Member Avatar for AccurateAG

Hi:

After having posted to over 1,000 directories, there are a few things I would like to bring to the attention of directory owners and operators:

1. When you ask for information, such as the URL, the e-mail address, the description, or whatever, PLEASE put any restrictions right on the data entry screen! It wastes my time, as well as yours, when I have to go back to correct things such as:
- The e-mail account needs to be on the domain being listed.
- The description is too long
- The nubmer of keywords is excessive
- The URL needs to have "http://" in front of it.

2. TEST YOUR WEBSITE! It sounds mucho obvious--who would not test their web site?--but I have more than once encountered errors in web sites, such as:
- CAPTCHA is not displayed
- CAPTCHA displays one length, and the input field accepts another length (i.e., the CAPTCHA is 6 characters, and the input field only takes 5 characters).
- The site is down.
- The site is up, but you get error messages when you try to submit which show the submission form is broken

3. Speaking of CAPTCHA, please choose a version, if you can, that makes the difference between upper and lower case obvious. It is no fun to have to guess whether a W, V, X, Z, O, etc., is capital or lower case, and with CAPTCHA, if you get one letter wrong, the code is wrong and you have to redo the code.

4. Please keep up with it. I was at one website today where the number of active links was 2430, but the PENDING links were 121,249. Yes, you read that right: 121K PENDING SUBMISSIONS!

5. When someone wants to bookmark your site, please ensure the URL is in the bookmark, not just "Directory". Also, in the URL, while it is nice for the site owner to have a lot of editorial text, it is not so great for the person bookmarking your site.

6. When you display search results, please include the category the site is listed in; that is what someone doing directory postings is looking for, which category their web site will best fit into on this site.

7. Please have a "home" link in your navigation bar; it just makes life a little easier.

Thank you.

John

Edited by AccurateAG because: Added a paragraph
  • 2 Contributors
  • 2 Replies
  • 259 Views
  • 1 Week Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by AccurateAG

Dani AI

Generated

John () has clearly lived the directory-submitter experience and raised issues that routinely cost both submitters and site operators time. Below are compact, practical fixes and submitter workflows that reduce rework, improve UX, and make moderation scalable.

For directory operators: make forms self-documenting and resilient. Show exact field rules inline (examples, maxlength counters, allowed characters), validate on the client and the server, and never discard a user’s input on error — return the form with values preserved and a clear message. Use an accessible anti‑bot method (case‑tolerant or with audio fallback), add lightweight health checks so down pages are detected early, and expose simple queue metrics and estimated processing times in the UI so people know what to expect. Publish a direct permalink for each listing and include its category in public search results and snippets.

For submitters: track every submission in a simple spreadsheet (site name, form URL, date, account/email used, category chosen, description variant, status, notes, screenshot). Keep a set of short description templates sized to common limits and copy them into the form to avoid truncation. When a form fails, capture a screenshot and the server response before retrying; that makes it far easier to report reproducible problems to the directory owner. Automate only where the directory’s terms allow.

Small, low-cost changes on both sides eliminate most of the friction John described and stop backlogs from growing. For anyone wondering about effort — as asked — a disciplined workflow plus templates turns large batches from a chaotic slog into a repeatable process that scales.

Recommended Answers

All 2 Replies

Member Avatar for canadafred

1,000 directories so far! WOW! How long did that take you?

Member Avatar for AccurateAG

Hi Fred:

Since December of 2010. I may be over 1,000, but I have not done any sort of inventory on that. I have the records in my Favorites, not Excel. I started this project as a newbie SEO person, so I did not know to document in Excel. Oh well.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.