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View Full Version : As promised "How to Get Faster Reviews"


Glo
26-08-2002, 11:24/11:24AM
Most of the webmasters and SEO's who frequent these forums may already have a good working knowledge of what is required by directories to get their site(s) listed. My hope is to educate the new webmasters and SEO's while offering the more experienced a few tips they might not have considered.

Each directory is unique, even though some of their guidelines have common themes there are differences. It's important to familiarize yourself with each directory's guidelines before submitting your site(s) if you want to save yourself some grief in the long run. I'm not going to explain JoeAnt's guidelines here or the reasons those guidelines have been adopted. I'd rather offer some insight into the life of an editor and what I look for when reviewing submissions.

I don't want to go into what Web sites are appropriate or inappropriate to list on JoeAnt. Our guidelines are clear on that subject but we still get a large amount of inappropriate submissions that eat up large amounts of editing time. That leaves the viable submissions waiting in the queue far longer than they deserve if editors go through the unreviewed queue on a first come, first serve bases.

The first come, first served analogy may be the ideal in theory but in practice it leaves the good submissions waiting longer than they should. So, I have (as many editors have) chosen to look for what appears to be a good submission first. I will pass up the poorly written titles and descriptions as I wade through the unreviewed queue, which is about 99% of the submissions. It's rare to come upon a submission that has a good title and description, even rarer to find one that doesn't need any editing.

My number one tip for getting faster reviews is to take the time to read the guidelines on writing a title and description. We don't expect perfection, hell, I still have to edit some of my own submissions, but we should not have to rewrite the whole description before it can be added to JoeAnt. If you want your keywords in the description then it will serve you to write a description that complies with our guidelines. Otherwise, the editor might do a rewrite that doesn't include those keywords. And please, check your spelling before submitting and write a unique description for JoeAnt. We do not want the same description as every other directory you may have submitted to.

I don't want anyone to think that writing good titles and descriptions are all it takes to get listed on JoeAnt, it's not. The other guidelines are just as important. We are striving to create a directory that indexes the best available Web sites for our users. Writing good titles and descriptions will get noticed and your Web site(s) will get reviewed much faster. We appreciate the effort it takes to read and follow our guidelines. Those who do will be rewarded with a quick and efficient review.

Description guidelines can be viewed Here (http://www.joeant.com/title.htm)
JoeAnt's full guidelines can be viewed Here (http://www.joeant.com/guidelines.html)

If you have any questions about our guidelines, please ask them here. We will be glad to help in anyway we can. :)

Gloria

Mel
26-08-2002, 12:44/12:44PM
Thanks for th tips Glo, that should help bo the editors and the submitters.

Now if we could only get DMOZ and Yahoo to put out a post like that.

Phoenix
26-08-2002, 16:11/04:11PM
While directories vary in their style guidelines and what they consider an appropriate site to include, my guess is that most editors look for much of the same thing. Did the person submitting the site put in any effort? You can tell if he/she tried to find the best topic and follow the guidelines for the title and description.

This tells the reviewer a few things. First, getting the site listed is important to the submitter just as maintaining a quality directory is to the editor.

Second, it's a matter of curtesy. Editors spend their time looking at the site, less time than it would take the submitter to skim through the guidelines. If my time is limited, why should I waste it on someone who couldn't be bothered with spending a few minutes on their submission?

And third, most editors are doing this because they like being online and looking at new sites. The title and description are the first impression we get of the site. If someone spends a few extra minutes to make sure their submission is a good one there's a better chance (IMO) that they also spent the time to make sure their site is high quality. If the title/description reads like spam, I'm going to be assuming that the site will probably be spammy also. Given a choice, which would you look at first?

MB