Directory Spy

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!

I’ve been noticing that Alexa rankings have been growing in popularity as ways to rate a directory for traffic. Google Page Rank is a metric that relates to inbound and outbound link counts. Alexa rankings are heavily biased on visitors who have the Alexa Toolbar installed. Therefore if you are selling advertising space based on traffic, having a low Alexa ranking (i.e. loads of traffic), then this will help you to command a good price.

There are many ways to increase your Alexa rank, such as displaying the Alexa widget on your directory such as the one below. Apparently if a visitor clicks on this widget, it counts as traffic to your site even if they don’t have a toolbar.

Using the Alexa redirection (e.g. http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?www.directoryspy.com) will count a single ip address as a visitor. If you use this for older posts, and possible for internal linking, then you can quickly increase your ranking with very little effort. For internal linking, you’d probably want to use some code to do the hard work for you.

Another tip is to use the traffic auto-surf exchange type systems. I imagine most are dodgy, but I’ve been researching UpMyRank for a while now, and it’s already working to boost one of my websites (not Directory Spy). Any script that runs from a single ip address is a sure fire way to getting banned. UpMyRank is almost a peer to peer traffic exchange. It’s definitely worth giving them a shot.

For a few more tips, I’ve found this fantastic article on DoshDosh with 20 quick ways to increase your Alexa rank.

I’m sure that there are many newcomers to the directory world who wonder what it takes to make a great directory. The Forplex Business Directory certainly do pride themselves on creating a very unique directory completed pimped out with features! The Forplex Business Directory has also managed to get itself listed in DMOZ, which we all know to be exceptionally difficult. (Pete, any tips!?)

I could spend ages talking about the cool features on the directory, but I’ve picked out my favourites just to show you how far you can go to create a high quality directory.

The Directory Owners Index lists the name and usernames of individuals who own and run directories. This is a great way to determine if you can trust a directory based on an individual’s reputation. Once suggestion I make to the directory is to describe the purpose of the page at the top of the page on each of the index.

Forplex is a premium directory, and you can tell by the sheer number of high ranking websites that are already in the directory. Submissions are not cheap, but you are definitely buying quality. If you wish to do a number of website submissions, then you can save some money by purchasing a trade submission service, i.e. bulk discount. I think that this is a particularly good way to get repeat business.

When a website is added, it features a profile page. These profile pages feature a range of information, including traffic information from Alexa. Another nice feature that brightens up the listing to make it more eye-catching is allowing users to upload their website’s logo too. They already get a screenshot of their site for free.

My favourite feature is the daily “Cool Listing of the Day” where a chosen website is featured for the day. It’s a nice touch. Similarly, you can feature your website for certain days on the homepage.

So what makes the Forplex Business Directory so good? It’s all of the extra useful features, in addition to eye-catching design and strong website ranking. So bear that in mind if you’re starting a new directory… make it a directory people want to visit and somewhere they can be proud of to have their website featured.

Whilst looking for directories doing interesting things, it was suggested that I look at DirectoryMonster.org. When I looked at the submission guidelines page, I found a really simple tip that I think should appear on all directories!

Apart from the rules that most submitters tend to ignore, it gives a simple example of a good and bad submission:

We like this submission!

Title: izeel network
Desc: Web related service provider. Offering quality web directory service, tools and resources for webmasters.

We don’t like this submission!

Title: izeel network - Quality Web Directory Service, Tools and Resource provider
Desc: Web related service provider. Offering quality web directory service, open source templates, tools and resources for webmasters.

Don’t add any keyword for your link title and description, Title should be official web site name or Company name. And briefly describe your business, service or web site at description area. Don’t repeat the title in the description.

It only takes a few minutes to do and should reduce the number of bad submissions too!

I recently posted about Fighting Directory Spam. The feedback I received was mixed, but the chap behind phpLinkDirectory was kind enough to comment.

“Thank you for your release of this mod.
In addition, we have been continuing to fine tune the methods over in the phpLD supporters forum as well, and when we reach a point where we have some solid controls in place, we will likely make a new release of both v2.1 and v.3.1. I can tell you that using the existing release of 3.1 I have been able to cut down spam by 95% already. Thanks again for your release.”

It appears that work has already started on preventing spam. Therefore I will not start working on my ideas for a new mod until I see what is released!

Contextual Links @ V7N is a contextual link broker service where you can purchase contextually relevant links from a number of popular blogs.

You pay for a hyperlink containing a couple of keywords from a relevant blog. The service will match you up with a blogger who will find a relevant existing post on their blog and hyperlink your chosen keywords to go to your designated URL. You pay the service, and they pay the blogger for the service. The link is then immersed in relevant content (something Google is paying a lot of attention to these days), and it is also permanent.

The service also allows you to sign up as a blogger to earn money by putting up links for buyers. So a great way to earn a little extra cash too!

Clearly with any directory, the better the backlinks, the better ranked your directory is in the search engines. You also gain good Google Page Rank, additional relevant backlinks, as well as targeted traffic. If you have a paid directory, the better the ranking, the more you earn! So why not give V7N Contextual a try and build up your contextual backlinks?

It’s been a while since I posted anything on DirectorySpy. I have been busy working on some ideas for directory mods, but they are not quite finished. However, I do have something useful for you to help combat directory spam.

For the last month, I’ve seen a growth in directory spam for my directories using phpLinkDirectory. The spam contains the usual rubbish about drugs, etc. They seem to be using discussion forum tags to get the links such as:

[url=http://www.somewebsite.com]buy these drugs[/url]
[url=http://www.somewebsite.com]and these[/url]
[url=http://www.somewebsite.com]and these too[/url]


I started banning ip addresses, but quickly found that the ip address changed for every submission, and there was no pattern to them either. Because I didn’t want to ban the whole of the internet, I started looking at filtering content. I started looking at the Smarty Form Validation code, and realised that my code would quickly become very complex due to requiring some very involved regular expressions. So I thought about a simpler solution… and I found it.

