Question regarding site removal

It was suggested I post a message here after posting a message in another forum. I have noticed that in recent weeks a link to my business has been removed from Business/Financial_Services/Freelancer-Contractor_Services/United_Kingdom/.

I was wondering whether there was any particular reason for this as no changes have been made to the website and the business continues to provide an umbrella payroll service for IT contractors. I've operated the business with my business partner for a number of years and provide a similar service to the other sites which continue to be listed.

I did send a message to the editor, but received no reply. I appreciate fully there is no obligation for me to receive a reply as reading some of the other postings I see this a volunteer based directory, but I just wanted to ask whether there is something I need to change in order for the site to be reinstated. I've read the guidelines, but nothing stands out as being obviously wrong.

I'm not sure how we came to be listed in the first place, but I was grateful for it and it was an employee in our office who manages my online advertising who pointed out we had been dropped.

Many thanks.

Adrian Learer

> I was wondering whether there was any particular reason for this
There are several possible reasons why a listing can be removed. Most common are
- the site was not available for some time, one of our tools noticed this unavailablity and moved the site out of public view for an editor to investigate
- the site did not meet our guidelines, either the site changed or the guidelines or it never met the guidelines
- the site was moved to another category and is now waiting a new review in that category

> I did send a message to the editor, but received no reply.
As a result of a number of bad experiences in the past we advise editors not to reply to emails asking about a single website.

> I just wanted to ask whether there is something I need to change in order for the site to be reinstated.
No, there is nothing you need to do.
If it was a temporary removal the site will be relisted (when that will happen is something we can not predict)
If it was a permanent removal the site will stay unlisted.

Thank you for your reply, although I'm now a little confused.

I've checked the category Business/Financial_Services/Freelancer-Contractor_Services/United_Kingdom/ and notice that since I posted you have added a site to the category, but it is not our main site or the site that was orignally listed. The site you have added is not one we promote and was created by a marketing company who wanted to generate leads for us and in the end we were not interested and just purchased the domain. Please could you reinstate our main company website only. Again, I fully appreciate this is a volunteer based directory, but I don't want your visitors to be directed to a site which does not accurately portray the services we offer as the site you have listed is not one I have any control over and will disappear when the marketing agency decide to turn it off. I submitted a change request to the category Business/Financial_Services/Freelancer-Contractor_Services/United_Kingdom/ asking for the site you have added to be removed and replaced with the site you listed originally which is my site and the only one which should carry by business name.


I'm just a little confused as to why you removed reference to my business site as post above and when I posted to enquire as to whether there was a reason, you added a site which carries our name, but is not our main site or a site in which I control. I assume it may just be coincidental, but I thought I'd point it out as the site you currently list is not accurate.

Many thanks

Adrian Learer

> that since I posted you have added a site to the category
That `you` was not me. I have no rights in that category.
Most probably an editor noticed some issue with the listed website, did remove it temporarely from public view and relisted it (under another url).
There can be some time between these actions, and it is possible that more than one editor was involved. I don´t know and did not check the category.

> I submitted a change request
Good. That is the only way to request for changes. Did you included the reason as you described it here. We need a good reason to change listings.

> I'm just a little confused as to why you removed reference to my business site as post above
In this forum we do not allow discussions about a single website (that is why we remove urls and company names).
I gave you possible reasons why we temporary or permanently remove websites from DMOZ.

> when I posted to enquire as to whether there was a reason, you added a site which carries our name
Most probably a coincidence. Most editors do not read this forum.

If your change request is found to be correct and if the websites show evidence of the truth about the request we will change the listing.

The site you have added is not one we promote and was created by a marketing company who wanted to generate leads for us and in the end we were not interested and just purchased the domain.

Click to expand...

Can I ask why you kept the site they created if you didn't really want it, rather than just, say, redirecting the domain to your main site? You say you have no control over the content on that site, but if it's registered to you, you should be able to point it wherever you want, regardless of who has control of the site content. I'm just curious.

I suppose I should redirect, I'll need to discuss this with my technical team. But it is strange as this is not a domain we promote anywhere and the site is not updated as we do not have a content management system for it and I can't understand why you would update the listing with this domain, unless someone filled in the update request form masquerading as us? I know you can find the site by searching on google, but you have to search on a variant of our company name to find it. It's difficult as the rules of the forum prevent me from referring to the domains, but if you look at the news section on the site you have listed, you'll notice it has not been updated since May 2009, but look at the latest news section on the site you originally listed, you'll see the news section updated periodically. Furthermore, the description you have for the site you currently list is inaccurate. "Firm of accountants providing limited company and umbrella services to contractors. Includes company and service information" - The site you list for us has no information regarding our limited company services and was created exclusively for generating leads for our umbrella service. The marketing company created it for purposes of tracking the effectiveness of google paid advertising only and we no longer use their services nor direct traffic to that site so it is rather dormant. The site you originally listed is far more detailed and provides an overview of all our accountancy services for contractors and is the site we list on our business cards, letterheads, directories etc.

Editors choose which of a site's various domains is the one they'll list. If there is nothing about any of the sites to tell the editors what domain is the main one, then they'll pick the one they think is most appropriate. As pvgool mentioned earlier, you can use the update request to explain why you think the URL should be changed. If the editor who reviews your request agrees with your reasons, then they'll change the URL accordingly.