It looks like the past 24 hours have seen a Google Toolbar Pagerank update. While any decent webmaster knows that Pagerank no longer holds the power it once did, it’s still nice to see your websites PR increase. I’m happy with the latest update as my existing sites have remeained as strong, while a couple of projects have gained a bit of PR love. The homepage of my travel directory is now PR3, and while I would have loved it to reach PR4 I guess PR3 isn’t too shabby considering I only started the site in July. This is the first PR update since the directory launched, and a solid PR3 is nothing to be ashamed of.

The funny thing about Pagerank is that often people won’t link to you unless you have a positive PR score. This means that quite often, the higher your websites PR the more inbound links you get. This in turn increases your PR and so on – it becomes a cyclical feedback process. Naturally with increased link popularity will come increased exposure to spam merchants looking to drop links to increase their own pagerank. I’d like to state here and now that if anything my editorial guidelines will become stricter than ever. I won’t link out to poor quality websites, so don’t even bother asking. Only travel sites that are genuinely interesting or useful will be included in the directory.

I’ve mentioned elsewhere that I’m currently revamping the directory and adding more content. I’m hoping this will pull in more visitors, but a nice side effect is that I might get more backlinks from other sites, which could increase my PR at the next update (whenever that might be). I wonder what my directories PR will be this time next year? Google have recently removed the PR preview from Webmaster Tools, so it’s entirely possible they’ll remove it from the Google Toolbar and public view altogether!

As I’ve already stated, I don’t think PR stands for too much these days, but it’s a nice game to play between webmasters. Have any of you noticed a change in your sites PR? If so has it been for better or worse? Do you even care, or do you also think PR is increasingly just another minor metric with little effect on your websites SERPs?

Aplogies for not posting in a while. I’ve got a couple of posts in draft form, but in addition to being extremely busy at my “day job” I’ve been making some major changes to my travel directory. Nothing’s visible to the public at the moment, but I’m adding more content in the form of articles and giving the site a complete makeover. The current theme was only ever intended as a stop gap to get the site up and running, but the new content means I’m giving a lot more thought to page layout.

If I’ve got time I also want to reflect the new design in my blog template as an attempt to reconcile both the blog and directory a little more. I feel that as they stand they’re almost seperate entities.

Anyway, back to the grindstone. Watch this space for progress and announcements!

Over the weekend I successfully moved my travel directory from a shared hosting environment to a dedicated VPS. During this process I ran into a couple of issues so decided to reinstall the script and just transfer the database and website theme. This gave me the opportunity to upgrade my PHP Link Directory script to the recently released 4.0 version.

You probably won’t notice any difference in the public areas of the site, but the upgrade includes a couple of nice additions to the administration area, with better options for database backup and a couple of other nice touches.

The directory has now been running under the new version and environment for a few days, and everything seems to be okay. However, although I’ve tested the installation thoroughly there may be issues that I’ve not yet found. If you happen to find any outstanding problems that I’ve not yet addressed please don’t hesitate to let me know via the comments at the bottom of this post!

I’ve got a VPS that I use for a couple of pet projects, but until today it wasn’t set up to run PHP. I’ve been meaning to install Apache and PHP for a while so that I can transfer my niche travel directory and a couple of other websites away from hosting on shared accounts at various providers.

I was at a bit of a loose end this morning, so I spent a couple of hours configuring the server then backed up and copied across all the data and files from my sites. As you are reading this I guess you can tell the transfer was a success, although it might take another few hours before the new DNS settings have propagated globally.

Having the directory hosted on the VPS means that I have absolute control over the hosting environment and can tweak things to my hearts content. At some point in the future I plan to set up another VPS instance to act as a redundant backup to the existing system, but in the mean time look for some major improvements to the directory in coming weeks!

