Why Would a Website Directory Redirect Links?

[Angela Wills]

I was doing some research for sites to get inbound links from and I came across a Canadian Website Directory.

After looking around I noticed that the site links were all redirected through the website first. Here's what I mean:

1.
I saw a link like this:
Waashtaau Communications Inc
29 Smokey Hill,
Waskaganish, QC
J0M 1R0
Canada
(819) 895-2483

2.
I hover over the link and I see this:
http://www.canadianbusinessdirectory.ca/category.php?cat=1832

3.
When I click the link it goes to the actual site.

That means a link on this site is useless Search Engine wise, right?

Here's a page where you can see what I mean too:
http://www.canadianbusinessdirectory.ca/category.php?cat=1832

The site also has a lot of dead links so I'm not too worried about getting my site on there but I was wondering why they would even bother to redirect every link through their own website. Any ideas?

[megan328]

Hi - It probably has to do with how the software that automates the directory is written - generally directory scripts would store your site name, site url, and site description in a a database and then the script can retrieve that information and display it in the directory listing in a number of ways - it could retrieve the actual url and write it as a direct link in the listing or it could just retrieve the "Id" (the unique record identifier) and put that identifier in the link and then when the visitor clicks the link the url for your site is retrieved from the database bbased on the unique identifier and then the visitor is sent to that link (like a relay) one reason to use this method is to record the number of times someone clicks on your link (every time someone clicks the number in the database is increased by 1 for that record with that unique identifier) this way they have a record of which links in the directory are the most popular etc. This is great for the directory but not so great if people who list there are hoping to get a direct link back to their site.

hth ~megan

[Angela Wills]

Thanks for the reply Megan! Interesting and I guess something to keep in mind when looking for links from directories.

[megan328]

You guys are very welcome & just so you know I write web software (I'm a coldfusion programmer) and its so easy for the person writing the software to just be thinking in terms of getting the job done and focusing on just one group of users with out doing the research to determine the finer points of what other groups of users of the software might need out of it - I mean a visitor who goes to a directory of florists to find a good one in their area might just want to be able to see which ones are highest rated or most popular, or are in their zip code etc. so the programmer makes it easy for them to do that, but the people who are actually listing their businesses in the directory might need direct links to their site but the programmer might not think of that

hth ~megan