Are Directories Dead in 2016?

[Andreas8]

(Sorry if this has been answered earlier.) I am thinking of buying a domain, (which is not cheap) and has the keywords of; myniche + directory.com.au in it. On the domain I plan to build out a directory, probably using a word-press theme and word-press directory plugin. It will be an industry specific directory (only for that profession) and will be hand edited by me. It will be exclusive, that is, all listings will be manually approved and no spammy links or bots allowed with the hope that it add value to the user experience. My plan for the directory site is long term as I am qualified in the profession and I like SEO. It will begin with free basic listings, also hand edited by me and I will at some stage allow paid listings for reasonable fee.

Directories have a bad name currently in the SEO world, since Panda and Penguin and Poodle (only joking about last one) smashed many of them out of the park for good reason. That bad reputation may stop some in my profession from purchasing a listing or even wanting a free listing. But directories seem to have an influence on local search which could be the value that I add to the business that wants to list on the directory. e.g www.yellowpages.com.au has a PR of 7.

My question is: Are directories dead? Are directories good or bad for SEO in 2016 and moving forward if they are not spammy? Do directories add value to a business? Therefore should I go ahead with my plan?

Thanks in Advance :-).

[edited by: aakk9999 at 10:13 am (utc) on Jul 6, 2016]

[FranticFish]

So perhaps some sort of crowd-sourced author rating system. Interesting, thanks.

[claus]

imho Buckworks nailed it. There's no money in it anymore. As for user experience - if you're adamant on spending "multiple years uphill" and pour endless hours and money into the project, well - there are still lots of directories that provide good user value, and your directory may end up among them.

However, you do not seem prepared for what it takes. This is very serious business, very labour-intensive. As in "this can not be automated". Anything in this business must be completely custom-made to have the slightest chance of success. Slapping some "extension" on an off-the-shelf product like WP or whatever will ensure one thing only: Waste of time.

Which brings me back to ergophobes post above: Most likely there are already at least two directories in your niche. These are most likely old. Most likely you'll never, ever, beat them wrt ERPS, user value, or profits. IMHO: In all the niches of the world - if there are not already at least two directories, then there has been several and they have closed for a reason.

[claus]

s/ERPS/SERPS ...duh

[jmccormac]

This is very serious business, very labour-intensive. As in "this can not be automated".

Agree with the first part but the second needs clarification. There is a need for automation of the detection of deleted sites in the directory listing. There is also a need for some automated method of gathering candidate websites for inclusion in the directory. It will still come down to a manual decision though (that echoes the first point about it being labour-intensive). This is necessary because relying on user submissions is not really viable. A good modern directory would, in some terms be using some of the same techniques as search engines to keep its index clean.

Regards...jmcc

[james007]

I run a media information website - essentially, a directory of radio, magazines, tv and newspapers. There's lots of data on each title; and it's that, I think, that makes the diffference. Anyone can make a crappy link list, but if you spend the time and effort on a decent directory with a lot of information on each thing you list, then Google does reward you well.