(Entry was posted by Joanna Jana Laznicka on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 04/26/2018).

What are the current best practices for SEO regards to directory sites?

I have a site in a specific niche that gets great traffic. The site is known as an authority in the specific niches. Many universities and even government agencies link to it. I am going to make a sister site that is a directory for those that support that specific niche. What are the current best practices for SEO regards to directory sites? My biggest fear is that site damaging my authoritative site SEO due to some funky algorithm even though people in the specific niche desperately need some sort of directory to source specific consultants and software.

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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

Rob Woods: carefully curate what sites get added to your directory and make it clear somewhere on the site that there is a strict review policy. Add rich information about each listing. Consider nofollowing the outgoing links (so there is no SEO advantage in listing on the site), consider allowing reviews of the consultants and software though I`d curate these as well.
Rob Woods: consider https://www.capterra.com as an example. It`s a software directory that gets a lot of organic traffic consistently
Cathy Gray: #notadumbseoquestion
Joanna Jana Laznicka: How about if it is hosted on the same VPS would there be an issue that makes it look like I am a content farm? I reframe from hosting two sites of similar niches on the same VPS. This is one of my fears. Getting dinged for similar sites/same niche sites
Ryan Jones: Not all directories are bad. Many have value. For example angie`s list, or a place for mom. Or maybe you`re a roofer who is certified by a brand to install their products - that brand would have a directory of roofers, etc.If the directory is useful for people, it will be useful for SEO....Lihat Lainnya
Michael Martinez: It`s okay to link them together in sitewide navigation. People need to understand that the difference between normal Website behavior and spam tends to be EXCESS. Excess is illustrated by the "if 1 is good for me then let me have 50, please" mentality.
David Gizzarelli: just name the directory something different