What we want to do is identify spam, and then prevent the spammer from submitting any data. Because its likely to be a spam bot behind this, a quick and dirty solution is absolutely fine. My solution? Check for typical spam data, then send a 403 Forbidden header if detected.

So, in submit.php, I added the following code after the code that uses strip_tags:

// Check Description for SPAM
if (preg_match("/\[url=/i", $data['DESCRIPTION']))
{
Header("HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden");
return;
}

After this code:

$data['DESCRIPTION'] = strip_tags($data['DESCRIPTION']);
$data['TITLE'] = strip_tags($data['TITLE']);
$data['OWNER_NAME'] = strip_tags($data['OWNER_NAME']);

So if the “[url=” text is detected in the description field, we basically send the bot a 403 Forbidden message and a blank page (caused by the return statement).

If you have a sense of humour, you might want to replace the Header() statement with the one below, which will send the user to the spam page on WikiPedia.

Header("Location: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(electronic)");

I am now using this code on all of my directories. Rest assured, there will be a fuller mod at some stage in the future! If you find this tip useful, please leave a comment! I really want to know!

There’s a growing trend in the directory world at the moment, and that’s to sell a spot as the template’s sponsor. Typically prices range between $100 and $200 (USD). The idea behind the sponsor spot is that the sponsor gains a site-wide link on each directory that uses that template. Therefore a better template will be used on more directories, and therefore gain the sponsor more links. It’s a great way to earn some extra cash for individuals with graphical talent. It’s a smart way to get backlinks from a number of different directories, assuming of course that the template is popular and well publicised.

I do wonder if the directory world is quickly becoming saturated with short-lived directories. Therefore this kind of link purchase might be slightly risky. However, make your own mind up, as there are a number of solicitations for sponsors on the Digital Point Forums, here, here here, and also here!

Having run a directory for a while now, I’ve certainly come up with a few ideas on the best way to maintain a directory. However, I wondered what other directory owners did to keep their directory in excellent shape. I’ve collected a number of the ideas together that were posted on the Digital Point Forums in a “What’s your top tip for running a directory?” thread.

These tips are not in any particular order, but represent the ones that I agree with most for my directories.

britishguy (Forplex Business Directory):

Running a Directory is not ‘a part time pastime’ it is a Full Time Business

olddocks (Best Paid Directories):

The most important technique for processing links, is make your visitors to submit them in the most appropriate category. For example, in my directory I normally don’t allow people to submit without selecting a particular directory at the main submit page. I make people who submit, work in selecting a required directory, as otherwise most of them are lazy and throw their submissions from the main page. Because i make them work, I am amazed that people picking good suitable categories and submitting there. While reviewing links its very easy for me and cuts most of my time in picking suitable categories and placing links there.

Obelia (Stiff Upper List):

If you own a niche directory, word filters can be very useful for sorting out the inappropriate submissions. They will never be able to catch them all, of course, but certain keywords tend to come up time after time. Sending them all to the back of the queue, or to a page where they can all be deleted at once, is very handy.

YMC (Craft Tips)

If you have any sort of paid listings, just because someone pays for a link doesn’t mean you must list their site. If the site would have been unacceptable as a free submission, it should be unacceptable as a paid listing.

The biggest way to turn away potential submitters and link purchasers is to allow your categories to get off topic. Always keep the categories on topic. If a site is submitted to an inappropriate category, move it to the right one, create a new one or simply delete the link.

Sabian1982 (Voisd Webmaster Directory)

I think my top tip is use your .htaccess effectively.

Firstly I’ve always found that the majority of spam I get comes from a select number of IP addresses. Using your .htaccess file you can ban those specific ip’s from accessing your site and hence stop the spam!

Secondly you can (I think) use the .htaccess file to stop people from accessing your submit page directly. Implementing this will obviously help to reduce submissions via completely automated submission software.

Bernard (Strongest Brands Business Directory):

publish your submission qualifications and guidelines - and yes, they are two separate conditions. In addition to publishing qualifications and guidelines, be consistent in applying them. If published listings obviously violate them, no one will heed them. phpld owners using a 3rd party template should edit any stock guidelines to reflect their own parameters (It’s disturbing to see directories listing phantom limits on description fields).

use symbolic categories - help your visitors find what they are looking for when topics could logically be found in multiple places. It helps folks understand how you are organizing information and where they should submit if they have a site.

Blogmaster (FrogEngine Web Directory):

I think that you need to follow your instinct, simple as that might sound. You can’t accept just anyone because they pay for inclusion. The best way to run a directory is to look for value in the sites that are submitted. If you find none, then don’t accept it in. Look at things from the end user’s point of view. If you can’t provide any quality or value for the end user, your directory is worthless and will go downhill eventually.

Thank you to everyone for their great tips. For further reading, I thoroughly recommend reading the Internet Marketing Blog article about running a directory.

The Directory Ranking Project is a novel techique based on a similar principle to many Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) contests that try to get a particular site highly ranking in the search engines.

Here’s how it works. You submit a listing for the Directory Ranking site to your directory. The project then uses the search engines such as MSN, Yahoo and Google to determine what directories rank at the top for entries relating to the Directory Ranking site! It really is that simple.

It’s a really interesting project that I am going to keep a close eye on. I’d be especially interested to see who reaches the top of the rankings, because it has very little to do with Google Page Rank. And since Google Page Rank can be manipulated to an extent, this challenge is very fair.