Withdraw ODP Site

I am working on optimizing a super health related site which is listed in the ODP. The only problem is we have just one match in the correct health category and 5 matches/sites in the Home: Cooking Category. Unbeknownst to anyone, these pages were submitted and picked up. Although we offer recipes, we are not a cooking site. Organically, a lot of emphasis is given to these pages and we would like to focus on providing health information and support a community of people living with a chronic disease. We believe that the weight that these pages received from the ODP has influenced the search engines and distracted our audience from our main message centered on health & community. Shall we request that these pages be withdrawn via the "Update Listing" - is that our best option?

Unbeknownst to anyone, these pages were submitted and picked up

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The listings in the Cooking section were probably not suggested to us but rather were found and listed directly by an editor.

Shall we request that these pages be withdrawn via the "Update Listing" - is that our best option?

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We neither list nor delist sites on demand. As long as the content of the page is still listable, then we leave it listed.

Thanks for your reply! Would it be appropriate to submit another URL in another category to balance out the overweight on Cooking? We have a Health and Community support focus and not a Home or Cooking focus. We really don't want to be considered a recipe site. We have over 4000 pages of valuable information that spans many categories - it is unfortunate that we have so many recipes picked up at the exclusion of what we do best...

Would it be appropriate to submit another URL in another category to balance out the overweight on Cooking?

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No, it wouldn't.

katie10506 said:

We really don't want to be considered a recipe site. We have over 4000 pages of valuable information that spans many categories - it is unfortunate that we have so many recipes picked up at the exclusion of what we do best...

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If you don't want it recognized that the site also provides useful content related to the recipes, the only way to correct that is to remove the recipes. An editor found the content ample and unique enough to deeplink to it.

If anyone checks out the health category they will find you, if they are looking for recipies in the cooking categories then they will find your recipes.

As for searches, well, you should be promoting your site to get more links back to your main url as a Health and Community support site rather than worrying about the 4 cooking links. Removing these will not boost the Health and Community support focus. A listing in the ODP is not the be all and end all of site promotion.

regards