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Did I make a mistake with the ODP?

         

Liane

12:22 pm on Mar 20, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I found a category at the ODP which I believe is new and had only one site listed in it. The category is for regional maps. I have 16 maps on my site which are all regional ... so I submitted the main map page which is of course an extension file.

A friend of mine said that was a mistake and that I will probably get my index page booted out of the directory. Is that true? If so why???

These are bonafide maps of the region and I believe there is every reason to add them in that category. My site is about tourism and specifically yacht charters. I did the maps so my customers could plan their sailing itinerary. Those looking for maps of my region will hopefully find them of value.

Is it a no no to submit to more than one category? Not that it matters much. My site is listed at the ODP but for some reason, Google has never counted it in my links. Its a mystery to me!

click watcher

12:30 pm on Mar 20, 2002 (gmt 0)



well webmasterworld has 13 listings in odp

and many sites in my catagories are listed twice, both in shopping and in regional/location

i think 2 listings is fine more if you are an important site

added.. adobe has 72 listings macromedia 40

rpking

12:52 pm on Mar 20, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



...and the BBC have 2709 listings.

Moral of the story: if your content deserves it, you should get multiple listings.

Liane

12:55 pm on Mar 20, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Thanks guys. Boy that gave me a start this morning. My listing seems to have no value to Google as the link isn't counted ... but still, I don't want to get booted either and I am confident that the content deserves it. Nobody else has provided such detailed maps.

bird

1:21 pm on Mar 20, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



There have been cases where listings were removed solely for being "duplicates". But very often those were the actions of clueless editors violating the editing guidelines, even if possibly doing so in good faith. If it happens to you, it is best to contact an editor in a parent category to get the mistake corrected.

Of course, there is no carte blanche for multiple listings, but if a site (or a subsection thereof) provides unique content that would be useful for the visitors of a specific category, then it deserves a listing there independently of any other listings it may already have.

Double listings involving the Regional branch are a special case btw., and are particularly encouraged, while "normal" double listings should be handled with a healthy amount of scrutiny to avoid unnecessary redundancy.

Liane

1:30 pm on Mar 20, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



So Bird ... that would mean that my other site which is a free site for all tourist related businesses in my region should theoretically have at least a listing for every category ... yacht charters, restaurants, accommodations, transportation ... etc.

Yes?

bird

4:52 pm on Mar 20, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



should theoretically have at least a listing for every category

Not necessarily.

As a principle, double listings in closely connected categories aren't done, eg. in both a parent and subcategory, or in categories that are located below the same parent. In those cases, depending on the exact nature of the site, it might just wander up the tree to a parent category that spans all its topics. In your case, that might be the Travel_and_Tourism category for the region in question. It could also go eg. into a "Directories" subcat there, if there were enough similar sites to justify that (and assuming it is something like a directory).

The goal is to avoid redundancy, while still offering the visitors a reasonably short access path to every listing. People are supposed to look further up the tree for sites with a broader coverage. Now if the site offered significant tourism related information for two seperate regions (eg. one in North America and one in Europe), then there would be no direct way for the visitors to figure out that connection on their own. In this case, a listing in the Tourism category for both regions would be the correct solution.

starec

4:57 pm on Mar 20, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



here is some info on what they think about deeplinking, from our fellow member, Laisha:

[dmoz.org...]

NFFC

6:15 pm on Mar 20, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



>should theoretically have at least a listing for every category

Knowing the site I believe there is a case to made for additional listings. I would read the guidelines, Laisha's article and maybe consider contacting an editor high up the chain with a "proposal".

rogerd

7:26 pm on Mar 20, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member



Deep linking is a subjective call, and I've observed GREAT disparities in editor practices. Some sites are absolutely nothing special, but because of aggressive submittal and wishy-washy editors these sites have many individual pages indexed under diverse topics.

Of course, even domain home page inclusion can be very subjective. In my cat, I try to uphold some quality standards - a site with a few paragraphs of text and a handful of links doesn't get in. Broken sites and sites that are mostly under construction don't get in (unless what's already in place is useful on its own). Other editors seem to have the opinion that if somebody bought a domain name and threw something up there, however useless, it should be included.

Liane

7:48 pm on Mar 20, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I am now totally confused. Laisha's article and several comments here would lead me to believe I probably should only submit it to the "directories" category and leave it at that. However, it is and has been listed for the last 4 years under Yacht Charters.

It was at one time a regional site for yacht charters but was changed over a year ago to a free submit, regional, "tourism" directory. As there is no longer an editor in that category, I sent several letters to people up the chain asking for it to be reassessed as it is no longer a private yacht charter site and my own site has only one link in it just the same as all my competitors.

Instead of putting it in the directories section, somebody (I don't know who) put it in the "private operators" category of yacht charters which is where individual crewed yachts are listed. There certainly are a few private operators listed on the site ... but its an extremely small portion of the site overall.

I think NFFC has the best idea, I'll put a proposal together and try to find "somebody" up the ladder to write to. It can't hurt. I guess?

Quadrille

12:18 am on Mar 23, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



It is most unlikely that you will get multiple listings; that is very much the exception, not the rule.

Remember that ODP lists sites, not pages. An ODP editor will look at your index page, and as many others as they need to get a clear idea of what the *site* is about, and that's the category where you should end up.

Errors get made, and some sites are not easy to classify; if you feel (honestly) that your site is misplaced, best to write to the editor of the category where it is (or go higher if no local editor) explaining why you feel it is mis-categorised (do read category descriptions before writing); but the editor may not agree with you.

Either way, I see nothing in what you've reported here that will get you removed from the directory.