[Web4lib] What do you know about LibDex?

Roy Tennant tennantr at oclc.org
Mon Nov 8 16:41:51 EST 2010


There are a lot of web sites out there that are basically only there to
collect Google Adsense revenue. And directory sites are the most coveted, as
whenever someone goes to a directory site they are specifically looking for
a link to click on, and in so doing they may not discriminate between an ad
link and a content link. Also, if they can actually fool people into linking
to them as a content provider, then their "link love" increases and they are
even more successful. There are an untold number of folks out there who have
created stables of such sites and are probably mostly kicking back and
letting the revenue roll in. Most of these sites require little or no
maintenance to continue to make money.

But to address your real question, I wouldn't update your record with
Libdex. I'd address some other problems that are making your site not as
discoverable as it should be. As far as I can tell, your sitemap.txt file
only lists your homepage:

<http://www.eugene-or.gov/sitemap.txt>

Although I could be mistaken, as the URLs produced by your CMS are somewhat
impenetrable (what horrible system is that?). I would work with the city to
expose ALL of your pages via the sitemap, and make sure it is registered
with Google, at Google Webmaster Tools:

<https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home>

If you do that, then it's likely that pages from your site will eventually
swamp the Libdex page, and it will end up on the 2nd or 3rd screen of
results, which will largely render it harmless.
Roy


On 11/8/10 11/8/10 € 11:03 AM, "HAZEL Margaret E"
<Margaret.E.Hazel at ci.eugene.or.us> wrote:

> LibDex.com purports to be a library website index, and is full of erroneous
> info, although it has our website address correct, and so it showed up in web
> hits to our site as a referral.  The address it lists for us is of an
> apartment building, and it lists us as being a bookmobile only.  Obviously, we
> can correct our info, but it's open to anyone to update, apparently, and it
> seems odd that it is a site registered to someone in Gibralter.   I suspect it
> is a way for spammers to get addresses of folks registering to update info.
> 
> Opinions?   Since someone found us this way, my impulse is to update the info,
> but...
> 
> -Margaret
> 
> Margaret Hazel
> Virtual Branch & Innovative Tech Manager
> Eugene Public Library
> Eugene, OR
> 541-682-6015
> margaret.e.hazel at ci.eugene.or.us
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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