community service project and learning site for the author.
I've always be apprehensive about discussing new SEO directories because we've seen so many come and go. Some end up as cluttered affiliate sites within a few months of launch - some end up with suspect listings (eg: self promotion city) - and others are never kept up to date.
We not affiliated with the site or the author - I just think it is time for such a quality resource to get some air time.
The new directory is now accepting submissions for an official launch within a few months.
[seoconsultants.com...]
Over in the UK SEO is really taking a serious pasting as a serious occupation, so to have something that has an element of self-regulation is a good thing. At least now if someone kicks off in a discussion forum we will have somewhere to send them.
Question 2 - for everyone else - how many of you have filled out the survey to get onto the site?
- used to be okedokeseo - until May 12.
To see how many total members there are, just click the search button without specifying any criteria. The reason you get 15 results for SEO is due to the fact that those 15 members utilized the term SEO somewhere within their profile.
Thanks Jeremy! I was actually right there when you were making your changes and posted them immediately. Our goal is to review and include sites within 24 hours if time permits. Right now, new submissions that don't require Phase II reviews get included almost immediately.
Phase II reviews meaning in depth review as opposed to a cursory review. I have over 50 submissions that are still pending in the Phase II review stages.
> Just wanted to say I scanned through the site. Loved the clean design and loved the speed even more. Great site. Any "updates" you make to the site will surely be minor.
Hey bro, thanks! The design is still growing on me. It will change eventually but for right now, this is what we will be working with. I want to trim more time off of the download speed for each page and the only way I can do that is to trim the graphics. The code is so squeaky clean that I can't get any more k out of it! I replied to your sticky!
I had my programmer setup a randomizing script that allows for equal play amongst members in the directory. This prevents spamming and also allows for easier backend maintenance. I sure didn't want to get into playing with algos!
If you are viewing results and have more than 5 listings, when you hit refresh, the listings are randomly rotated. If there were 15 results from your query, the 2nd and 3rd sets of 5 will rotate forward allowing the user to see fresh results. They can also use the next page link to bring up the next set of results.
Again, we are still in our infancy stages so many more changes are coming. Our focus right now is where to spend our allocated budget for promotion. We are already pulling some excellent positions for more industry specific terms and managed to get a PR6 on this first Google indexing. I swear, I think that PR6 happened because of this thread!
I hope most of you know that I'm kidding. But really, I have been at it 18/7/365 for the past couple of months.
We have now posted our Press Release [seoconsultants.com] for review. I've been contacted by various SEO resources who will be mentioning the directory in upcoming newsletters and events.
The next five (05) days will be spent reviewing URL submissions and final tweaking of the search results. There are a couple of more information pages that need to be added and we'll be ready for launch on 06.01.2002.
Well, for those of you who have been visiting the directory, you'll notice that is has gone through some slight transformations this past week. We've added a lot of content along with additional features in the directory search results.
I believe we are 99.5% complete and ready for our 06.01.2002 launch. We'd like to invite you to test the database, check out the features and let us know what you think. What are we missing for this initial launch?
We just included an area where approved members and can submit articles to the directory for inclusion into the database. We've got an excellent strategy in place to promote those articles to our visitors and to the SE's. If you read the Submit Articles section, you'll get a little clearer picture.
The email communication this week has been intense. I've been in contact with some of the industries most reputable names and resources. I believe you'll see the directory mentioned in various high level resources from this point forward. I wouldn't be surprised if it shows up in a moreover feed based on the people that have contacted us.
Brett, I just wanted to thank you again for your support along with the members of the forum. And a big thanks to all the members here who have been stickying me with feedback. I keep the site open in my editor throughout the day and make changes as feedback is reviewed and discussed with members of our team. This is the type of service you can expect from our end. We are a little backlogged right now but on top of it!
P.S. For those of you here who have been approved for a listing in the directory, we are requesting that you login and update your profiles prior to 06.01.2002 if possible. We have a few entries where Company names are listed as titles and we'd like you to change those to a more targeted title. Your company name, location and country will appear right under the description in the DRPs.
Whoa! Looks like I may have to reconsider my career objectives. I didn't realize how much email was going to start coming in once the directory started getting a little media attention. Time to start really hunkering down on my time management!
We've added a neat little feature that I thought would be of benefit to SEO's and Visitors browsing the directory. At the bottom of the DRPs (Directory Results Pages), we have now included realtime statistics for the Directory...
