4 replies to this topic

[Corey Bryant]

Hopefully this is the right forum for this

I have found a couple of link directory from buddypress.com (BuddyPress Groups Directory Extras / Buddy Press Links) and directorypress.com

What I am looking for:
The ability to have the links something like:
Directory: www.example.com/directory/directory-name
Links: www.example.com/links/business-name (or maybe www.example.com/directory/links/business-name) - whichever is better for SEO.

Features:

• Title - Only uppercase letters in the first word - no complete uppercase (My Personal Blog - ok; MY PERSONAL BLOG - not OK
• URL
• Upload an image
• Email when new link is posted
• Registration - so the user can edit the post if needed. Also would like the ability to have the user be able to post immediately without approval (but email is still sent. Email is sent when changes are made
• Post without Registration
• Show hits today / show total hits / Average Hits
• Last Updated
• I am not charging for the service, but would like the ability to say "sponsor" so it the links will show at the top.
• Maybe in the Admin section, also see what IP was used, ability to see stats on IP - this might need to be coded
• Which is better to use addthis / sharethis / wibiya.conduit.com / or ?
• When someone choose to share, either directory / link / news - the URL shortener is used (see below for the Tweet)
• Maybe some cron job runs every week or something to verify links are still valid. Maybe I can be emailed to check in - if the links are not valid, they are deleted along with the URL shortener?

Maybe a few more things

• Perhaps when you go to the directory, you see a mini description - then when you drill down to the link, you see the complete listing. I guess this would be easier to accomplish if there are two fields for the user to post - a mini description (www.example.com/directory/directory-name) and a complete description (when you are on www.example.com/links/business-name)
• Image is seen on both
• Possibly pull News Feeds
• Allow Approved Members to post - admin still will get an email.

I am guessing that this would need to be some type of "cron job" - to submit all previous listings - 5 a day - until it is "caught" up.

I would also like to maybe incorporate the hashtag - so it is possible when they tweet, the default is set up something like:
Directory (Blog): My Site - Blog Directory - ex.com/d1 #exm
Link (High Rankings): My Site - High Rankings - ex.com/l1 #exm
News Category (Technology): My Site - Technology - ex.com/c1 #exm
News Title (High Rankings Improves XML Sitemaps): My Site - High Rankings Improves XML Sitemaps -- ex.com/n1 #exm

(if for the Tweet is going to be more than 140 characters, I am thinking that removing "My Site -" ?)

The links would need to be approved - so when someone submits a link, an email is sent to me. Another thought, if the person proves not to be a spammer, maybe allowed to sign in to enter the links / news - but I would still like to get the email. The news / link is on the site, but only when I sign in to vet the post, then the "tweet" goes out? I don't know if someone else is running a similiar site like this.

I have a smaller domain name that I would like to be used for the URL shortener - so maybe when they Tweet, Share, etc. I am thinking that it would be something like:
ex.com/d1 - where d is the directory and 1 is the directory record number in the database
ex.com/l1 - where l is the link and 1 is the link record number in the database for the links
ex.com/c1 - where c is the category and 1 is the link record number in the database for the news
ex.com/n1 - where n is the headline title and 1 is the link record number in the database for the news

I have found yourls, one from Google, and a couple from Wordpress. I don't know which one might be the best and which ones that I can control. Hopefully this can also be recommend and when a new directory / link is created, this database will be created as well. No one else will have access to this.

So to recap - what would be the best directory for SEO / Social media with the above features? And what else to recommend to help. The directory has been around for about four years but I need to get it updated. And of course anything else you can think of.

For the Twitter monitor, I have found Social Bro, HootSuite, TweetDeck - plus a few others. I really do not use it that much (Twitter) - I do like TwInBox though (that mainly just stores all the tweet to a PST file)

[chrishirst]

I'd suggest forgetting about the "what's best for SEO" and look at what is best for users, and if you are hoping for some kind of search engine "benefit" from having a "directory", you probably need to think again.

All directories bring is a lot of wasted time deleting the garbage, sorry "valuable websites" that get submitted.

[Michael Martinez]

I have evaluated several link management plugins for Wordpress. I finally just went with hard-coding the links into the pages myself. You really don't want a user-generated link directory anyway.

[Corey Bryant]

I'd suggest forgetting about the "what's best for SEO" and look at what is best for users, and if you are hoping for some kind of search engine "benefit" from having a "directory", you probably need to think again.

All directories bring is a lot of wasted time deleting the garbage, sorry "valuable websites" that get submitted.

So what would be the best for the users?

As far as benefit, I don't know if you are talking about trying to increase my site - no, I am not. For a few years, I answered questions, moderated, and administrated a lot of message boards, hopefully to help people. I had to quit for awhile due to health reasons and I don't answer as much as I used to. But I am doing what I can now. And instead of answering questions on boards - I thought I would do this instead. This way, the data is mine and if I run across something then it is easier to refer someone to a page. Especially with this one. I have had a few very large corporations wanting to buy advertising, but I just turn them down. To me, this seems to prove I am doing something right. But the script is outdated and needs the social media implementation added. I figured if I was going to do that, I might as well get everything up to date.

I know you probably get a lot of people that are just looking to spam / blackhat, etc. That is not my intent. I apologize if you took it that way.

When I looked at a few things, I had everyone tell me "Wordpress is the best". So I thought I would start at that and easily add everything else in.

I have evaluated several link management plugins for Wordpress. I finally just went with hard-coding the links into the pages myself. You really don't want a user-generated link directory anyway.

Thanks - I had done the had coded in the past, but it became too much to manage. Plus once I get this done, I will be "pushing" this to another (new) site.

In the community where I live, we have one website but it is ran by the HOA and getting things added / deleted takes days. So I was hoping to get some advice on what would be the best and hopefully a lot of features, And with what I learn from this one, I will then take it back to our local community to integrate on our "new" site - this is something that the local businesses are coming together for.

[Corey Bryant]

After a bit more thought, maybe I misunderstand SEO. I thought some of the basics were how well your web page is coded, how well / easy it is to navigate. Of course there is more.

And I thought that since social media needed to be implemented, that this would be a good time to "fix" / upgrade everything?