It is my plan to start my directory with a small number of general categories, and allow these to split organically as more sites are added and potential sub-categories become apparent. I’d be interested in hearing how you guys handle category growth and changes, specifically your thoughts on what to do with existing links. I imagine it’s not considered kosher to move a paid link from an x PR category into a lesser sub-category, even if it is a more appropriate to their niche. Would you wait until the PR of the new category picks up, then e-mail the site owner asking for their permission to make the move, or is there some other established practice? Thanks in advance - as always, greens o’ plenty for your good advice.
Featured links I leave in the submitted category, don't move it, if I do move it, its going to be moved into the TOP category, that way if anything it will on a higher PR page. As for adding extra categories, I only do it before approving a listing and can't find a good category for it.
the new categories pick PR as soon as google index them (only not shown in the TB). So moving a listing to a more appropriate category with probably lower number of links is actually beneficial to the link owner.
I think I’d even be apprehensive about moving a link up a category without asking, since it might dilute the topic match moving into a more general category—higher PR or not. I think this is definitely how I’d do it once the directory was a bit more established, but my main concern is the initial growth of categories. Thank you for your advice.
I’d still be worried about making a move without checking first—people seem to pay a lot of attention to PageRank™ when submitting to directories. Perhaps this is something I could write into the submission guidelines†, so people aren’t surprised? †Assuming my submitters bother to read those!