We thought this would be a neat way to show the status of the directory and how many are currently browsing the site. I'm looking forward to reaching the three and four digit numbers for each of those areas (Searching and Active)! Feedback greatly appreciated!
P.S. We've also added Consultant Profile last updated dates, at the bottom of each Consultants/Companies profile. This will let the visitors know that the content is up to date where applicable.
I noticed when I tried to update my profile, the new information didn't take. Anyone else have this problem?
I just checked pending profile updates and don't see anything pending. Did you just do an update or are you referring to an earlier one? If an earlier update was done, it has already been posted. Drop me a sticky with the problem you encountered and I'll try to replicate it from my end. The form does submit to itself so you end up right back where you started and it could be confusing. I'll take care of that.
When a profile is updated, you'll see that reflected in the realtime statistics posted at the bottom of the directory results. I think once we change where that form posts to, the confusion will be eliminated.
Hey, thanks for bringing it to light. We still have have about 28 hours to go before launch. We'll be addressing any remaining issues throughout tonight, tomorrow morning and into late Friday night. I want to make sure we have it just right!
JFord, thanks for the compliments!
Good luck with the project. You've done a fine job on the site :)
Good morning everyone! Just wanted to drop in and let you know that we have officially launched as of 00:01 this morning. Current stats...
We've had major spikes in traffic over the past few days and would like to let everyone know that we've been mentioned at the following resources...
I've already been informed by a few of our SEO Consultants Directory members that they have received contact requests for services.
Well, its been an exciting two days since I last posted an update. Today was especially exhilarting after receiving mention in Danny Sullivan's Search Engine Report #67.
We are reviewing submissions around the clock and have now begun an entirely new learning curve. We'd like to give Kudos to the Google Language Tools as they've helped us considerably when viewing websites other than English. Pretty soon we will be able to perform French, German and Italian SEO!
We do have a high number of declined submissions and some of these are due to irrelevant sites being submitted from non-English speaking countries.
We would never release the information we've researched on any websites that are submitted. For those of you who may have been declined, your information will not be shared.
We've discussed publishing an article on our findings as to why sites may be declined and would appreciate any feedback forum members wish to contribute. Again, there will be absolutely no mention of companies, URL's etc... This will be strictly an information piece for those performing SEO/SEM and for our visitors to the site. We want everyone to know that our directory contains a select group of Internet Marketing Professionals.
We've had over 1,400 unique visitors since 05.29.2002 and expect that number to increase as the weeks go by. We are selectively promoting the directory to various resources that we know will bring quality traffic and members.
P.S. Those unique visitors are spending an average of 11:24 minutes at the site. Sticky!
[edited by: pageoneresults at 2:12 am (utc) on June 4, 2002]
From a purely "client" perspective (a company looking for SEO assistance) this would be more beneficial to their search.
This also adds weight to creditability of SEOConsultant and all in the database.
fathom, we will give careful consideration to your suggestion. Our basic criteria for acceptance is fairly straightforward and listed in our Submission Guidelines. We do leave areas open for interpretation and that was done purposely.
As we progress through this first month of building the database, we'll be refining submission criteria and other aspects of the directory.
Please note, our reviews are not as in depth as other industry resources. We'd like to consider ourselves right in the middle somewhere. Its not a free for all directory, and it won't be a directory of rated members. Many of the current members we know due to our time in the industry. We also know of many more who have not made it out yet to submit. Give it some time, we'll get there.
I think I lost something in the translation from brain, to keyboard and then post!
Our basic criteria for acceptance is fairly straightforward and listed in our Submission Guidelines.
The average potential client looking for a referral from this directory for a SEO company is unlikely to review these guidelines since they are not likely attempting to be listed.
A newsletter, article or some other provision that is more married to their needs seem to be a more logical arrangement than a submissions page.
Our focus is on quality and not quantity
Potential clients need to know how that "quality" is determined.
What makes these companies stand above all others! (Or at least above the ones declined).
Is it the fact that they reside in the directory or the fact they met or exceeded specific preplanned criteria.
Rod
Wow, could it be possible that we underestimated the need for this type of directory in our industry?
We've spent the last 24 hours reviewing, approving and declining more than 40 submissions that came in after mention in the Search Day newsletter. Many of those are still pending Phase II reviews.
We will be up front with you and admit that we are under heavy fire here from those who have been declined. There have been over 100 email communications in the past 24 hours all relative to various sites being declined.
