Just Unlinked myself from ALL General Directories

[highlander]

During the last few years there's been a steady decline in the use of general directories, and combined with so many penalised by Google and the selling of PR, as a company we found General directory links to be of no value in traffic terms period. So last year began the long slow task of de-linking ourselves from the trash of the web, and have to say its been well worth the effort.

Gone are the days of untargeted visitors that NEVER buy from us, to a new stream of eager to buy and interested parties etc. Our traffic is now Cleaned, as a result and things are much clearer promotion-wise.

Our new traffic is now interested in buying, bcos they haven't had a wasted journey to our site, and are happier about that, as are we. Also, the nature of many link partnerships (which is a grand way of saying Please SWAP our traffic) is low performance, it isn't worth anything to us, so I don't see why we should plough tons of money into our sites, when we get nothing in return, its just not good business - so we snapped and the websites who ripped us off, will now pay the penalty

Its much better, our business has new direction, or be it a cleaner one.

Has anybody else gone this route? And if so, what are your results like now you made the switch to cleaner links?

[temi]

I have noticed a few people who have done the same thing, I was going to ask you if your organic listing has improved as a result of this.

Thanks

[stock_post]

Our traffic is now Cleaned, as a result and things are much clearer promotion-wise.

How are you getting the clean traffic?
how are you promoting now?

Position of your site for the keywords of your choice?

If you could give us more details, we all can learn from you!

[highlander]

I have noticed a few people who have done the same thing, I was going to ask you if your organic listing has improved as a result of this.

Thanks

mmmm, a tad, but unfortunately not by much and only for a few keywords. We try not to be obssessed with the serps, but still keep one eye open to track them a bit.

We do word of mouth promotion and it really is the best for opening people's eyes generally. Not discounting links, but nothing less than on-target will do.

[highlander]

How are you getting the clean traffic?
how are you promoting now?

Position of your site for the keywords of your choice?

If you could give us more details, we all can learn from you!

Its pretty basic, and there's no secret to this I promise you. Started with a good idea (ofcourse), but made the mistake of chasing all types of links - big mistake. Ofcourse as the links were off target, we didnt get the right traffic and less sales, so not good.

The website idea needs to be special, but also able to expand/develop into other areas, so some kind of search site is perfect for this eg: think Youtube and its video/community idea. Once you got the right idea, then can start getting those on-target links, and get into peoples minds easier, much easier as the website is special and not a copy of some dead business idea.

We are now just starting to see 'cleaner' traffic and thats what we want, the traffic is happier as they found exactly what they want, so thats what the web is for.

Position of your site for the keywords of your choice?

Ah, well when we first began many years ago, we ranked NO 1 for quite a few keywords for like 6 months a time, but as its impossible to maintain without spending big chunks of cash, we dropped big time. I suppose we are on the 2nd and 3rd pages of the serps, which is not bad seeing as we don't spend thousands like others do.

how are you promoting now?

A few weblinks here and there, a few paid links, the search engines, bit of PPC. People bookmark us like crazy and word of mouth ofcourse, but we don't buy much advertising. Word of mouth works best.

[stock_post]

What is your site about?
What is your openinon on niche directoires?

Like
Gold Garnet Ring - Only jewelry shops and sites are listed

Dental Doctor - Only Dentists and dental clinics listed.

Would these help the submitted sites?

Basically both are my sites and I am thinking of going in that direction.

Am doing any doog to any one?

[highlander]

First off Gold Garnet Ring ,
Find showrooms, jewelry websites with gold rings, bracelets, ear rings, Diamonds, Pearls, Earrings, Necklaces, and many more.

Its a directory, not a ring retailer selling rings etc. Your website name doesn't tell me what it is - it says its set up for selling jewellery, yet its clearly a directory. So it wont invite the right visitor, you want searchers and jewellery advertisers - not jewellery customers.

You made a classic mistake and tried to be too clever, keep it simple, if its a directory then you must say that, let people know its a resource for Jewellery suppliers etc. You arent flogging pretty rings, so why confuse people on your site.

If its a directory for Jewelry suppliers only, then I suggest you make a big thing of that eg:

Jewelrysuppliers.com

A search engine for Jewelry buyers

------------------------------

Note - its a directory for jewelry buyers (buyers are the searchers) - the industry is the Jewelry trade, so it must list those types of company. You need to attract these companies, they will be your bread & butter.......

It looks like a brand new directory, so need to give away free listings for quite a while (probably years) just to get this filled, so be prepared for that.

The orange is too much on the eyes, feel it needs lightening up a bit or another colour blended in, maybe maximum of 2 colours, but a web designer can advise on that. But you need to get a ton of sites listed and really pack it out with those big time. Searchers won't remain on an empty site.

To be honest, I didnt check your competition in this niche, but just looked at how the site comes across. I'll look at your other site later for you.

Sorry but I don't ever list my sites on forums. But you are correct about niche being popular, and are better for searchers on the whole as they speed up search for them, so they are a good thing.

[highlander]

Dental Doctor - Dentist Site Review (Brief review)


Its a mirror image of Gold Garnet Ring, and uses a php directory script, which looks nasty as hell (sorry, but you need to know).

The site name is too small, you need to make it larger and stand out.

Yahoo ads make it look even cheaper and like some webmaster desperate for cash. Looks like a rip off to me at first glance. Speaking of first glances, first impressions are vital for websites and you'll only get one chance per visitor to impress them, but as a visitor myself, I wouldn't return. It doesnt look like the No1 dentist resource to me, you know selling link pace is hard enough, but doing it through this adsense filled script is nuts.

It needs a lot of work big time! Get it filled, it has bugger all for me to search and as a searcher I want information - your site may be young but thats no excuse for no content and people won't forgive you, they'll just leave.

Much work to do.

[keepfocussecurity]

Yeah Great Stuff here !!!