deeplinks - when might they be appropriate?

We wouldn't list deeplinks like http://homes.canada.com/ottawa/browsecategory.aspx?id=3006 at all. We also wouldn't list the deeplink http://www.andrexholdings.com/3-1_vacancies.html but would rather list the main URL in a different category.


This is the message I recieved to my application. I was under the assumption that we would be putting links that would be the most useful for someone researching under that topic. Perhaps you are trying to avoid one website being submitted to 30 different areas of dmoz, but if I am looking for a rental, I don't want to have to look in 30 different places for websites just because the MAIN purpose of their website wasn't rentals.

Ok, take my website for example. Right now it has 3 offshoots, one about squirrel rehab, one about ottawa vegetarians, and one about creating websites. Each of these topics are extremely different from one another, but I wouldn't be able to sumbit them to 3 different areas of dmoz so that people could locate what THEY are interested in more quickly?

Now look at the first link http://homes.canada.com/ottawa/browsecategory.aspx?id=3006
If I simply put in canada.com, or homes.canada.com or homes.canada.com/ottawa they are not really showing the rentals.... you have to really look around on the page to find the rentals... but this link happens to be one of the best resources for ottawa rental classified, which I am sure are of great interest to someone looking in the Ottawa rentals part of the directory.

The second link is http://www.andrexholdings.com/3-1_vacancies.html which I was thinking of just putting http://www.andrexholdings.com/ which now I think would probably have been just fine, but I had in my mind that there was also an emphasis on heritage restoration on the website. There are other websites as well though that are larger property management sites.. and perhaps that topic is also appropriate so it doesn't "need" deeplinking.

Another "problem" is some companies do commercial AND residential and they decide to post it here: http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_Amer.../Business_and_Economy/Real_Estate/Commercial/
when it would also be very appropriate here:
http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_Amer...awa/Business_and_Economy/Real_Estate/Rentals/
(http://www.clvgroup.com/ has extensive residential rental listings downtown... one of the largest I would think.)

I was very clear that I could be considered partial because I have a rental website... but I've also gone through most of the work collecting ottawa area rental websites, and do not exclude anyone (which is the concern): http://www.ottawa-for-rent.com/links.htm and I did what I thought would be most useful for people looking for rentals... linked directly to the rental listings if the whole website wasn't totally devoted to it (pretty much). (or linked directly to the Ottawa portion when the website served many more cities).

I could just go back and resubmit "proper" links, but that really doesn't help. I want to understand!

Thanks.

And I want to add that I got a reply to my application quite promptly, and really appreciated it thanks to whoever reviewed it. =0)

We wouldn't list deeplinks like http://homes.canada.com/ottawa/brow...ry.aspx?id=3006 at all. We also wouldn't list the deeplink http://www.andrexholdings.com/3-1_vacancies.html but would rather list the main URL in a different category.

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That is the answer. If a single site covers more than one of a category's sub-categories, e.g. commercial and rental, the site is listed in the main category most times. The fact that a site covers both should be mentioned in the description. If a site is more or less exclusively commercial it would be listed in the Commercial sub-category and it is then redundant to say so in the description too.

There may be alternative classification schemes that you and others in that business sector would like us to adopt because you feel it is easier for users (aka better for marketing) but this would lead to massive spamming of real estate categories and be a very big negative overall.

Right now it has 3 offshoots, one about squirrel rehab, one about ottawa vegetarians, and one about creating websites. Each of these topics are extremely different from one another, but I wouldn't be able to sumbit them to 3 different areas of dmoz so that people could locate what THEY are interested in more quickly?

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Websites with very different subject areas are not "related" in our terms provided each has sufficient content on its own to justify a listing. We define "related" as same general subject area (which can be broadly interpreted but not as far as vegetarians and squirrels) AND same beneficiary, not OR. Though we are unlikely to list multiple deeplinks from the same root URL in the same or next-door categories (that would make them "related" in general subject terms wouldn't it).

So it may be the deeplinks are not content-rich enough to be considered independently. They must really look and feel like they could be independent sites in most cases. But here is the big point - don't submit deeplinks unless they really are distinct sites and share the same root URL only for convenience purposes - if an editor wants to list a deeplink they have the discretion to choose to do so but you cannot suggest it.

RE: your site -- In the case of Regional and your site, though, you'd get one listing at an appropriate category, not each part listed separately.

RE: http://homes.canada.com/ottawa/browsecategory.aspx?id=3006 -- it is just the rentals part of the classifieds section from the Ottawa Citizen. It isn't necessary (or even appropriate in most cases) to deeplink to every part of a site's content when it would all be relevent to the same area in Regional (in this case Ottawa). Why single out rental classifieds for special treatment when they have other sections of their classifieds that contain as many if not more ads -- we wouldn't because otherwise the localities would be cluttered up with deeplinks to sites that are already listed appropriately there.

RE: http://www.andrexholdings.com -- the entire site is relevant to Ottawa and so in Regional, we'd list the main URL in an appropriate category rather than listing it and deeplinking various bits of it all over Ottawa's subcategories.

Thank you for your responses.
So the only websites that would be relevant are ones that strictly list rentals (in Ottawa)... which seem to me (as a renter - currently looking), that there are very few truly useful ones. The most useful ones to me are the ones that are deeplinks... thus I don't see how people browsing through Ottawa Rentals are going to be helped as much as they could be... but maybe that is not your exact goal. I'm sure the parent site of a number of the deeplinks also do not list "rentals" in their description to aid searchers.

I think I would go crazy managing a category where I am not allowed to list the most useful sites, but only list others that only offer a rental or two and are for the most part useless.

"if an editor wants to list a deeplink they have the discretion to choose to do so but you cannot suggest it."
Does that mean that the deeplinks I suggested could potentially be added to the category by an editor if they thought of it?

The fact that you have the discretion to list them doesn't mean it's appropriate that you do so. And a senior editor is likely to come along behind you and remove any inappropriate listings that you add.

think I would go crazy managing a category where I am not allowed to list the most useful sites, but only list others that only offer a rental or two and are for the most part useless.

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Then maybe you should consider applying for a different category.

That is so weird... I was sure I responded to this thread saying:

I really like the whole concept of DMOZ, but I think I will stick to creating websites on topics I'm interested in and that I think will be helpful and submitting them. It's a little more straight forward to me.

Thanks for your time tho.

if an editor wants to list a deeplink they have the discretion to choose to do so but you cannot suggest it.

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I should have been clearer - if an editor wants to list an appropriate deeplink etc. What constitutes an appropriate deeplink is a tricky judgement call in most categories and even if I could explain it easily I wouldn't since we wouldn't want to encourage it. Categories where deeplinks are not a problem for submitters are easy to spot - they are normally nothing but deeplinks. Like movie categories or people categories where we are listing news articles and reviews etc.

vaalea, classified ads sites tend to be difficult judgment calls -- but I'd simply not deeplink them at all ever. (We don't deeplink Yahoo!'s directory, do we?)

If you're interested in rentals, I'd strongly recommend getting hold of a local rental directory, and checking out the URLs listed there. These days I think most apartment complexes have websites, but they are VERY poorly represented in the ODP. This isn't good. Like Hotel websites, they are very difficult to find in the search engines -- buried under tons of affiliate doorways and classified ad farms masquerading as directories and other such spam. But they are where the real content is.

Thanks for posing this question

Vaalea, I'm dealing with some of the same issues, and the responses you've gotten have helped me see the way a little clearer.

Thanks again,
montefin