Listing description now geo-specific?

ride45 · Jul 10, 2006

How do I get in touch with a category editor, as I believe I have valid concerns with regard to recent modifications made to a category our site is listed in. The change does not apply to our site specifically, but to most sites within the category. Specifically, the sites listed (including our own) are all listed with a geographic location appended to the description (Ours says "Ontario-based"). Since 90% of the listings in our category facilitate 99% of their business online and across borders, I don't see how geographic location would be applicable?
Our physical website is located in Canada, but we have physical fulfillment and distribution channels across the USA and with less than a handful of orders originating, or being channeled via Canada. If the emphasis of the website is on geographic location, or the company provides a bricks and mortar location that is crucial to doing business, then I can see how a geographic-specific listing would be appropriate. However, for most sites listed in the category this is not the case.

bobrat · Jul 10, 2006

I'm not sure if you are talking about a Regional category or not

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Sites in Regional categories are listed based on the location of the business not the location of potential customers.

If your business is in North York and you sell to Alberta - you get listed in Toronto.

If you have numerous physical locations in ONtario you would get listed one level up - in Ontario.

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For non Regional categories it's quite common to add the location of the business. I routinely do it - it helps clarify listings. As a user, I don't want to go through 70 sites and find most of them are in Europe - where the time to ship becomes inconvenient for me. Having the location makes the directory more usable.

ride45 · Jul 10, 2006

bobrat said:
I'm not sure if you are talking about a Regional category or not

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Thanks for your quick reply bobrat.
It's not a regional category.. a general "Business Category".. if the site description already contains "Serving the US and Canda", then why does the physical location (Ontario-based) of the business matter? The company does not provide a physical business location to service customers in Ontario, where they could walk in off the street, return orders, etc.. We don't even offer product in Canadian dollars and our customers have never even questioned our location except when it deals with delivery time. However, the delivery time for product is the same as if we did have a storefront in the U.S., because our orders are shipped out of the U.S. , while our website is hosted in Ontario.

hutcheson · Jul 10, 2006

If the physical location doesn't matter, then why are you so obsessed about it being hidden?

When a business category gets too large, one of the obvious ways of subcategorizing it is by country; for us, at least, the physical location is useful.

ride45 · Jul 10, 2006

description now geo-specific?

hutcheson said:
If the physical location doesn't matter, then why are you so obsessed about it being hidden?

Because in my opinion it communicates, or emphasizes to a potential customer that our location should be of importance to them. The description given is faciliating a buying decision based on location when location should not be a factor. It's helping the user make a subjective click through decision when the listing should be "objective".

Someone is more likely to click through a search result, or less likely to click through because of the "physical location" given by the category editor.. The fact that we service the U.S. and Canada should be of most importance to a consumer.

hutcheson · Jul 10, 2006

I had been wondering how long it would take for someone to start subcategorizing by region there -- there's no other way left to subcategorize. It looks like someone else was thinking along the same lines.

ride45 · Jul 10, 2006

"Online" should denote the region, if the physical region is not relevant to the site...
An online casino would never have "Monserat-based" or "St. Kitts-based casino serving the world" as the listing description, even though the business may be regionally located offshore somewhere. I am sure there are many online casinos already categorized and editors have found a more reasonable way to distinguish based on location.

That same line of thinking should apply to other business-focused websites where the physical region of the website has nothing to do with how business is actually conducted at the website.

For sites that conduct business using a bricks and mortar location, then subcategorizing by region would be appropriate there IMHO.

Hutcheson, you seem to have a good huntch as to which category I am referring to. Could you kindly pass on my thoughts to the editor, or connect me somehow?
thanks in advance...

Callimachus · Jul 11, 2006

Because in my opinion it communicates, or emphasizes to a potential customer that our location should be of importance to them.

The fact that we service the U.S. and Canada should be of most importance to a consumer.

As an editor, I would have to point out the more information available to a directory user (short of small encyclopedic descriptions) the better their experience and more useful the listings.

Speaking solely as a consumer, I appreciate knowing where businesses I deal with are located. It can be helpful if problems develop. It can also be useful for those of us that would prefer, where possible, to patronize businesses in terms of a local/regional/national/foreign preference heirarchy. Having the location at the end of the description is helpful in this regard.

ride45 · Jul 11, 2006

Callimachus said:
As an editor, I would have to point out the more information available to a directory user (short of small encyclopedic descriptions) the better their experience and more useful the listings.

Callimachus, I agree with this part and have alot of respect for your contributions to this project as an editor.

Callimachus said:
Speaking solely as a consumer, I appreciate knowing where businesses I deal with are located. It can be helpful if problems develop. It can also be useful for those of us that would prefer, where possible, to patronize businesses in terms of a local/regional/national/foreign preference heirarchy. Having the location at the end of the description is helpful in this regard.

I don't agree with this at all (speaking as both a business and a consumer)..
If location is important, decide that when visiting the website. For many consumers using the Internet it's about the product/service first (Is this what I am looking for?) -> then location.
If location was of primary importance, a consumer would pick up the Yellow pages, or look to Google local results first, or even search with a region in mind within their search parameters. Hey, they may even drill down through regional-based categories within a directory!

Our category is not regional
Trying to "hack" in a location of a website for a non-regional category is just a poor approach..

A directory listing, should be a 2 line snapshot of what the site is about. Since our site is not about where we are located, but that WE SERVICE THE US AND CANADA (because we are an ONLINE retailer), that is all that needs to be reflected in the listing.
99% of our business comes from the U.S. and we only transact in U.S. dollars. To say in our listing that we are an Ontario-based company only helps close the minds of consumers who use the internet for global ecommerce.

I'll bet most of the listings that have the regional hack are even inaccurate...
Do you know how many businesses in the U.S. are a Delaware Corporation for tax purposes? They would never be listed as "Delaware-based". What about companies that have multiple offices?

hutcheson · Jul 11, 2006

The ODP taxonomy is likely to continue to support your preference (first -- kind of service, second -- location of server) indefinitely. It also supports the other preference (location -- kind of service).

"Service area" is intermittently supported, where it makes sense (which it mostly doesn't: since all too often it merely means "marketing segment focus", which of course totally irrelevant to us.)

Listing description now geo-specific?

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