DMOZ and Site Issue - Help ...

I built a site for local Elizabethtown Ky Information
http://www.etowninfo.com It's been a fun struggle to build thus far
coming from a non-web background.

I'm currently needing some more saged advice from the Google
Community:

After months of waiting, DMOZ listed me only to yank my site about 5
days later. When I queried the DMOZ public forum, an editor said, upon
review, it was subsequently pulled for "lack of original content."
I've asked for more specific feedback and have received ... none.

I want to resubmit, but I'm concerned that DMOZ/OPD's strict rules may
consider me spamming or multi-submitting. I certainly do not want to
get banned altogether from their directory. (Is there any other way to
get into Google Directory?)

Any experiences to share or wisdom to impart would be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks!

W. R. Mineo
http://www.etowninfo.com

Rob Mineo wrote:

I built a site for local Elizabethtown Ky Information

[google considerations]

I built a site for the personal use of the hundred or so people who use my
ski lodge.

I purposely did not submit the site to google. It is not something anybody
else in the world may be interested in. Just we hundred or so poeple.

AFAIK nobody has ever linked to the site, although it has been mentioned a
couple of times in the newsgroups.

Suddenly, ping, I am getting referals from google in the logs. Checks
google, yep, it's listed.

The site has *no* content at all. It's just a photo album. Captioned
thumbnails and the associated images.

Go figure.

I guess the answer to your question is: add content and wait. You have
content. You need time :-)

--
Cheers
Richard.

On 18 Oct 2004 04:54:24 -0700, Rob Mineo <add2list (AT) etowninfo (DOT) com> wrote:

I built a site for local Elizabethtown Ky Information
http://www.etowninfo.com ...
After months of waiting, DMOZ listed me only to yank my site about 5
days later. When I queried the DMOZ public forum, an editor said, upon
review, it was subsequently pulled for "lack of original content."
I've asked for more specific feedback and have received ... none.

The page is what I like to call "SEO'ed to within an inch of its life".
It's clearly a portal designed to send people elsewhere, as your mission
statement makes plain. I'm not surprised DMOZ rejected it.

Put up some original content. In community development terms, make it a
resort as well as a port of call. Some articles about the town, a write-up
about 10 restaurants, a listing of all the hotels in the area, maybe a
guide to shopping in town. Look at your current affiliates, write about
their businesses, have a featured website and talk about the page and have
quotes from someone with the organization behind the site.

I mean, there's a million things you can do.

I know that you are looking for SEO advice but if I may offer some
completely unsolicited advice based on my observation of your site and its
aims.

It is visually overwhelming and I question whether or not your average
directory user will find this a pleasant experience. You really need to
survey people in the community to see if they are able to use the site and
if they liked their experience - I didn't.

Though you want to make sure that the site is fast a couple of pictures and
graphical elements would really help out. To open up the page to aesthetic
and visual appeal. Maybe a Etown streetsign or the town sign or a logo for
the site.

Create a global navigation system that will allow users to navigate the
entire site from EVERY page on the site by using headings that in one word
desribe the information section of the site.

Have a search form located on every list page.

Give certain sections of the main page template themes either with color or
styles so that it doesn't all look like a big blob of text.

One of the biggest issues for your site is that your links open in the main
browser window and therefore people are going to quickly leave your site.
The reason for not doing this is so that you can sell advertising on the
site at some point. Even if you are doing it for goodness some business
owners are going to want to have the chance to put themselves into the
forefront of peoples minds.

I would also not worry about the Search Engines. This is a community
oriented directory and therefore the fastest way to get it know is to
promote it to your community via press releases to local media, advertising,
and getting local shops and business who list to put signs or stickers up
ini exchange for enhanced or free listings.

Good Luck,

Take out the "*"'s to email.

Jay Gilmore.


"Neal" <neal413 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

On 18 Oct 2004 04:54:24 -0700, Rob Mineo <add2list (AT) etowninfo (DOT) com> wrote:

I built a site for local Elizabethtown Ky Information
http://www.etowninfo.com ...
After months of waiting, DMOZ listed me only to yank my site about 5
days later. When I queried the DMOZ public forum, an editor said, upon
review, it was subsequently pulled for "lack of original content."
I've asked for more specific feedback and have received ... none.

The page is what I like to call "SEO'ed to within an inch of its life".
It's clearly a portal designed to send people elsewhere, as your mission
statement makes plain. I'm not surprised DMOZ rejected it.

Put up some original content. In community development terms, make it a
resort as well as a port of call. Some articles about the town, a write-up
about 10 restaurants, a listing of all the hotels in the area, maybe a
guide to shopping in town. Look at your current affiliates, write about
their businesses, have a featured website and talk about the page and have
quotes from someone with the organization behind the site.

I mean, there's a million things you can do.