An invaluable resource for directory owners by discussing issues facing the industry as a whole as well as providing resources including templates and mods for the more popular scripts being used today.
As I mentioned in a previous post (content/view/17/1/) , one reason that Bid Directories in general and PHP Link Bid in paticular would have a hard time succeeding was the way it was setup. Instead of listing sites by category, the script listed them in alphabetical order. This would surely come back to bite sites that used this format as it would make it very user unfriendly as well as possibly causing relevance issues with search engines.Well the authors of this script must have been listening to me, not really but it sounds good. Script owners are reporting that an email is making the rounds from the script authors in regards to a new version of this script whose major difference is the addition of categories. It hasn't been posted officially yet on PHP Link Bid's site but if you go to their directory (http://directory.phplinkbid.com/) , it has already been upgraded with the new version. It seems the PHP Link Bid users have spoken and at least in this case, somebody was listening.
The hottest trend in directories these days is seems to be Bid for Position Directories. What is different with this type of directory is that your listing is positioned on the site based on the amount of money you pay, the more you pay the better your position. Though not a new idea, bid directories have been around for awhile, they have begun getting more attention due to the current directory guru, Chris Hoffman's Big Web Link Directory (http://www.bigweblinks.com/) which opened up its doors just a short time ago to big fanfare. As with most industries, when something becomes popular, it will soon be copied and bid for position directories began sprouting up everywhere. People saw what some people were paying for top positions on Hoffman's directory and just couldn't resist. As with most things Hoffman does, his directory sets the standard for the industry as he commissioned a custom script which takes on the traits of most general directories by listing sites by categories. What this does is at least give the appearance that the site is more than just a linkfarm as everything is placed within relevant categories so that if anyone ever did use the site to find other sites, they could at least browse to the category they were interested in and find a relevant listing. Unfortunately, the popular bid directory script out there isn't so well setup. PHPLinkBid (http://www.phplinkbid.com/) , the current ready made script of choice lists sites alphabetically which of course leaves pretty much no doubt as to what this site is for. And as is the case with most fairly young scripts, templates are scarce which means that many of the sites out there are almost identical in appearance. I am sure that this shortcoming isn't a long term problem as browsing through the more popular directory forums, you are already seeing some excellent template designers turning their efforts towards this script.
One way directories increase the value of a listing on their sites is to include the ability for submitters to add non-homepage or deep links to their sites along with the normal homepage submission. What deep linking accomplishes is that it provides links to pages that often times never get linked to other than internally from the site in question.What this does in many cases is to help your site get a better ranking especially for the deep linked pages and if you've ever had sites where most of the internal pages end up in Google's supplemental index hell, getting external links to these pages is often enough to get them out of the supplemental index. Deep linking directories have been around for a long time, but until recently most were just that, a directory that accepted just an internal site link. The new wave of deep link directories is based on the general directory model only in this case you can not only submit your homepage, but in some cases up to 10 or more internal links as well.
To start things out here at Directory Linked I thought I would talk about the future of web directories and try to predict where the industry might be headed. As most directory owners have I am sure heard, Matt Cutts has caused quite a stir when he posted about Google possibly going after paid links whose purpose is deemed solely for manipulating a sites PageRank.The jury is still out in regards to exactly how Google will be able to determine which links were purchased and which were placed in the natural linking process but the fact that Cutts is even discussing this has many directory owners looking towards the future. How many paid directories will be able to charge for links that have the nofollow attribute or that have been proven to not be generating any PR juice? I would guess that for most, this revenue stream will pretty much dry up so what will this do for these directories and their viability? The big boys will surely still survive as they do actually generate some traffic though I would imagine that their rates might have to be lowered, $99 a year is a hard price to justify for 2 or 3 hits a month. Believe it or not, directories will probably have to generate traffic for their listings if they want to survive in a less friendly paid link and Google world. What about free directories? How will Google treat those links and with their cryptic reporting on links, how will you be able to tell which links are being counted and which aren't. Submitting to free directories is already a painful chore for most so will their links actually be worth more now or will they get caught up in the possible change in the way Google values links?
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