Regional Real Estate Directory Submissions

Hi there,

I operate a real estate directory (www.RealEstateSurfing.com) and have a questions regarding regional real estate submissions. I submitted the www.ontario.realestatesurfing.com page in December and received a listing for a few days in the (Top: Regional: North America: Canada: Ontario: Business and Economy: Real Estate) category for a week or so but it was dropped. I emailed to ask why and was given a response (see below). I'm not sure what I did wrong but any information you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Russ



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From: [edited]
To: [edited]
Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 5:59 PM
Subject: ODP Feedback - Ontario Real Estate Listing

your email's been forwarded to me for response. I checked the editors log and as far as I can tell I accepted your site. But there is a note from another editor saying it was "wrongly listed" and deleted.
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[Edited - please do not post private email addresses - thanks]

Looks a lot like it is a site with nothing but links to other sites. Where's the content?

Hi

The Ontario page links to other pages on the site where the services the Realtor offers are then highlighted (ie. there's a button the user can click which goes directly to a form where the user can fill out their critieria). The content on the city pages describes the agent and their services but the Ontario province page just links through to the the individual city pages. Have I been submitting it to the wrong category?

Cheers,
Russ

My take on the site is that a "directory" with only one agency in each town (or at least the ones I checked) is not going to be taken seriously as a directory by either editors or users. The ODP incorporates its own, rather more comprehensive, directory of Real Estate sites in that region. Ergo, insufficient content to be listed.

If we had more than one agent or other real estate professionals (ie. home inspectors or mortgage brokers) would this make a difference?

Not really. The standard recommended practice for editing "small directory sites" submitted like this is to "suck out the links, spit out the hull." There is a simple reason for this.

In order to be a useful addition to the _Open Directory_, a directory site has to have something unique and inimitable...otherwise, why not just use the Open Directory?

I notice that there are a few other directories under Top: Regional: North America: Canada: Ontario: Business and Economy: Real Estate There's even one with the title "Canada Real Estate Directory - Ontario real Estate". Why is it indexed and mine is not? Is there nothing that I can do to have this one agent per city site listed?

Hi,

I tracked down the editor notes - the main site, realestatesurfing.com, was moved to unreviewed along with 23 other sites at Regional/North_America/Canada/Business_and_Economy/Real_Estate

It looks like the Canada category editors intend to list it only once, on the national level.

Many editors don't try hard to understand the real estate guidelines, but badgering and pestering here will not make things happen faster for you. This forum is NOT for getting specific sites listed, please remember.

http://dmoz.org/realestateguidelines.html

I wasn't trying to badger or pester anyone -- sorry if you got that impression. Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply to my questions.

Cheers,
Russ

Of course you weren't. Thank you for your patience, and good luck with your submission.

>>Is there nothing that I can do to have this one agent per city site listed?

The problem is not with your submittal procedure. The problem is with the content on the site. Editors, each of whom has reviewed dozens (or hundreds) of sites with content like this, agree that it is best for our users to treat these sites, as consistently as possible, by the suck-n-spit method mentioned above. Sometimes inexperienced editors add the sites, but no listing is guaranteed permanently -- a small directory is always liable to suck-spit-deletion.

Thanks again -- I understand what you're saying and it makes sense.

Have a good weekend,
Russ