Directory Kit

One of the most frequently questions that directory owners ask themselves is, “Ok, so do I accept this site or not?”. This question arises since quality is one of the most important aspects in any directory and thus every directory should only have quality sites.

When you are just starting a new directory then that question is not a big deal since directory doesn’t have any sites in it. You accept as many sites as possible because you think that you can always delete them (if you are not in any contract with that site). But remember that it takes less time to reject it at first then finding it and deleting it later. So follow these simple 10 steps whenever you have troubles figuring out if certain sites should be accepted or not. Also remember to follow these steps in the order so you can save the most time. It’s worth noticing that four steps don’t not require you to visit website while other six do.

• 1. Does a site follow the guidelines? First, always check if a site follows your directory’s guidelines. An example of a good guideline can be found here. This step is fast and easy, so always do it at the begging because it’s going to save your time.

• 2. Is all information filled? Is it all filled correctly? How many times have you received submissions in which some information is filled incorrectly? For example, a web site title might be sometimes capitalized, site description might include the url of the website and other useless undescriptive information or even worse sometimes description is simply a collection of keywords. Also, information is filled incorrectly when site is submitted to a wrong category. So if you see a site and the information is filled incorrectly and you have no time to edit it (since you receive hundreds of submissions per day) you might want to reject it.

• 3. Is domain name suitable for the website? I own a directory of phpLD Directories and when I receive submissions of sites, which are not relative to its domain it rises a suspicion for me. For example, I receive a submission of directory which has a domain that is not ralevent to the directory. Something like BuyWonderfulToysToday.com and it’s even a general directory. It makes me thinking that the owner had a good pr domain and just wanted to make quick buck. This type of directories can disappear really quickly and thus you will display wrong type of listing in the wrong category.

• 4. Is site an exact duplicated of another site that is in the directory already? A lot of people have different domains for the same site. They wish to increase the pr of their domains and thus their profits. Why should you display the site again with only different domain?

• 5. What’s your first impression? The first five seconds determine whatever any user would like a website, bookmark it and visit it once again. Or will leave immediately. So relay on your first impression. In other words, if you like the website you should include it since other might like it too. But try to be as much unbiased as possible.

• 6. Is the site under construction? Is there any information on the website? You accept sites so your visitors will get useful information that they seek for. So why would you accept a site that doesn’t have any information on it?

• 7. Is the information useful? There might be some information on a website, but first there should be enough information (not like ten words on each page) and second it should be useful information. Useful information is one of the aspects of a quality web site. The information can either be useful or entertaining but both types of information should bring some benefit to visitors.

• 8. How’s web site’s design? Is it user-friendly? Design is another aspect of a quality site. The site doesn’t have to be perfectly and professionally designed. But it should have design that helps reader to interpret the information. Alas, more than one third of the websites do the opposite effect.

• 9. Are there a LOT of ads on the website? If there are too many ads on a website, this means that the owner is not really interested in providing users with helpful information. But he is only interested in the making money process. This means that the website is not going to be updated a lot and eventually will be sold and might not be working at all.

• 10. Would you buy the website you want to accept? This final question is the most important step here since if you want to buy a website it means that you find it useful, well-designed and thus should include it to your directory.

To conclude, whenever you have hard times thinking about site inclusion, always relay on your personal opinion. If you find the site useful and will visit it again then include it. But if not why should you include “garbage” into your precious directory?

I hope these basic steps will help you to make your directory more useful to others, more profitable and thus you will enjoy building it. Any comments about the article is much appreciated, so don’t be shy and leave a comment.