Which DMOZ placement is better?

In order to be found in my region...

[chameleon]

Riddle me this on, oh DMOZ directory gurus....

Let's say I have a client that is a real estate firm in the Albany, NY area. Their office is in a suburb of Albany (Clifton Park, for example), but they work the entire region. More than likely potential customers would search for "Albany Real Estate", not "Clifton Park Real Estate".

So, the question is:

Am I better off submitting them under the Albany category (even though they're really in Clifton Park), or submitting them under Clifton Park, and include something in the description that mentions that they serve all of Albany?

Ideally, I guess I would put them under the Albany category and put something about the Albany region is the description as well. According to the posted rules of DMOZ, however, your description should not "repeat the title of the site or the category". I've seen it done, but at least according to the rules, they may not accept that.

I guess the bottom line is what do the major search engines put more stock in:

the category DMOZ has you listed in

or

the description it has for you?

[Quadrille]

I'd submit to either the locality or county in which the postal address of head office is situated, and the description could refer to the range covered.

That would make better sense for both ODP, and downstream users without categories.

Another reason in favour of being abso-tootly straight, is that Real Estate is infamous for it's spammers, and only good manners prevents me going into lurid detail :) - so I'd always advise against anything that might be misinterpreted.

But I'm no expert in Real Estate - do read the 'local' guidelines, in case I've missed the point!

[olwen]

I was told there are DMOZ guidelines that determine a site should be placed where the office is. Because of this my accommodation site with Australian and New Zealand listings (an no physical office at all) is only listed under New Zealand.

[choster]

That site would almost certainly be listed in Clifton Park, unless it has additional offices elsewhere which would permit it a listing in Counties/Saratoga or Regions/Capital_District (i.e. Albany Metro).

ODP has special Real Estate Guidelines [dmoz.org] which dictate where and how agents and offices may be listed.

Even outside of real estate, editors have no independent means to confirm the scope of a business. Even if you could have them survey each business physically to make a determination, you'd scarcely have consistency around the country, and around the world. That is why the principle for businesses in much of Regional/ (almost universal in the US and Canada) is to list at the most geographically specific level available, usually the locality in which the physical office is located, or the county if multiple locations span city limits, or the region if they span multiple municipalities, etc.