Article Directories are wrong?

Regular readers will know that we run an article directory called ArticleGOLD . What started out as an experiment using an ArticleDashboard script sprinkled with some SEO powder grew quite rapidly to becoming one of the more successful directories on the Net.

It will be soon growing pass 2000 uniques a day and brings in handy Adsense revenue at a high CTR. The articles that we approve are all reviewed and of comparatively good quality. Many many submissions daily. So whats wrong with it?

To me it just doesnt seem right … this last couple of days I have been thinking of a direction change for ArticleGOLD to somehow put it right. First we need to find out what is wrong.

Putting it through TropicalSEO’s Is your site Defensible Quiz , ArticleGOLD scores quite well actually and I would say it passes 8 of the the 10 items.

7. Does your site have some sort of remarkable value?
Hes got me …..

We always try to make our sites have some value but well because of the nature that ArticeGOLD started, its just an articles directory. An article directory with good content but nevertheless, an article directory out of the countless hundreds out there. Worse, its still uses the AD script, taken nothing away from the great script (P.S. please lose the encrytion.)

I mean, how many article directories does the world need? This number I presume is considerably less than the number article marketers think they need. Alot of directories auto approve articles and seeing as ArticleGOLD rejects over half the articles submitted, thats alot of useless and wrong information on the Internet.

The ratio of quality articles submitted against articles written for the sole purpose of having 3 links in the resource box is less than ten to one from my experience of doing editorial duties for ArticleGOLD.

If we are making an articles directory for marketers then it needs to be something different because I see them going down the route of link directories if not already. Do a google search on an article you find on any directory and you’ll see what I mean.

We move swiftly on to item 10 of TropicalSEO’s list - Are you thinking about/working on defensibility?

I want to make it clear that I am not trying to turn ArticleGOLD into a Wikipedia because its an article directory. To me, a typical articles directory should service 3 types of users.

Authors - Its should help authors and article marketers get their articles and resource box seen.

Webmasters - ArticleGOLD is a free articles directory so webmasters should be able to easily find articles that they can use or refer to.

Visitors - This includes the visitors from search engines and feed subscribers that arrive at the article. The directory should make sure that the article is of quality and not be misleading.

Does your article directory give value to these people?

To me, I dont think that the current build of article directories do and there is room for improvement. Let me finetune a few ideas and I’ll post back on here when we’re ready.