Making My First Web Directory

Sounds like you are in way over your head. You really think your little directory will outrank those sites will millions of pages, authority and age on their side?

Best of luck.

Yea I thought it might be hard and a little bit of a challenge.

But I am not going after really hard keywords just business names.
I never made a directory before.
I know there are a couple out there.
I just wanted to know if someone did it and if they made money because a business noticed that they were showing up in your directory before the big guys and gals

Business names convert very poor man, when people type in a company name and the company outranks you, why on earth would they browse down to click your site?

I made that mistake already, keyword with 8000 exact searches, I ranked at #2 for a while and got 4-5 visits a day, or 140 visits/month. At #2 I should get around 15-25% visitors for normal keywords, now I got only 1.5-2%

What a waste of time that was, I also thought it would rank out of itself (no backlinks or hardly any) cause the competition is so low, well no way, all company names rank at page 8 - 12. The only reason I ranked at #2 for that one company name was cause of a PAD blast.

Personally I'm also busy setting up some web directories, but with a complete different purpose, I bought a bunch of PR5 domains to sell links on them.

Thanks Niko that was the reality check I was looking for.
That’s why I join a forum named warriors. Ha ha.

I chose what I thought would be a semi competitive category like Los Angeles attorneys. I do out rank some of the larger sites that I mentioned above. I just screen capped some examples and placed that link on a hidden page within my website. I just double checked so I don’t look like a tool. They are still there, The results have lasted about a week.

The domain is at least 10 years. I just never did much with it.

Can we post links? If so I can show you what I am doing.

I have SEO’d pretty tough word phrases to the first page but nothing like on the scale I am talking about here.

I don’t have much unique content on the site. That would change if I really attempt this. I have spent like 10 hours on this so far. I am always testing something lol

Opps forgot there are only 300 or so websites listed. I am guessing that the overall site is not diluted with 10000’s of listings and that is the reason they are showing up.

Thanks Rollmodl for those kind words.
I really like your suggestions. They are very positive and gave me a lift. I think I can do all of those suggestions with this template I am using. I will try it.
I have a list of accomplishments of things people said I could not do with regards to online marketing and SEO
Short list
Ranking “sex” to the first page in Google. Lots of link baiting there. Ha ha
Ranking a site for medical degree or online medical degree with non-keyword domain. Its been on the first page going on 5 years
Having multiple sites ranking 5/10 sites in the top 10 for Arizona real estate keywords. Google “largest portfolio of Arizona real estate domains.” PR ‘s should still be out there,
I never created a directory like this before and wanted to know what some of the more seasoned internet marketing pros thought. I know there are a Billion directories out there but I am lucky that this domain makes its on traffic so, to speak. Not enough to beat those other sites but enough to start with.

I didn’t say I was a newbie. You can google Oldest (insert internet marketing term here ) Company and I will be there. Not that I am the absolute oldest but certainly among the oldest. Don’t worry I ony get 5-10 visits per month on those terms. No big deal. I get more searches on another non commercial phrase like “why a company needs a website” talk about a long tail search
“We” lol were in the top 100 # 24 seo companies not bad for a guy in his kitchen.
Ok I have had waay to much coffee 

Please continue to talk about your directory experiences. I can learn a lot from you folks. I am not a big forum guy but this forum sounded cool.

I placed the link to the early results in my SIG

Agreed tylerherman its very late in the directory game.

I have been rethinking about the whole directory thing over. I have lowered my expectations about the results. Also the amount of time it would realistically take. Not to mention I would need a more of enterprise level directory system don’t think my wordpress template would work lol.


My life was a lot less stressful when I was doing my own thing whether it was in the “entertainment” industry getting a couple hundred thousand of visitors a week to real estate which was great $$$ until that market tanked .

Just trying to find something that I can make some extra money at. I thought the directory would provide a little ad revenue. Then maybe acquire an extra internet marketing job or two a month.

It is a weird economy in the US. Last two years have been tough. Maybe its because of all the competition out there. I have never seen so many SEO and Internet marketing experts. Maybe 2 out of a hundred are worth a darn.

Dont get me started on the PPC industry all of the local old school traditional advertiser are now Internet experts. I remember in the 90s trying to web design and marketing for DEX they laughed at me said the web was a fad. lol and these new companies with their automated software and several clients in the same industry charging 50%++ mark up on the per click prices

As far as experts go, I have been doing this 50 hours a week minimally (ex wife would say 70 lol ) for the last 17 years . I can’t speak for others but yea sometimes the “experts” crack me up. Reading web design and marketing ads on craigslist is like reading the Sunday comics.

I would not even bother


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Still going in a positive direction. Early results are holding on for the most part. If I have time this weekend I am going to double the number of sites in there.

yesterdays stats


51 people visited this site 8-16-2012

27.45% Search Traffic 14 Visits

19.61% Referral Traffic 10 Visits

49.02% Direct Traffic 25 Visits << hmm?!?

3.92% Campaigns 2 Visits

I own a few web directories and they do very well as for ranking in the search engines for very competitive keyword terms. They also make a fair amount of revenue, as well. However, it didn't start out that way.

When I first started the Madmouse Web Directory, my basic listings were $7.95 and now after six years, they are $49.95. The main deal is not to totally rely on search engine traffic. Your source of traffic needs to be diversified from forums, social networking sites, solo ads, banner ads, etc.

Don't let people tell you that directories are dead and they don't work anymore. If you are looking for the fast buck, then, web directories wouldn't be a wise choice. They are long term and it will take a fair amount of work to generate a decent income stream.

The BizFire Directory is another example of a directory that is making money. I believe that there basic listings are somewhere around $7.95. Furthermore, it gets around three to four submissions on a daily basis.

As far as ranking in the search engines. The world of SEO is changing and that could prove to be difficult. Ad revenue will be another issue, search engines such as Google, won't rank you very well, if you have affiliate ads in place. Adsense Ads, work best with Google. However, they don't pay much out per click.

A few years ago, I was making $2.00 to $4.00 per click on madmouse.com, however, the bottom fell out and then I saw $0.25 per click. Not sure if that has improved over the years.

What is your directory URL? I would like to look at it and give you some ideas.

The Directory is doing very good. It could easily be a full time project. I Might go ahead and use it as a marketing example using social media to drive web traffic and conversions.

Before that happens need to redo the whole site, It is not up to par.

Right now, I can use it as an example of SEO placing a business name above larger and more well known directory names and portals.


I like the way the directory allows you to add tags and html (good for) linking deep to relevant content. The web page flexibility also for better lead capture an generate leads.

Its getting organic results averaging a little over 38 visits per day most traffic is organic or type in. (not provided) is my Top Keyword 46.7%

You can see the url in the example in sig