A good post Sizzler, but of late i tend to see people call some directories crap while others are called good or even great, these views are all based on how others in the industry see the product.

With every factor you have listed I agree they are all important but these alone can not be judged by the people who produce / orare involved in the business.

In that i will always remember one day as a kid i asked my pop a question " Pop you have done really well, you re successful and have every thing working well, how would you rate yourself out of 10" or words to that effect.

His answer has stayed with me for life " It is wrong to rate or judge yourself or the to judge your own achievements, if you do, the result will be flawed, the only true rating have is how others have rated me and my work" or again words to that effect.

The whole thing behind that i will discuss a little further to expand.

Age - Yes as with any business age is an important factor, not in all but in most cases it signals there is something right happening.

PageRank - A tool used to measure the site and one of many indipendant scores but i agree an 1mportant one as does bring into play many factors

PageStrangth - As above

Design - I agree with Mikes words, but design goes deeper than that, in that a car company make many designs as they know not everyone drives exactly the same car, nor colour etc, what happens then is those who like blue will probably buy a blue car etc etc, and the same applies to a directory, there could be two different designs, one is no worse than the other just because how one person see's it, as others might like green cars.

Content - Yes content is important, but again as with cars they vary in features or add ons, I have some people who claim content , then when reading it quickly see that suposed content is mere copy n paste or at best rehashed re sorted jumble, this is very evident when the subject matter you know well, but when reading can spot jibberish. Once again though in general agree but the people in the industry are least best to vote on what is good or bad content.

Alexa - As above another variable

Free or paid - Again arguements on both sides that could go around in circles with no right or wrong answer

Directory Owner - like any business , let monkies run it and you get peanuts.

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Ok where does that leave the intial question ? Directory owners, i want to know your all views about judging directory’s quality before submitting to one

In the words my Pop left we are least able to judge our own work, sure we can compliment and appreciate each others work, offer help and advice, but if you want the correct vote / judge of your or any directory it is the public vote that stands as the one true answer.

In that if you have the right design, right marketing / seo , right content, right management and every other factor mentioned they all end up in this final vote.

Visitors to your site and those that continue to return, they are the people who see you as having all of the factors as above in play and provide the score card for directories.

( Just a personal view so don't shoot me, i am full of holes now )