I think if you want to know the top 500 altcoins you can visit the Coinmarketcap or Coingecko sites. There of course already has an explanation of the order of coins. Market cap is the most important reason in the order of coins. You can also see the daily volume of each coin. The daily volume proves that the coin is active in the exchange.
No need to search for the top 500 coins on Coinmarketcap, because they are not there. The best coins are listed on the first page of the Coinmarketcap rating. But when choosing a coin for investment, I would limit myself to only time-tested coins, one of which would be bitcoin.