Topmovingcompanies.com and Joeant

[polarmate]

See this:
http://www.topmovingcompanies.com/directory/99654583/People_and_Society
first compare the left column with Joeant's - then the listings
http://www.joeant.com/DIR/cat/4583

See
http://www.topmovingcompanies.com/directory/99657367/Arts_and_Humanities
and compare with Joeant
http://www.joeant.com/DIR/cat/7367
etc...etc...

The disclaimer at the bottom has Joeant on it but the terms are that of topMovingcompanies or JoeAnt depending on which site you are on.

I 'dug' deeper and the registrant is the same for Joeant and topmovingcompanies.com. WebTofu.

Wouldn't this qualify as duplicate content? Why duplicate the directory on another domain? I am very confused by what I have found...I am sure there is a logical explanation but, for the life of me, I can't see it.

[Glo]

I'm not sure why you are confused, either that or I'm not sure what you are wanting to know. Joeant will eventually be offering its content as open source just as the ODP does. Joeant content on topmovingcompanies.com/ is an experiment, I think. I'm sure the owner will correct me if I'm wrong. ;-) And its not the only site with Joeant content. There are a few others, though the content on those are specific to the subject of the sites. Does this answer your question?

[excell]

I am having trouble on this one as well.

I was doing a search for "some thing" the other day and ended up deep in joeant listings on the removalsite.

The problem I then had was to try a publicly accessible a way back there from the top of the removal site.. without that the directory seems to be acting as a "backdoor". It is therefore *sitting uncomfortably* IMO.

[Glo]

I was doing a search for "some thing" the other day and ended up deep in joeant listings on the removalsite.
I am completely lost, what is a removalsite?

The problem I then had was to try a publicly accessible a way back there from the top of the removal site.. without that the directory seems to be acting as a "backdoor". It is therefore *sitting uncomfortably* IMO.
Why is it *setting uncomfortably* in your humble opinion?

[mncsc]

A search here at IHY comes up with Hbird64 as the owner of the moving company site - a "high ranking" Joeant editor.

http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7134

[excell]

Sorry I meant: topmovingcompanies.com
I was searching for some key phrase and ended up here:

http://www.topmovingcompanies.com/directory/996515205/Australia

the navigation is seeming fine until you click on the left.. and then there is no way to get back... so IMO it is simply backdoor type stuff.

[Glo]

A search here at IHY comes up with Hbird64 as the owner of the moving company site - a "high ranking" Joeant editor.
You misread his sig, he provides content for the Top Moving Companies site. He is not the owner.

excell, I see what you mean, there doesn't appear to be a way into the directory structure from the main page. I can't answer as to why, I'd only be guessing at this point. But I don't think a backdoor thingy is the intent. You know how experiments go, there are always some things that need to be worked out.

[JoeAnt]

I'm afraid I'm still lost. The only reason TopMovingCompanies.com has JoeAnt.com information is to assist with certain regional pages. If someone is looking for a mover in California, I wanted to let them search through California related topics (i.e. http://www.topmovingcompanies.com/movingquotes/California/Palo_Alto.html ) without them leaving the site. The sites main goal is to collect movers who are interested in advertising. The JoeAnt.com content is there only to help it's traffic find schools, jobs, storage rentals, moving supplies, etc... in the areas they may be relocating. It's not meant to be a clone of Joeant.com. I purposely left off the info pages and several topics for that very reason. If it's setup can cause conflict with Google or any other search engine, please guide us to what needs to be done to fix it.

[polarmate]

Originally posted by Glo
I'm not sure why you are confused, either that or I'm not sure what you are wanting to know. Joeant will eventually be offering its content as open source just as the ODP does. Joeant content on topmovingcompanies.com/ is an experiment, I think. I'm sure the owner will correct me if I'm wrong. ;-) And its not the only site with Joeant content. There are a few others, though the content on those are specific to the subject of the sites. Does this answer your question?