Yesterday I returned from a week away and decided to catch up on the latest submissions to my travel directory. There were a handful of new links, some good, some bad. As always there were a few non-travel spam submissions (some people never learn) that I hit with the ban hammer. The other sites that I rejected were either incomplete or else the submitter hadn’t taken the time to write a decent description. I didn’t mark these sites as spam, but just refused a listing. If they were resubmitted at a later date there’s a possibility that these sites would get listed, providing they didn’t make the same mistakes second time around.

A couple of hours later I was checking email when I came across a message in response to a directory rejection. The webmaster wanted to let me know what a fool I’d been and how my website was missing out by not listing his – a site that he claims is “improving every day”. Unfortunately the email didn’t say which of the submitted sites was his, and I couldn’t cross reference his email address (once a listing is deleted from the directory it’s gone forever, unless it’s flagged as spam). If this webmaster had actually taken the time to read my submission guidelines he’d know that, while I appreciate every website is a work in progress, I will reject any site that is obviously unfinished. Depending on my mood I also reject lazy submissions, where the submission is in the wrong category. There are actually about a hundred different reasons why I might reject your submission, and they’re not all listed in the guidelines. I have a particular dislike of plain old bad web design – I don’t want to list cheap looking crap, so don’t even bother submitting your “made for adsense” scraped blog.

Oh yes – one final thing… If you ever want feedback on why your submission was rejected you need to reread the submission guidelines – I don’t do feedback other than through this blog. However, if you want to try anyway please make sure you either reference the site in question, or else use an email address from the appropriate domain, not something as anonymous as abc123@gmail.com! Who knows, maybe your site will be lucky enough to get mentioned in one of my rants here. After all, there’s no such thing as bad publicity, is there?

One of the inherent problems with running my travel directory is that the webmasters of many websites that are submitted do not have English as their primary language. While this isn’t an insurmountable problem it means that I receive a fair number of directory submissions with poor wording or grammar. While I appreciate that not everybody can write perfect English (me included), it’s my aim to make this directory as useful as possible to an audience that is overwhelmingly English speaking.

Our submission guidelines clearly state that poorly written submissions will be rejected and we won’t rewrite them for you. While this might sound a little strict, I think the rule is justified given the number of low quality spam submissions the directory receives on a regular basis.

Despite this rule there have been a couple of isolated cases where I decided to ignore the directory guidelines and rewrite website descriptions. These were submissions for websites that I actually wanted to include in the directory, but whose descriptions couldn’t be used “as is”. It was obvious that the webmasters concerned had done their best with the copy, and would be able to communicate with customers to the degree necessary to provide a service, but they just weren’t able to put together a submission that met our editorial guidelines. Although I don’t particularly want to publicise it, I’m happy to do some a bit of rewriting in cases like this.

The real problem, and something that annoys me, is when a website clearly belongs to a native English speaker, but whose submission is so poor it can only have originated from cheap outsourced labour. I have no idea what compels somebody to spend the time, money and effort to create a well designed website and then entrust the marketing of the same to strangers willing to work for peanuts.

Perhaps the reason for this lack of attention to detail is because these days web directories are only viewed as an ancillary online marketing strategy, but whatever the reason, I refuse to rewrite submissions that obviously fall into this category.

Now I’m not tarring all outsourced directory submission services with the same brush, and I don’t have anything against outsourcing submissions (which admittedly can be a tedious process). However, if you hire somebody with knowledge and experience of directories then you can greatly increase your chances of getting your website listed, while a bad submission service will get your site blacklisted at the very directories you trying to get listed in!

So, if you are a native English speaker with a quality website that you want to get listed in good directories please, please provide your outsourcers with good submission copy. Just because the submisions are being performed by non-native English speakers doesn’t mean your listing has to read like it!

On Saturday night I had the geat pleasure of spending an evening in the presence of the fabulous British rock troubadours Coldplay! No, they didn’t come ’round my gaff for a cuppa and a chat – rather me, my wife and about 55,000 other people crowded into Lancashire County Cricket Ground (Manchester, England) yesterday for a concert which has to rank as one of the best I can remember!

