Directory Owners - Do you charge for additional directory listing amendments?

The more I think about how many here are charging for all edits, it makes sense why so many of the paid directories have listings for sites that don't exist anymore or have changed their focus.

Around 6 months ago I was doing work for a client that required me to look at the listings on several of the top-rated directories. I was shocked how many of them had bad listings. These directories are seen as "top of mind" in the industry by many and yet they had complete categories that were virtually useless. For some of the categories, I was finding more current listings on DMOZ!

I never looked to see what their policies were on changes but it was clear they were not auditing their listings very well.

Why spend the time to go about it the 'right' way when adding a listing (proper title, unique description, appropriate categorization, etc.) if you never revisit the listing to ensure it is still accurate or even pointing to an active site?

Sure, 'overhead' expenses cost money. But, so does losing your reputation as a directory that offers value to submitters and visitors.

 

One reason why i put effort into finding any listings in my directory that are parked domains, or simply gone, at times sites are having hosting problems or something else so i wont delete too quickly, changing the status to inactive is a good idea if in doubt.

 

Could not imagine myself charging people for helping me keep directories clean and up to date. How much time does it take - 2 minutes? What do I charge - 50 cents? I'm grateful when they contact me with a change and especially grateful when they contact me to tell me their site has changed its URL or has been taken down.

 

When you get over 50 requests to remove my site a week because of recent Google actions you start charging. Most don't remove the website when faced with a simple $5.00 charge. I don't like loosing good content, some sites have been in my database since 2001 that requested removal. I only charge in this particular circumstance. And YES time is money.

 

Do you have information about paid removal in your submission guidelines or this is surprice for your clients?

 

But think about the situation they are now in, they want their site removed, you say ok thats $5 please, they say to themselves forget it i will leave it in place, so now they have 2 problems, google encouraging them to have their listing removed and you saying only if you pay me $5 especially if its a more established site, i think this will contribute to them losing faith in your directory, if they are requesting removal because of a penalisation then they are not likely to submit again in the future, on top of that a charge for removal is in place and when they first submitted i bet that you didn't prominently display this in your submission guidelines, this will leave a bad taste in their mouth.

Alternatively i have chosen to do exactly as requested, as quickly as possible, with sympathy and understanding for their situation and have explained to them that should they find out in the future that the listing did not directly contribute to their penalisation that i will be more than happy to make their listing active again within the directory, no charge to reactivate either of course.

Customers have so much choice now, anywhere on the web, a smart business will bend over backwards to provide value.

Regarding good content it can be found easily.

 

LOL, your hilarious pipes. Thanks for the advice!!

 

50 requests a week for removals? I wonder if other general directories are seeing numbers proportionate to that.

If it were my site, I would be doing some web searches to see if an SEO'er somewhere is targeting my site by proclaiming it at fault for a penalty.

 

It's the Panda update and all the notices sent to webmasters related to non-organic links. They have hired SEO services to undo all the damage done by other SEO services.

 

Im not trying to advise you or be funny.

 

I get Penguin has made for mass confusion and panic. But 50 a week just seems like there's more going on.

 

Sounds heavy to me too, sounds more like a random number actually.

Ive had 4 or 5 requests in total and that has been over the space of a few weeks, no webmaster has gone into detail of whether a particular or all directories that their site has been listed in has contributed to the penalisation that their site has, also some of the listings are a few years old.

All i know is that google is being more helpful, more direct by contacting the sites, not just penalising and leaving people to it.

 

Maybe google will penalise your directory for not allowing some to have their listing removed without having to pay you.

Directory owners often say they charge for review, you are not reviewing a submission to remove it so thats more like holding them to ransom, you're holding links as prisoner, thats almost funny.

 

I have my suspicions it's not the actual site owner requesting removals. You never hear from them when you request proof of ownership and the processing fee.

 

A directory owner does not have to remove a website or allow the directory to be dismantled because of actions taken by Google.

Here is a good article on the subject http://searchengineland.com/in-wake...source=sel&utm_medium=scap&utm_campaign=email

 

Interesting article there Stoner.

Seems like there is a lawsuit in the case but not the one that is mentioned.

1. Company A claims that Company B intentionally obtained or purchased 1,000s of bad links to A's site.

2. Company A then threatens the link providers using the DMCA which has no relevance.

3. The directory or link provider removes the links to Company A.

4. Does Company B now have grounds to request a refund and/or sue the directory and link providers when the links are removed?


I think G has opened up a giant can of worms with Penguin. In the past it was said links could not hurt you regardless of where they were from SEO-wise. (Let's leave reputation issues out of the conversation.) Now they seem to be saying that some backlinks can hurt your sites. Seems like those niches where a lot of money is at play, those QBC directories may suddenly find themselves inundated with new listings.

I waste so much time trying to defend my sites from content thieves. The idea that I may have to also worry about backlinks obtained by someone else that G will penalize my sites for is horrifying. One of my sites has a number of links on Wikipedia. So, do I have to remove my links from Wiki just to ensure that the cretins making sites from Wiki content don't link to me? I truly hope not.

 

The funny part is who created the link frenzy and caused all the problems in the first place. Google just amazes me!

 

Absolutely 100% true and I agree. We have almost got 25 request this month alone and top of that the language used is like "We give you 24 hrs to complete the said action"... BS!

I simply send my standard mail template with T&C signed by them and invoice, only 20% of them revert back.

If a person is running just One (1) directory and doesn't have other businesses to run, I 'may' buy your argument. But I am sorry I can't appoint a dedicated editor for:

1. Check how 'genuine' the request is
2. Compare the payment, submitter email id to the requesting email id
3. Incase of issues start a 'support' ticket
4. Lastly 'serve' the request or discard incase of fake request by competitor.

... If the above needs to be served as 'freebies' .. I'd have to pack my bags and shift to Himalayas!

 

I think this is where some directory owners are going to begin to fail the people who submitted and paid, now the time has come that listed sites have recently experienced penalisations surely this is when they deserve assistance, granted the assistance will be of little help to them as in removing listings but surely each one should be dealt with individually, meaning taking the time to check each request and deal with it accordingly.

The way i see it is after i have accepted payment and approved a listing, my service to them doesn't end there, if it did then thats nothing more than paid links (link selling) so basically if they need something changed, deleted, want to ask for a discount on a bulk submission, want to request a free listing for a non profit, whatever, then im going to do that for them.

A differentiator i guess you could say, not possible to be unique in the directory biz but easy to offer more value.

 

Guess I live on a different planet. I understand that some site owners were notified by G because it had noticed that their link profile was unnatural and requested they clean up their act.

Near as I can tell a link in a good directory that does not have a spammy description, nor a keyword laden title is not a non-organic or unnatural link.