Jewelry Directories: How useful they really are?

From time to time, some of us stumble upon a directory during our searches in the web. These directories store a determined number of sites, which in most cases are grouped by industry, genre, topic, etc. However, unlike a phone directory which we DO use sometimes in our lives, how many of us actually uses an internet directory to find a site we are looking for?

Many directories in the web were created for a sole purpose: to make money by cheating the system. Few of us know that links act as votes in the Internet. If a site receives many links from other pages, it becomes popular, and being popular in the Web is good, because you are found easily! Unfortunately, being popular does not necessarily mean quality. A person with skills in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is able to manipulate to some extent the results of his site (cheat the system) and achieve better rankings. This is where directories come into play. People can buy links (buy the right to have a site listed) in these directories to achieve popularity.

How can we distinguish which jewelry directory is actually beneficial to us? I think the answer is pretty simple: using common sense. There are thousands of directories out there that offer no added value to the user, just a huge list of links (also known as link farms). What differences those links from each other? Absolutely nothing. Unless the directory is administrated by a prestigious entity, that uses certain criteria to accept links in its site, there is really nothing that distinguishes a link from the one above or below it.

In Argent Dreams, we decided to create a small directory or resources page, keeping in mind everything said above. For starters, we only have few but relevant categories (silver, gold, diamond, pearl, handmade, gemstone jewelry) and limited the number of links to 20 per category (please note that this is not a "Top 20" ranking as we have no objective way to affirm that the sites listed in our resources page are in fact Top 20 in the Internet). Some of the factors we take into consideration to decide if a site will be listed are:

• Website design
• Product/Service quality
• Store policies (privacy, returns, etc)
  
• Provides valid contact information (address, phone number, e-mail)
  

We have some close competitors listed in our silver jewelry directory; however we understand that some of our visitors may not find what they seek in our store. For this reason, as part of our service, we provide them with other options that may suit them better.

Argent Dreams