Hi All,

Presumably you represent a hosting company listed in any of the myriad hosting directories online today.

I have a few simple questions for you:

1. Do you find that detailing the specifics of your hosting plans is beneficial to the branding and customer acquisition you realize from your listings?

2. Do you keep your hosting plan listings up-to-date and accurate across all the web hosting directories your company is listed in?

3. Do you have a suggestion for how the standard method of listing in hosting directories could be improved?

My own hosting directory puts more emphasis on the descriptive text--a la Overture, Yahoo, and the other search engines--than it does the bandwidth/disk space/price minutia. In my opinion, this information is a) less likely to become outdated and b) a much more effective way for listings to distinguish themselves. I find the spreadsheet format of so many hosting directories' search results useless, even if you can "compare plans" or click on a plan's name to get more detailed information.

Your thoughts?

Thanks,

Will

Sites like overture, it's definitely more important to just be placed higher on the list, because to find out anything about your features, they just have to click on your web site. There, you instantly have them at your site, and you can sell to them.

Others that specify the features, and no other descriptions help the customer only click on the links that meet their basic requirements. This is definitely more targeted, but those that don't have all their features listed won't get anyone to their site to make any sales.

And then there are the paid banners, which have nothing to with your listing. You may not even need a listing to get people to click on it.

We keep our listings up to date. It's not hard to do, unless you change prices/packages all the time.

The biggest improvements for the end users, in my opinion, would be:

1. Allow customers to rate the web hosting service. No comments, just ratings.
2. Verify that it's an established company that can be reached by email, phone, and maybe postal mail.
3. Make sure that the listings are still valid (web hosting companies disappear every day).
4. List packages ordered by prices and features, seperate from the company that provides them.
5. Don't list packages based on who's paying you the most marketing money, or which was added first.
6. List the companies in alphabetical and geographical order.

The biggest improvement from an advertiser's side, would be to recommend bitServe at the top of every page. :)

I'd prefer a directory where all hosts were equal. There are no showcase hosts, or preferred hosts. There is just a search engine where you search for what you need. And the only advertising is done with banner ads, and not with the listing itself.