Free Mountain Realty Directory for Agents (no reciprocals please)

[MountainRealtyDirectory]

This small, free, human-edited, niche directory currently has a a PR5 homepage, offers straight-text links (with limited links on each page), and only lists one quality site per mountain town. If a higher quality site is submitted to an occupied town, the lower quality site gets knocked out of the directory. You guessed it, quality over quantity: fewer links equals more PR to spread around, and an overall better user experience.

SITES THAT WILL BE REJECTED:
1. Spammy sites, techniques, or obvious search engine cheating. See Google's webmaster quality guidlines.

2. Sites with Adsense, Amazon aff links, etc. - looking for agents who want to sell real estate not ad space.

3. Sites with little, useless, or irrelevant content.

4. Sites employing obvious link exchange schemes used to boost SE rankings with PR and anchor text. (If an agent and Jane's Cabin Rentals exchange links to behoove their users and related regional businesses that's perfectly natural, but lil' ol' agents linking to every real estate & financing site on the planet is simply worthless for the user(customer), and in the long run lowers conversions.)

5. Sites that link back; I'd rather not have links from a gazillion agent websites. And besides, you have no business sending your customers my way.

I hear a lot of agents complain that it is tough for a new commercial site (or a mature comm site for that matter) to get links without a recip campaign or paying. I hope I've created an opportunity/incentive for at least a few agents to focus a little more on quality content and their customers:

http://www.mountainrealtydirectory.com/

[ResaleBroker]

If a higher quality site is submitted to an occupied town, the lower quality site gets knocked out of the directory.

What criteria do you use to evaluate "Quality?"

[MountainRealtyDirectory]

>>What criteria do you use to evaluate "Quality?"

On a case-by-case basis I will remain 100% subjective; I'm the dorky law professor grading 1-question essay finals. Hey, it's free w/ no ads

Basically:
1. Usability
2. Content (non-duplicate or template scrape?, freshness, the quality and number of listings WITH PHOTOS<<plural!)
3. Page load speeds
4. Browser/OS compatibility
5. Branding

[rogerdan]

Is my site consider "quality" ?

By the way, you missed out the asian and International category.

[CafeMonkey]

Boy... That's a lot of qualifications...

NO's:

Spammy Techniques - looking for content authored for users, not search engines
Link Exchange Directories or Link Farms - only relevant links for users, not for rankings
Pop-Ups or Affiliate Advertisements - seeking agent sites serious about selling mountain property, not books
BROWNIE POINTS: no Flash, no frames, no templates

submit your site for review - this directory is for individual agents that have websites displaying available MOUNTAIN PROPERTIES WITH PICTURES on the Internet--no teams, agencies, or other companies please. PLEASE, NO AGENT SITES USING BLATENT RECIPROCAL LINKING CAMPAIGNS--please see "NO's: #2"

I think I'll pass on this one. Good luck!

[ResaleBroker]

MountainRealtyDirectory,

I noticed this phrase in your requirements:

...NO AGENT SITES USING BLATENT RECIPROCAL LINKING CAMPAIGNS.

Considering the subjective nature of your decisions what does this mean to you? I ask because one of the key aspects of this forum, REW, is reciprocal linking?

[MountainRealtyDirectory]

>>Considering the subjective nature of your decisions what does this mean to you? I ask because one of the key aspects of this forum, REW, is reciprocal linking?

It probably means I'm fishing in the wrong pond with the wrong bait. However, I hope that alternate views or methods are welcome discussion here. To me it means limited relevant recip linking for the user is fine, but recip linking obviously used only to boost SE rankings is not.

The directory idea came after I published my Bookmarks of "quality" mtn realty sites for a ski friend; we love checking out mountain properties, especially around ski resorts. I defined "quality" as a good display of product and keeping me in their town and selling me on their town.

Do I want to see a link to "New Jersey Real Estate" when I'm shopping for a ski-in, ski-out log cabin in Vail? Do I trust this agent now? So, the directory is a personal resource for me, and it something I do for free, my way, in my spare time, that happens to benefit agents who work and spend hard on content and wouldn't link to another agent for anything less than what they make a year.

[kensmith]

I like the approach even if I don't qualify (not a mountain area). More directories need to have standards as most are worthless to visitors and only for the SE's. You might want to get some ski resorts to help sponsor this little idea of yours. I hope this works for you, best of luck.

[Jade456]

Good luck with your site. Las Vegas actually does have some mountain property (Mount Charleston). I'm curious to know if you would include sites that include that property type but its not their only focus. You would expand your directory if you would include those. IMHO

[MountainRealtyDirectory]

>>More directories need to have standards as most are worthless to visitors and only for the SE's...I hope this works for you, best of luck.

Thank you. How long before these "directories"/recip pages become discounted, ignored, penalized, or banned by search engines? (If I were spending time/money on this recip madness, I'd for sure have a recovery plan in place for if/when the PReaper comes calling.)

PS: Perhaps I'll have branched out to a few more niches when needed most.