[LINK] Categories for a community directory

[Ash Nallawalla]

Google doesn't like sites that use stubs, i.e. empty pages. My guess is that
this is poor user experience when the majority of category links in a new
directory lead to empty pages and it is also a waste of time to index such
empty pages from the Google resourcing perspective.

A developer could write extra code to mark such links as rel="nofollow" to
keep Google ignorant about these pages, but you still have the issue of user
annoyance.

Ash

> From: Roger Clarke
> 
> At 18:21 +1100 11/3/12, Ash Nallawalla wrote:
> >I didn't get the original message, but the SEO angle to this is that it
> >is bad to have empty categories. If possible, allow users to suggest a
> >category and then add it.
> 
> Any idea what the rationale is behind the 'no empty categories' dictum,
Ash?
> 
> Is it 'just 'cos', i.e. the people who first did folksonomies just thought
'list' and
> 'extensible';  and 'structured' and 'comprehensive' were out of sight and
out
> of mind?
> 
> A taxonomy has significant advantages, in particular structure and
hierarchy,
> which give rise to clustering and even inheritance (e.g.
> all sports support groups have quite a bit in common and can learn from
one
> another;  ditto for the various forms of mental health support).
> 
>  From a marketing perspective (and even non-profits do marketing), knowing
> which segments you have strong coverage of, and which you haven't, can be
> very handy.