Please note: The information provided in the 58+ pages on this website was written in 2008 and contains old and out-dated information. I will be releasing new updated information soon that will show you how to get around the problems facing most of the web directories online today. So please sign up to the newsletter to get the soon-to-be released update!One of the reasons why you should customize your directory’s template is that you want to make it as unique as possible. This will remove your site’s footprint that search engines might recognize. The more you can customize it the better. The reason you want to change your site’s footprint is that you don’t want to get automatically penalized for building a directory. I know it’s hard to get away from since you’ll have a lot of categories and pages but I believe the more you change up your site the better.
Since most directory scripts use templates there are many ways to customize the overall look of your site.
Here are some of the things I change before doing any promotion:
Title Tags – Title tags on directory scripts are dynamically generated but you can add keywords to the beginning and end of your titles to make them more unique.
Meta Descriptions – Again Meta descriptions are automatically generated for the most part but you can customize them with text at the beginning or end. With templates there are usually just one or two template files where you can customize Meta info.. In Indexu the files are index.html, browse.html and detail.html. Header Titles H1, H2, H3 – Throughout your template you will have Header titles for the pages main header title and in most cases in the left or right hand navigation bars. I customize these by rewording them. Basically use different wording so “directory statistics” becomes “site stats” and so on.
Add Custom Content – Indexu contains separate blocks of content you can customize but you can also create new blocks or simply add the content to the left or right hand navbars directly in the sidebar1.htm or sidebar2.htm files located under your template folder.
I usually add some banner ads with some accompanying text. I also add content of some kind to the footer file. Indexu contains a special field titled %content% where you can add custom text or html to each category. You do this through the admin section under “Categories > view/edit/delete” – See screenshot below. Simply click on an existing category or create a new one and you will see a field titled “content” where you can add pretty much anything you like. Make sure your template has the token %content% in the browse.html page, otherwise your content won’t show up.
Add a Blog or Forum – Another thing I like to do is add a wordpress blog or BB/Forum to my directories. This allows users to read up on news about the site or interact with each other. It’s also a great way to add content to your site either from you or from your users.
Remove Branding – Most script companies want you to keep their link at the footer of your directory but I like to remove this if possible. Sometimes you have to pay to remove it but either way I would rather not brand my directory with someone else’s name. Many hackers search for these names/links and can easily identify your script if you leave this intact. If you must leave the link then try changing up the text or replacing it with a graphic. This should keep everyone happy and keep your directory a bit safer.
Recent Comments