status of http://www.refreshweb.com

Gentle editor;

This business is a spin-up from my other business, and when I initially submitted (over a year ago), there was duplicate content. This may have been the reason it was not entered into the Open Directory. Since that time, I am maintaining both sites separately, although there are links to RefreshWeb from my Brand X Austin site. Whatever overlap exists, it is not being done with the intent of pumping one or the other site...these are two virtual companies with overlapping skill sets.

I submitted to http://www.dmoz.com/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Promotion/Search_Engine_Optimization_Firms/R/

Despite my best intentions, I have become concerned that editors in the search engine optimization space may not be impartial. I resubmitted several months ago, but finally have decided to plead my case...help!

As you note your sites overlap. Effectively refreshweb is a part of the Brand X Austin site, we ignore the fact that its on a separate domain. Users are perfectly capable of accessing the content from the existing listing.

The Brand X Austin site is currently listed in:

Business/Marketing_and_Advertising/Branding

which may or may not be the most appropriate category.

You may be entitled to an additional listing in the http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_Amer...siness_and_Economy/Advertising_and_Marketing/ cat if you have an office there.

But you won't be entitled to an SEO listing - since SEO is a part of Internet Marketing which in turn is a part of Marketing and Advertising as a whole.

If you do specialise mainly in internet marketing (It's not entirely clear from your site) then you might want to consider submitting an update request to move your existing listing to:
Business/Marketing_and_Advertising/Internet_Marketing/Marketing_Services/ which is more focused on Internet Marketing services than the cat you are currently listed in.

Hope this helps clarify things,

Also:

Despite my best intentions, I have become concerned that editors in the search engine optimization space may not be impartial. I resubmitted several months ago, but finally have decided to plead my case...help!

Click to expand...

If you have reason to suspect editorial abuse by an editor - please use: http://report-abuse.dmoz.org/ Allegations of impartiality should not be raised in on resource-zone.

Bear in mind that review times vary from several minutes to several years depending on a variety of factors. It is extremely unlikely the delay in reviewing your site has anything to do with abuse, and everything to do with no-one having gotten around to reviewing submissions at that category recently.

Kind Regards,

Andy

followup

Andy--

Thanks for your prompt response. I do think it would be helpful to move the Brand X Austin site to the category you suggested...

I am frustrated by your response, however. These are two different businesses. It's like saying that neurosurgery is merely a subset of anatomy and physiology. Part of the reason I have been posting changes to the BXA site that reference RefreshWeb is that I can't get the RFW site listed in ODP. From the user perspective, I can assure you (from talking to dozens of advertising agencies) that they cannot find SEO skills by searching under marketing and advertising. Wouldn't it make more sense to allow a specialized site that provides a lot of information, case studies, etc. on this hot topic than to subsume the content to a generic marketing site?

Grace and peace...
John