Are any of you running directories that allow user to submit to multiple directories?

Hey Guys ...

I need a little feedback on a new directory that I am setting up. The directory is a niche directory where the submissions will be company listings. What I wanted to ask is the following;

1. Do any of you run a directory that allows submission to multiple categories be it 2 or 50 or more?

2. If you do - do you insist on each listing in each category be unique ie: the description or do you just populate the same info across all categories.

3.Do your detail pages go to one listing source ie:

www.url.com/companydetails-1234.htm

or do you do something like this in each category they are listed;

www.url.com/cat1/companydetails-1234.htm

www.url.com/cat1/sub1/companydetails-1234.htm

thanks in advance.

 

I do not own. But I used (as an admin or user) some scripts that allow that.

It's very difficult to actually ask the user to fill in a unique description for each of the chosen categories. Use the same description for all of them Frank.

PS: Do not allow more then 2 additional categories, no matter what. Spammers will take advantage, and be sure that, from all the submissions, there are 80% spammers and at MOST 20% normal, useful submissions.

Most of the scripts use the third option, IE:

www.url.com/cat1/sub1/companydetails-1234.htm

This is what I use in both Webxperience! and Webotopia.

But if you ask me I would take:

www.url.com/companydetails-1234.htm

Any day of the week. Why ? With the other solutions you could end up with a HUGE URL.

 

Yes, I allow multiple submissions in my directory so long as the page fits the category.

I'm using PLD 2 on this particular directory, so you must fill out the submit form for every category you want to be in. Since I will reject submissions that have nothing to do with the category they are submitted to, it would be wise of the submitter to use a description/title that shows how the page is relates to that category if it isn't obvious. Eg, telescopes.com would get approved in Science/Astronomy pretty easily, but submitting it to Kids & Teens would be a stretch unless they said "Student Discounts Available" in their description or some such thing.

I don't have the details mod installed on this directory, but from what I know of PLD3, you won't be able to have all the listings point to the same details page (but I could be wrong). Having all the links point to one details page would be better for a user I would think, but having multiple pages that can be focused on different keywords would be better for SEO.

 

Thanks guys!

 

I run a niche directory where sites can submit up to 3 deep links, but they must fit in 3 different categories/sub-cats.

Each must have a description that matches the category. Each gets a different product picture.

Each listing is treated as a unique listing and therefore gets it's own details page.

Details pages: www . mysitename . com/link-details-###.html

I had thought it would be better using the company name or link text, but I've already had a few sites undergo major changes and by using the link's database record number, the link details pages maintained the same URL. Which is important as the link details pages do quite well in the serps with their limited and highly targeted text.

 

Good to know YMC thanks!