My Business description is wrong and I'm losing $$

I've been trying DESPERATELY to change my business description. I've resubmitted my URL description but nothing has happened..
My website is www.cupidbridal.com
This is the category where the change needs to be made.

Business/Arts_and_Entertainment/Photography/Photographers/Wedding_and_Events/North America/United_States/California

It lists me as doing Studio bridal portraiture..Which is wrong!!
It should say " Wedding day coverage in a documentary style within the San Francisco Bay area."
This is important because many of the search engines AOL, Google follow your lead.
I'd be so grateful..
Thank you.
Steve Newberry
cupidbridal.com

[edited to correct dmoz category URL]

My Business description is wrong and I'm losing $$

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Sorry, but that has absolutely no impact on the priority your update request gets compared to other sites waiting to be reviewed in that category.

You will notice I'm French, and I'm probably not the best at weighing this kind of nuances, but the current description says 'Professional studio and bridal portraiture as well as wedding day coverage in the San Francisco Bay Area'. If 'professional studio' is not correct, I don't see how it's a problem since it continues with 'and bridal portraiture as well as wedding day coverage in the San Francisco Bay Area'. If what's important to you is 'wedding day coverage in the San Francisco Bay Area', it is there.

I'm an english-speaker, and I agree completely with tuisp. If your business model depends on you being listed in the ODP *without* the phrase "professional studio", then I would strongly suggest revisiting your business model - editors will provide descriptions that they feel are appropriate, and not base them around keywords that a submitter may desire.

Yes wedding day coverage is there AT THE END.
Studio Bridal portraiture is all they will see and go to the next listing. Look at EVERY other photograher in that directory and you will not find one with that description at the beginning. Also there are no on line editors for this category. I talked to Andy (Editor Andy) and he no longer works there. Is it too much to ask to please change it?? No rush,no priority just hopefully by December.
Merci

If you have submitted an update request, it will be processed as and when the volunteer editors have the time.

Thanks.

Thank You very much!
It really means alot to me and I appreciate your quick response.
I apologise for my rudeness..
Sincerly,
Steven
http://www.cupidbridal.com

he no longer works there

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Just to emphasize what alucard said: no editor works there, we all are volunteers. As has already been said countless times in this forum, a lot of us can edit in that category (editors listed in higher level categories, as well as all editalls and metas). It's just that there's no way to predict when somebody decides to shovel the sites waiting to be reviewed there (and posting here doesn't give you any advantage over the others). Maybe before Christmas, but don't make that a promise <img src="/images/icons/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Re: My Business description is wrong and I'm losin

There is a general issue here, and since so many people misunderstand it, it's worth repeating.

1) "I'm losing money." -- so you say, but we have no way of verifying that--and if you're losing money, some other photographer must be gaining it, which, in our view, would make it a wash. Even if we cared about such things, which we don't, we wouldn't care about this.

2) "Extra words in description are putting off customers." I admit, this at least is absolutely a novel idea. Most SERP perps try to pack every related word from Roget's, in all possible inflections and in all possible permutations of word order. In fact, you're the first person I've EVER heard ask for accurate potential keywords to be removed from a description. (I would almost be moved to grant it for the sake of the novelty.) But consider first..

3) "Effect on the search engines." Actually, we are explicitly and specifically directed NOT to care about this...

4) ... but, for the benefit of you who do care about it: I'll give my estimate, based on my experience with Google searches (which, I bet, is a broader based experience than that of whoever gave you the advice you're acting on). Removing words from your site description will NOT help your site show up higher for any other words. Not now, not ever. You can take this for what it's worth -- you didn't pay anything for it; on the other hand, I'm not having to explain to my customer why my promotional work isn't effective -- so there's no incentive to lie.

5) Did I mention that SERP is not at all our concern? ALL sites we list may get the same rank, for all we care! So be warned, because SERP is not at all our concern, that if the editor thinks the current description is "better" (i.e. more accurate and/or concise) than your suggested description FOR DIRECTORY USERS, the suggestion is likely to be rejected. I am generally favorably inclined towards all requests to REMOVE words from listings, but I respect the local editor's judgment unless the listing (or category) really looks bad.

Summary: you've requested; some editor will look at it sometime but not in any fixed amount of time; most important to you -- whether or not you get the answer you want, you absolutely WON'T get the (financial) results you expect, and you should fire the idiot who told you otherwise.

another possibility

Well then do you think it would be easier to just pull my site entirely from the ODP and then resubmit it?
Would that save time?
Thanks.

Re: another possibility

Don't think so. It will be the same group of editors that will be reviewing and describing your site. Just submit an update for your site and wait until one of the editors has time to review it. But it is upto that editor to decide how to describe your site.

Maybe we should add the key words of "send money" to the description <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />

mmmnn.. send money Now that's an idea!
Call it a contribution or a tip maybe.
We'll see if it works.. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

Re: another possibility

Most editors deal with update requests before they deal with new submissions. It's not a rule, but I have seen it happen. So I'd leave it as an update.

Re: My Business description is wrong and I'm losin

&gt;4) ... but, for the benefit of you who do care about it: I'll give my estimate, based on my experience with Google searches (which, I bet, is a broader based experience than that of whoever gave you the advice you're acting on). Removing words from your site description will NOT help your site show up higher for any other words. Not now, not ever. You can take this for what it's worth -- you didn't pay anything for it; on the other hand, I'm not having to explain to my customer why my promotional work isn't effective -- so there's no incentive to lie.

As someone who has studied search engine optimization, I agree with the above. I don't know of any search engine where what is listed as the ODP description for a site will cause it to come up higher or lower on SERPs. Search engines simply pay no attention whatever to ODP descriptions.

Re: My Business description is wrong and I'm losin

I don't care about my ranking.
Just would like the description changed before Xmas hopefully. I wouldn't care at all if it were only in your directory but it seems all the other directories feed off yours so it's wrong on all the others too!

Re: My Business description is wrong and I'm losin

but, for the benefit of you who do care about it: I'll give my estimate, based on my experience with Google searches (which, I bet, is a broader based experience than that of whoever gave you the advice you're acting on). Removing words from your site description will NOT help your site show up higher for any other words. Not now, not ever

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Not necessarily True. If a site uses a keyword too many times, "Removing words from your site description" can help greatly.

Dave

Re: My Business description is wrong and I'm losin

An ODP description shouldn't affect your google ranking at all. It's just text on a third-party page; it won't affect the keyword density on your own site.

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Disclaimer: This post constitutes an unofficial, personal opinion not necessarily shared by other ODP editors, the university, or my cats.

Looks like this has been asked and answered. We're drifting into choppy waters here. Let's close it