Forum Moderators: open
If a site would fit into multiple categories, would it be better to target a higher PR cat (say, PR6) with 200+ listings, or a lower PR cat (say, PR3) with just a few listings. (Let's also assume the site is closer to Zeno's Zebra Shop than Aaron's Aardvark Emporitum and could end up well down the page.
Is it likeley that no PR at all will be derived from the large cat, or does Google relax its often-discussed links-per-page limit for authoritative directories?
From a pure directory drill-down standpoint, I kind of like the smaller listing page. Standing out in a list of 250 is tough. Still, most people probably do keyword searches rather than drilling down anyway. Another factor could be the topic names themselves - which might get more visits/attention from directory searchers, etc.
One could also make the point that the category itself needs better organization if it's too big to be useful, but one has to assume that a reorg might be far in the future.
For small business sites, these directory listings can be a really important factor in their linkage. Any comments on the PR transmittal issue (other than the obvious, "go for both!")?
2) (If you're talking about the ODP) Don't go for both. Go for the category where your site fits best. If you go for a category where your site doesn't fit, an editor will have to move it to the correct category. Then another editor will have to list it. All in all, that's likely to delay the amount of time you have to wait before your site is included in the directory. If you submit in multiple places then your site could get flagged up as a multiple-submitter spammer. That's really not good for your chances of getting listed.
Does anyone have direct experience with a listing in a long DMOZ cat not showing up as a backlink due to some kind of link limit?
This is very good advice: and it applies _whatever_ the problem with being listed is: inappropriate site, long queues, or even abusive editing.
Don't forget that the ODP/Google Directory will generate traffic in its own right so think about how easy the categories are to find.
Depending on the progress of your web site, you may find that the DMOZ effect doesn't do much if you're already scoring quite well. If your site is PR5, adding it to another PR5 cat or less is unlikely to get you a PR6 (every little helps though).
As a directory user, I have mixed feelings about cats listing 200+ sites. A giant list is unwieldy, but still isn't as bad as an alpha-bar. The alpha-bar makes browsing almost impossible - do you start with A? Should you try a common starting letter? I do neither & just give up most of the time. I guess the ideal situation is for the editor to break down the big list into logical subgroups, but sometimes that may not be possible.
Yeah.
>I have mixed feelings about cats listing 200+ sites. A giant list is unwieldy, but still isn't as bad as an alpha-bar.
Either way, people give up and leave.
>I guess the ideal situation is for the editor to break down the big list into logical subgroups, but sometimes that may not be possible.
Yeah.
An alphabar works great for some things. If you're going after a particular person or place, and you confidently expect to find them in some very large category with at natural alphabetical order, then an alphabar is the _only_ way to go. ("Austen, Jane" in Literature/Authors or "Austin, Texas" in Texas/Localities).
If you just want a web designer, then the ODP Web Designer categories are pretty close to useless...they're both too large AND illogical to breakdown by alphabar. What you probably need is a regional breakdown, which works just fine for Real Estate Salesfolk or Dentists, but doesn't work too well for businesses like web designers that can work across the net.
In practice, when a category gets too large, then editors often just abandon it, and the unrevieweds just keep piling up. (Note in a large category, viewing the editor side is _much_ slower than the public category, because the whole list is in tables.) It takes a review and a reorganization of the taxonomy to get things started back. (No surprise here, editors are supposed to be representing the browsers of the world.)
There are situations where a website directory is not really the right tool: abebooks.com or froogle.com gives much better organized visibility to some kinds of structured content than a directory ever could.
Yeah.
>I have mixed feelings about cats listing 200+ sites. A giant list is unwieldy, but still isn't as bad as an alpha-bar.
Either way, people give up and leave.
>I guess the ideal situation is for the editor to break down the big list into logical subgroups, but sometimes that may not be possible.
Yeah.
An alphabar works great for some things. If you're going after a particular person or place, and you confidently expect to find them in some very large category with at natural alphabetical order, then an alphabar is the _only_ way to go. ("Austen, Jane" in Literature/Authors or "Austin, Texas" in Texas/Localities).
If you just want a web designer, then the ODP Web Designer categories are pretty close to useless...they're both too large AND illogical to breakdown by alphabar. What you probably need is a regional breakdown, which works just fine for Real Estate Salesfolk or Dentists, but doesn't work too well for businesses like web designers that can work across the net.
In practice, when a category gets too large, then editors often just abandon it, and the unrevieweds just keep piling up. (Note in a large category, viewing the editor side is _much_ slower than the public category, because the whole list is in tables.) It takes a review and a reorganization of the taxonomy to get things started back. (No surprise here, editors are supposed to be representing the browsers of the world.)
There are situations where a website directory is not really the right tool: abebooks.com or froogle.com gives much better organized visibility to some kinds of structured content than a directory ever could.