I think we need to expedite our plan on publishing the reasons for acceptance and not being accepted. fathom, I believe your insight is very valuable and we are putting together the necessary information to address these issues.
In the mean time, we have been updating the Submission Guidelines section to reflect some of the more obvious reasons for not being accepted. My mentor says that I should get a body guard! ;)
We have been very diplomatic in our response to those who have been declined. We've even provided valuable feedback to those declined with Editor's Comments on why we felt the site did not meet the criteria for inclusion into the directory.
We could easily have just sent a generic rejection notice. But, we felt that was too impersonal. We were hoping that the Editor's Comments would be of benefit as they point out some very important issues based on today's internet marketing climate. I think once we publish a summary of our Editor's Comments and expand on the acceptance criteria, the number of rejections will decline.
P.S. Yes, you are reading the statistics correctly. We had one approved listing since the last update and the rest were declined. This worries us!
> from a professional standpoint level
First impressions still leave a lasting impression. Myself and a few others who have been reviewing can pretty much tell from the home page what type of site we are about to review.
I personally reviewed 11 sites today that contained an almost identical list of bullet points pertaining to specific techniques which are frowned upon in the industry. And I do mean almost identical. There were a few who twisted the words around a little bit but the content was exactly the same.
As I am one of those "declined" for reason "do not have a web site" I don't see the rejection as a a blackmark (nor should any other company that was declined) but as a need to change. And the SEO segment needs that change to erase the strike-outs caused during the dot.bomb era.
Personally, I enjoy freelancing as I have almost no overhead, and I don't need to worry about maintaining a web site. I trained two students at a time, and receive revenue from their freelancing efforts.
The lost for me not being in the SEOConsultant directory... exposure and choice of clients, but work is still plentiful.
Maybe some day... but I hate designing web sites, I'd rather just fix them!
So far, so good! We've reviewed over 200 websites in the last week and are glad to have the members on board that we do. We have already received numerous emails that contacts are being made and services are being requested.
Since the 1st of June until the 5th of June at 1922 PST, we've had 1,746 unique visitors who generated 10,791 page views and stayed at the site for an average of 10:09 minutes. 1,040 of those were 1st time visitors.
We've been involved in quite a bit of email exchange with members who have been declined and its only a matter of time before those voices are heard. We are currently preparing ourselves for that stage of the process. We knew there would be a certain amount of fallout, and have resources in place to diplomatically handle what may or may not transpire.
I think everyone will be quite surprised with our findings over the past two weeks. Again, we will not be mentioning names or showing website addresses. Our published findings will be very generic in nature, with a summary of our replies which should give you a general indication of what we are up against. I can certainly applaud other resources who have taken on the tasks that they have, and then the ones that are up and coming. I'm glad we got a head start!
We've posted a small sampling of our Editor's Comments for you to review...
Submission Reviews - Editor's Comments [seoconsultants.com]
There are many more that we've not posted yet for various reasons. As time permits, we will add to this section.
fathom, we are working on the flip side of the coin and putting together a more refined section that deals with how we review sites and what constitutes a listing in the directory. That one will take some time. We hope our Submission Guidelines and these posted Editor's Comments will suffice for now.
You could not imagine some of the justification we've received when discussing why we declined the site for inclusion. I personally spent over an hour sending emails back and forth to a few who I believe will make their dissatisfaction public. That's okay, we want the public outcry, we have the necessary backup to counter any objections that may arise.
All I ask for from those who have been declined, and you wish to make it public, is, be prepared for us to expose our findings if necessary. We will do our best to diplomatically address the objections, but if cornered, we will publish our reasons why you were declined and provide clear examples.
P.S. I would like to point out that this forum or any other reputable SEO/SEM forum may not be the place to discuss your objections. I'm sure the moderators will not allow it and I will not particpate in degrading the quality of this board!
fathom, we want to thank you for prompting us to post information about our reviewing of sites. We've received numerous compliments on our dedication to the development of the directory. That single page probably pulled as many visitors yesterday as the rest of the site!
We just approved our 100th member, a site from France that was very nice! You are probably wondering how we review sites from other countries. Its not easy! We are using a variety of translation tools, mainly Google to review those sites. German sites have been the toughest to translate as the verbiage can be somewhat confusing!
We are now looking at scripts that will allow our visitors to translate the site into their language.