While the main focus of the concert was  Coldplay there were also two supporting acts who were each excellent in their own right. Kicking off the festivities were the excellent White Lies, who are currently enjoying a fair bit of playtime on BBC Radio 1. These guys look set for great things, and older music fans will notice elements in their tracks reminiscent of several great 80’s bands (most notably Duran Duran). Given the current popularity and resurgence of all things 80’s that can be no bad thing.  They managed to warm up the crowd nicely and were good enough that I went out and bought their album yesterday!

Second up (and probably unaccustomed to not headlining) was Jay Z! While he put on a good show it felt a little out of place sandwiched between the two indie acts. We were seated towards the rear of the stadium (my wife is pregnant and we didn’t want to risk the heaving of the crowd) but it looked like everybody down at the front enjoyed the set.  From where I was sitting it all came across a bit muddled, but I’m sure there’s thousands of people who were there that would argue differently. Maybe I’m just getting old…

Finally, after sunset, Coldplay took the stage. I’ve been an “appreciater” of their music for some time, but never would have dubbed myself a “fan” until last night. Even while I was there I was trying to think how I could describe the mixture of atmosphere, music and lightshow, and to be honest I don’t think I could ever do it justice.

The set list was a mixture of new material from Coldplays latest album “Viva la Vida” and old favourites that had 55,000 people singing in unison. It’s been about five years since I last went to a large scale concert (it was actually The Cure at the same venue) but I was amazed at how much more sophisticated the accompanying visuals and lightshow were that anything I’ve ever seen before! Each song had it’s own visual theme and I couldn’t even attempt to describe the entire gig, but there are a couple of standout moments that are most vivid in my memory. The first of these are the confetti butterflys spewed forth from cannons into the crowd and over the stage during “Lovers in Japan” – for the duration of the song the air was filled with thousands upon thousands of multicoloured flutterings. Secondly, and perhaps my favourite, were the giant balloons that magically appeared throughout the crowd during a brief moment of darkness just before a moving rendition of “Yellow” during which all 55,000 people sang out the chorus!

All in all it was a truly breathtaking experience and I will be awaiting Coldplays next tour in anticipation!

It seems that all my posts so far have been about the negative aspects of running my web directory, so I thought it was time to give you all a bit of an insight into what I (and other directory owners) am looking for in an ideal directory submission. The following is an article that I wrote a few weeks ago and has been published on various article directories around the web. I’m afraid it doesn’t read like a regular blog post, but I hope you still enjoy reading it and I’m sure it will help in your web promotion efforts…

Backlinks are perhaps the most important aspect of SEO, and historically the best way to get these was through web directory submissions. Although there are now plenty of other ways to get these essential backlinks web directories can still play a valuable role in your website promotion efforts. However, with literally thousands of available web directories it’s important that you focus only on those that will benefit you – directories with poor editorial guidelines have little to no value, either for the effect of the backlink on your search engine rankings or the direct traffic they might send.

Regardless of whether they offer free or paid listings the directories that Google gives authority to are all stringently edited by real people. While strict submission guidelines mean that it’s more difficult to get your website listed in these authority directories, if you are lucky enough to get accepted your website details will appear alongside the listings of other quality websites.

When applying to authority directories the quality of your submission serves as an indicator to editors about what they can expect when they review your website. While a well written submission can greatly improve your chances of being accepted, an editor is likely to reject a poorly written submission out-of-hand. As a directory owner myself I can attest that only about 10% of submissions make it into my directory, but if you follow the common-sense advice here you will greatly increase your chances of inclusion.

Firstly, you need to make sure that your website is finished and has no broken links. You shouldn’t even consider submitting to directories if your website is “under construction” or has navigation or hosting problems – address these issues first or you will be wasting your time and your website may be blacklisted from future submissions.

