boomtown123 - 10:11 pm on Oct 20, 2008 (gmt 0)

What's the difference between an internet yellow pages site and a directory? Is it one of those deals where all IYPs are directories, but not all directories are IYPs? Is the main difference that IYPs typically relate to brick and mortar businesses? Can you have an IYP that focuses only on one niche or does a real IYP function like a real phone book...A one stop shop for all categories.

More importantly, let's say I wanted to follow the IYP template for a website and list all the plumbers in the country. Users type in their zip code and get a list of all the plumbers in their area. (Typically, from what I've seen in IYPs, each zip code gets its own webpage.) How should I handle the following issues that may come up:

1. Duplicate content. The address, contact info and any "content" related to a plumber would show up several times if they service several different zip codes in a city. (By content, I mean something similar to a blurb about the plumber or reviews.)

2. Multiple links. If I include the plumber's website in their contact info, I'll be linking out to it on every zip code webpage. I assume this would seriously delude any benefit my website would have from a reciprocal link situation. The plumber links to my IYP once and my IYP links to his website dozens of times.

3. Let's assume I go to the trouble to compile a list of all the plumbers in the country and this data doesn't exist anywhere else. I realize you can't copyright this kind of information, but is there some way to at least make it harder for a scraper to make an exact copy of my website? What do the big IYPs do?

Thanks,

boomtown