I'd like to get a directory on my site but I don't want it vacant of business listings nor require my time to make sure it stays accurate. I can't believe there isn't a web service that has a turnkey directory solution where you customize the template, pick what business types you want in the directory, and point your subdomain to the platform to push it to your site. Service might be paid, cobranded, or have advertising which benefits the provider. Does nothing like that exist??
Directories should be unique with their own listings and management rights. I don't see the advantage of a co-branded directory if it is populated with someone elses listings. It would be nothing more then another directory sharing someone else's database. This is not good for your visitors and certainly will reflect poorly on any SEO efforts you are undertaking. Just my opinion...
All fair points and spot on with regard to SEO but otherwise I disagree. The purpose is to help people find what they are looking for and the point of a single source of listings to better ensure comprehensiveness (that is, than creating it from scratch yourself - who has a more accurate set of listings? one you create or AT&T?). Boston.com directory is hosted by Zvents.com and Zvents gets them from dozens of sources. Not good for visitors is where I'm really off with you. When it comes to a directory, comprehensiveness trumps almost everything else - if users can't find what they expect, they aren't coming back. You're suggesting that someone with a site for families should just send everyone to yellowpages.com to look up a business instead of having a family specific/friendly directory on their own site to help users?
No. I'm suggesting that you know your visitors best and that you will find no co-branding opportunities available that don't have a negative impact on your entire domain's search rankings and visitor experience. If your niche is families, build it yourself for your visitors. What makes a directory valuable is its content. If you have the bling to pull data from a large directory, more power to you. Just finding a paid editor in these neck of the woods is a difficult task. There are scrapers out there that will harvest this data for you, or programmers that can assist, but the value is diminished if it harms your entire domain because of duplicate content. It's you domain. If you want a directory for your visitors, best to do that yourself. Populate the listings yourself or solicit listings from the forums once you have your category structure in place.
Ah okay, that makes a little more sense but I can prove otherwise on the impact to search. Three of these first page results are for the exact same content and listing on different domains - all provided by the same platform. Customize the surrounding content enough and start to differentiate your own listings with reviews and you don't have duplicate content issues. Just the same, I'm not disagreeing with you any more so much as a friendly debate You're right about the diminishing value because of how it affects search... but there are ways to deal with that such that I still believe accurate and comprehensive content makes for a better experience (It's how Google beat Yahoo).
First I thought you are asking for a php solution to host a custom directory - that would be the answer is you could use phpLD. But you also want the content to come through a webservice. I am not aware of such a service that exists as of yet.
#1 REI Saratoga Store REI — Saratoga. Serving Bay Area outdoor enthusiasts since 1985. Swing by, test your skills on our climbing wall, and gear up for adventure. ... rei.com/stores/22 - Cached - Similar - #2 REI Saratoga - San Jose, CA - San Jose Mercury News REI Saratoga: REI—Saratoga is located on the edge of San Jose, near Saratoga, Campbell, and Cupertino. Serving Bay Area outdoor enthusiasts since 1985. events.mercurynews.com › San Jose Venues - Cached - Similar - #3 REI Saratoga: 400 El Paseo de Saratoga, San Jose - MSN City Guides REI Saratoga: Find contact information, reviews, special offers, events and photos on MSN City Guides. I don't think you are understanding what snowbird is saying. Notice how each of your examples have different descriptions for the website itself. Of course they all link to the same site, but the content is not duplicate. The point you are not understanding is that the REI site has a different description on each of the websites. You could add the same site to your hypothetical directory, but in order for it to be unique and rank well in the search engines, you would have to write a different description than those above, so that your site is not considered duplicate content by search engines.
Oh I totally understand, I should have been more clear Listings 2, 3, and 4 are the similar listings from the same platform. Read the on page descriptions (which is the one that primarily affects dup content) again, "REI—Saratoga is located on the edge of San Jose, near Saratoga, Campbell, and Cupertino...." The platform changes the title, meta description, surrounding content, and enables unique reviews to differentiate an otherwise identical listing.
Why worry about SEO and duplicate content when what you want is provide a resource to your visitors. Just disallow the search engine from indexing it and use dmoz listings or any other provider of such data.
Sort of. DMOZ is a great source of directory content and you can download and use it for your site. Not the best source for business listings - addresses, business descriptions, phone number, etc. @enQuira - thank you. That's exactly what I'm getting it.