Next, make sure you only submit to directories that are appropriate to your website. I run a free travel links directory and every day I receive submissions from websites totally unrelated to travel and tourism. In cases like these not only do I delete the submission, but I also ban the IP address of the submitter so that they cannot submit in the future, regardless of whether future submissions are relevant or not.

Once you’re sure your website is appropriate for a directory you need to find the right category to submit to. By choosing carefully you’ll make sure that directory users can find your listing easily and your backlink will be surrounded by keyword rich descriptions of other similar websites, improving the relevance of your backlink, which is beneficial for SEO purposes.

The title you provide for your listing should ideally be the name of your website. I know how tempting it can be to use keyword rich, generic search phrases for your title, but it’s unlikely that your submission would be pass editorial review.

Likewise, your description should be grammatically correct prose, not a string of comma separated keywords. It’s perfectly fine to use keywords, and they are in fact essential from a marketing perspective, but first and foremost your site description should be useful to visitors to the directory. There’s a fine art in tweaking your description for the perfect balance between keywords and useful text.

If there is a “keywords” or “tags” field available you can put all your keywords here, but don’t repeat keywords multiple times – although the directory software might remove duplicates it’s a sure sign of desperation and a warning signal to editors that your website uses “spammy” marketing techniques.

Finally, once you’re confident that you’ve submitted a quality listing you might need to check your email. Many directories won’t queue your submission for editorial approval until it has been confirmed by email, and some will automatically delete submissions that remain unconfirmed after a set period. Directory editors make full use of the tools available to them to reduce the number of spammy and poor quality submissions they have to wade through, so unless you confirm via email there’s a good chance that your submission will never even be reviewed.

So, now that you know how to write the perfect directory submission why not put it into practice and get yourself some authority backlinks? Lists of quality directories with high PageRank can easily be found with an online search, and if you’re promoting a travel or tourism related website you can start by submitting to my travel links directory.

I really caught a break when I chose the script to run My Travel Directory as I ended up going for PHPLD, which has excellent spam handling features. If there’s a submission I want to decline I can either “delete” it, or (if I think it warrants it) “delete as spam”. The fundamental difference between these two options is that if I select “delete” then there are no repercussions, but “delete as spam” then not only blacklists the submitted domain but also the IP address of the submitter. Flagging a submission as spam has a duel effect – not only can’t the website be submitted in the future but the submitter can’t ever submit any other websites (providing they were using a static IP address). While this might seem a bit harsh it’s generally accepted that the great majority of spam comes from only a handful of offenders. By targeting not only the website itself, but also the submitter, I can greatly decrease the likelihood of future submissions from the same spammer. naturally there are limitations to this method – a submitter might be using a static IP address and a website can be hosted under multiple domains, but this method is a great start in quashing spam directory submissions.

When I first set up My Travel Directory I received a lot of non-travel related website submissions. While some were entirely unrelated, others had at least made an attempt at trying to sound related to the directory.

One submission I received was for “neck lift holidays in Hungary”! After I refused a listing the submitter emailed me to say that my decision was wrong and that I should add a “medical holidays” category. I checked the website in question, and surely enough it really did try to pitch overseas cosmetic surgery as a “holiday” (or “vacation” for our friends across the Atlantic). This an example of a website where someone is trying to use a new perspective to market an existing product, and I have no problem with that. Maybe there are directories that would create a new category to cater for sites like this, but it’s not the sort of website I want to associate my directory with – it’s as simple as that.

After looking at my site stats it became obvious why I was receiving lots of other non-travel submission. People were coming to the directory using advanced search operators to find free directories with a “shopping” category (I had a top level category called “shopping”). The problem was that they weren’t stopping long enough to realise that mine is a niche travel directory, and were submitting any shopping-related sites. After realising this I renamed my “shopping” category to “travel essentials”. It’s a few weeks since I did this, and since I’ve seen a steady decline of non-travel submissions, although my guess is there will always be some who’ll try their luck regardless.