Saturday, June 21, 2008

What Makes A Good Online Business Directory?

By Russell M. Stewart

Take a glance at the number of web directories in today's online networks - you'll find there are many and some have a specialisation, while others are general. Web directories cover various subjects such as business, web hosting, articles and ebooks. The majority of these web directories provide services by having a link base in one location as various listings, which allow the readers to find exactly what they want.

A business directory provides a comprehensive list of businesses, which generally includes both online and offline businesses with hosted websites. Business directories are mostly useful for other businesses, when they are looking for services and products not available through their own business. But, even direct consumers find business directories to be useful, especially when they prefer to make direct online purchases from the most suitable seller.

There are certain guidelines, standards and conventions that business directories are expected to follow, though there are no hard and fast rules. Reliable directories usually follow these guidelines.

Organisation - A good online business directory must be well-organised. Relevant categories and sub-categories must be carefully thought out and implemented. The navigation must be basic and user-friendly, with all the interconnected links in one area. A clean, concise layout is very important.

Content Updates - Keeping the directory updated frequently brings in a lot of web traffic and if a directory lacks content changes, such as new links, it can be considered as dead. A high-quality business directory is constantly updated, because there's always lots of traffic and many businesses take the time to submit their own sites.

PageRank - Google and other search engines provide web pages with ranks. These ranks are based on how popular a page is. While it's different from the search engine's organic results, having a high PageRank boosts the site's ability drive traffic through its links.

Keyword Selection - Choosing the right keywords is crucial. After all, you want to direct people to specific businesses that they are looking for, and for this, if the keywords selected are not just right, the directory will fail in its purpose. Just a list of links is not what the user wants, the user wants relevant links.

So if you want your site on a business directory, or if you just want to find a particular business, these guidelines will tell you whether you are using the right business directory to get what you want or not.

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