>>It’s amazing to go through the categories and wonder how some sites get every keyword put into their description and others get a four word description.
Each editor approaches descriptions differently, and undoubtedly this is part of the difference, but the submitters have a major effect also:
"A pharisee and a publican went up to the marketplace to advertise.
The pharisee stood on the street corner and shouted, "We're not like all those other firms! We have a one-stop shop for all your needs. We fully optimize your paradigms while ensuring your needs are met with only the highest quality services with a smile! You can be sure that every contact with us will leave you fully satisfied! We have been in business since 8:45, and can demonstrate the flexibility needed in today's marketplace!" and to this he added yet more, to the same effect and point.
The publican sat down in a corner of the market where the poorer tenant-farmers congregated, and laid out in a row in front of him baskets of leeks, garlic, cucumbers, dill, barley, and figs.
Which one of these, think you, would get more keywords from the passers-by?
I'll tell you, the pharisee found few customers, and some of them only because they thought he was a pimp. But the publican sold all of his produce and returned to his hovel with enough money to pay his rent."
I start by deleting all the hype from a description. (From many descriptions, there leaves nothing left, not even a clue as to the nature of the business!)
I also delete the from the list of services whatever could be assumed from the category, or inappropriate levels of detail.
Then I add back what seems to me necessary to describe the services offered (which may be less than what the owner would have given, and is almost certain to be less than what I would have left in place in step 2, if the owner had said it.
Thus, the presence of hype and over-specification on the submittal directly leads to less specificity in the description on the actual listing. On the other hand, some poor editors simply click-through to accept drastically over-typed descriptions. Those stick out, as you have noticed, like a sore thumb. When I go through a category and notice such a description, I usually edit it to whack the hype (but may not re-review the site, and skip step 3 above, thus not even adding my own description. It is a matter of priorities -- while hype-whacking is critical to the directory's credibility, listing new sites is more valuable than adding fulsome descriptions to sites that have minimally adequate ones.) But as a result of all this, these descriptions will probably be the briefest and least-descriptive of all the sites I edit.
Your editor, and their mileage, may vary. But trying to get as many self-gratulatory or key-words as the WORST description already in the category is not a good idea. If you succeed, it just means your listing is palpably the first to get hype-whacked.