Glo,
I was confused by what I saw.
1. The different domains - one of which was a moving company which did not state that they have Joeant's directory or any other directory for that matter
2. The similarity in the design - the identical left column, colors...
3. The link to the directory on topmoving is available from the homepage - from 'Look for:' which sends a user deep into the directory for moving and storage. At this point, due to the layout/design, one gets the impression that this site is masquerading as Joeant.
4. This impression is furthered by :

Copyright © 2000-2002 Joe Ant. All rights reserved. Use of this site is subject to our Terms of Service
5. At the time of writing this, the Terms and Conditions do *not* mention Joeant.
6. 'Main' does links back to the topmovingcompanies homepage and not a directory structure.
This is what was confusing.

The thought that you may be syndicating your results to other sites did occur to me - does the design and layout go with it, too?
Sites that pick up DMOZ data have it displayed on their pages and they link back to DMOZ. I could not find a visible link displayed prominently that links back to Joeant.

Originally posted by JoeAntThe only reason TopMovingCompanies.com has JoeAnt.com information is to assist with certain regional pages. If someone is looking for a mover in California, I wanted to let them search through California related topics (i.e. http://www.topmovingcompanies.com/movingquotes/California/Palo_Alto.html ) without them leaving the site. The sites main goal is to collect movers who are interested in advertising. The JoeAnt.com content is there only to help it's traffic find schools, jobs, storage rentals, moving supplies, etc... in the areas they may be relocating. It's not meant to be a clone of Joeant.com.
You have the entire Joeant directory there. This (http://www.topmovingcompanies.com/directory/99653944/Off_the_Beaten_Path) has nothing to do with moving. And that is how I got into your site. Not through looking for regional moving companies or any of the categories you mention.

Perhaps the SEO experts in the forum will chip in with their advice on how this will affect your rankings - and Joeant's.

[JoeAnt]

You're digging for something and I don't understand. First you say we don't mention the fact that we use the JoeAnt.com database and then you post the copyright notice we have at the bottom of every page that has JoeAnt.com information. Is this a joke?

if not...

Should we consider keeping our source closed in the future?
I'm going to do what I can to remove the irrelevant topics from TopMovingCompanies.com, but what happens when we open our source and someone lists a topic that has nothing to do with their site? They'll have the option to pull it all or just a few subcategories. What do we do? Do we just keep our source closed? If we do open it up, do we tell them they can't use the same design or colors? Do we tell them to change it around so people can't tell it's from JoeAnt? From what you're saying, we shouldn't put any content on our site that is found somewhere else.

the navigation is seeming fine until you click on the left.. and then there is no way to get back... so IMO it is simply backdoor type stuff.

If Ihelpyouservices has taught us anything, it's to never cheat the search engines. I never have and never will. It's your comments that concern me the most. If you tell me what I can do to prevent TopMovingCompanies.com from appearing to be a backdoor, I'll do it.

[Glo]

Sites that pick up DMOZ data have it displayed on their pages and they link back to DMOZ. I could not find a visible link displayed prominently that links back to Joeant.
Just to clarify: This is an experiment, both sites (Joeant and topmovingcompanies) are owned by the same company, hence the similarities in design and layout and the reason there is not a clear link back to Joeant, though that may change with the feedback we have gotten.

The feedback from here is taken seriously and we consider it to be valuable. I'm not an SEO and have very little knowledge on SEO stuff - it's way over my head. I have a limited knowledge of the programming aspect of Joeant. I'm still not sure why we should be concerned, other than causing some confusion, which can easily be fixed. Is there a more sinister reason we should be concerned about?

[polarmate]

It was just so weird to get into a moving site that looked so much like Joeant when I was searching for new age stuff. With so much hijacking of web sites going on - it happened to MMT recently - I wondered if this was a legit site.

If it is an experiment then perhaps you should say so clearly. It is very confusing to someone who surfs in - I wondered why I am on a moving services site when I am looking for new age stuff.

There would have been no confusion on my part if there was a clear link back to Joeant. I thought the T&C might do that but that page only served to throw more confusion into the whole thing as I had no idea whose terms and conditions apply - Joeant's? It was not mentioned in the T&C at all. Or the site's? or both?

I may not be your target audience for the moving company and I may not think like your target audience either but if I being shown a list of links to a certain category of sites, I do like to read and know more about my source. I value the source of my information as much as I value the information that I find.

[Glo]

Thank you for explaining. :)