Tools for Compiling Lists on a Class of Websites
Searching for Related Sites
How I Gathered the Tools for Finding Related Sites
Beforehand, I decided on the types of tools I needed:
- Search engine
- Website traffic measurement sites - Needed for sorting websites according to their value which is determined by traffic rank
- Categorized reference sites - These are manually organized and human edited pages. Staying listed in reputable reference sites indicates a website's value. Similar sites are found within the category of a website.
- Link database with popularity ranking - Displays related products or links for each indexed item and sorts them according to their value which is determined by their popularity ranking
- Similar website search engine - Displays related sites for each website searched.
Here are the websites I settled on for each type of tool:
- Search engine: google.com - No brainer
- Website traffic measurement sites: alexa.com and similarweb.com - Only these two sites are used in Wikipedia's top websites ranking article. Only these two traffic measurement sites have categories and only they have rankings for global and for individual countries.
- Categorized reference sites: Wikipedia.com and dmoz.org are no brainers. Searching these and other reference sites, we selected these reputable web directories which listed well known websites unlike others: botw.org and joeant.com - found on Wikipedia and dmoz, goguides.org - found on dmoz, and isoosi.com - found on goguides
- Link database with popularity ranking: xmarks.com and alternativeto.net - Only these two websites include ranking, which indicates value, for the similar websites shown for each indexed site. Xmarks.com has categories as well and so can also function as a reference site.
- Similar website search engines - Found through the previous tools listed above: no brainer - google.com (related:domain); most prominent - moreofit.com, similarsites.com, and similarsitesearch.com; well-known - topsimilarsites.com, del.icio.us, and similarpages.com; familiar - siteslike.com, similarto.us, and moresiteslike.org; obscure - similicio.us, findsimilarsites.com, and similarlist.com.
List of Tools for Searching Similar Websites
Here is the list of tools for gathering similar websites arranged according to recommended order of usage:
| Search Engine: 1. google.com Categorized reference sites: 2. wikipedia.com 3. dmoz.org 4. botw.org 5. joeant.com 6. goguides.org 7. isoosi.com Link database with popularity ranking: 8. alternativeto.net 9. xmarks.com | Website traffic mesaurement sites: 10. alexa.com 11. similarweb.com Similar website search engines: 12. moreofit.com 13. similarsites.com 14. similarsitesearch.com 15. topsimilarsites.com 16. del.icio.us 17. similarpages.com 18. siteslike.com, similarto.us, moresiteslike.org 19. similicio.us, findsimilarsites.com, similarlist.com |
Usage of the Tools for Gathering a List of Similar Websites
How to use these tools to find related websites:
- Use Google keyword search to find relevant and related webites. Take note of the websites found.
- Search categorized reference sites using each of the noted websites to find relevant articles or categories. Take note of the websites found in the articles or categories. Repeat as needed.
- Search link databases using each of the noted websites. Take note of the websites found. For xmarks.com, also look in the most relevant categories and take note of the websites found. Repeat as needed.
- Sort all noted websites according to the combined rank you can formulate by using the website traffic measurent sites. Take note of the related websites in the profile of each noted website. Get the categories for the top ranked noted websites. Take note of the websites in those categories. Repeat as needed.
- Use the Google related: search parameter to search for related websites for each noted website (related:domain.com). Take note of the websites found. Repeat as needed.
- Search similar website search engines using the noted websites. Take note of the websites found. Repeat as needed.
- Repeat any step above as needed.
