Directory Spy

I’ve been reading with some interest the debate going on over at Webmaster World in regards to Google and Open Directory RDF..

Apparently DMOZ has not had some portions of it’s directory updated in some time, and that’s leading to questions as to what Google will index and what it won’t.. perhaps old content, or not update content will simply be left out of Google’s index altogether. Frankly, I’m certain that no one knows really what’s on Google’s mind.

The most interesting comment was a person making an observation about directories not being ‘authoritative’ for their topic, and that the best (or only) possible future for a Directory (open or other) will be to restrict the amount of directory additions (listings) that a site takes, in the hopes of staying very on topic (keep only related sites within your directory), write articles that are also within the topic of your directory.. and to that I agree.

One person even went as far as to say:

“I don’t think directories have much of a future, except for directories that add value in the form of editorial content.”

And to that I wholeheartedly disagree. While it’s true that a lot of directories really aren’t much more than link farms, quite a few directories actually fill a niche or void not covered by other search engines.

So, if ‘content is king’ (as they say), then on topic content is master of the universe…

I’m not only going to continue development on my directories, but focus on providing better on-topic content and probably not try to be the ‘all knowing’ directory. Pick a niche, fill it, and do it better than any one else out there, and I’m convinced you’ll have a site worthy of traffic.

Until next time..

Scott

Hey gang,

As promised, I’m posting my experience with www.goingup.com so far.. and, as I said above ’so far, so good’.

They’ve done a really nice job of unobtrusively tracking stats, as you can see here:

As you can also see, my stats are dropping, so I need to get busy with fresh content!

I’ll be back soon with more.. until then, happy Directory Building!

I’ve had an opportunity to see ‘behind the curtain’ at a new web analytics offering, and I have to say - This is a must have (I’ll be adding it to the Spy here shortly).

The service is called ‘GoingUp!‘, and it’s a pretty nifty web analytics package. The free version comes with 1000 hits (traffic counts) per month, and offers all kinds of stats, from daily counts to monthly trends.

The basic service is completely free, so if you’re looking for a tracking service to help you keep an eye on your directory performance, then you owe it to yourself to give this a try.

Paid features include ‘actions’ to track things like sales, url clicks or other that you wish to record, as well as as SEO tracking of keywords, placement and also density. Pretty nifty.

I’m working on a price discount with these guys, in order to get us a reduced rate for their advanced analytics. I’ll post an update as soon as I get an answer.

I’ll be GoingUp! soon!

Hi everyone!

I’m Scott, the new owner of this site, taking over where Dan left off..

I’ll be adding new mods and other directory specific content, so please book mark this site (or even better, subscribe) so that I can keep you up to date on all the new happenings around here.

Who am I? I’m a tech and internet addict, php junkie and general computer freak, with a particular interest in Directories, so I’m pretty excited about acquiring the DirectorySpy. My other site, CalendarScript, is also a favorite hangout for me.

So, if you can’t find me here, head on over there.. but in any case, drop me a line, say ‘hello’, and lets talk! I’d love to hear from you!

Best,

Scott