Tips
for submitting to DMOZ.org (ODP)
DMOZ is
also known as "Open
Directory Project" (ODP). Besides Yahoo, it's the largest
human-compiled directory of the Web. It contains almost four
million Web sites maintained by a global community of volunteer
editors.
If you
manage to get your site listed in the DMOZ directory, you will
improve your Google ranking considerably because your site will
also be listed in the Google directory which mirrors the DMOZ
directory.
Besides
Google, many other search engines use the DMOZ directory to
supplement their own database, for example AllTheWeb, Excite,
HotBot, Lycos, Teoma and many country specific search engines.
If your
site isn't listed yet, you should read the DMOZ guidelines carefully.
Then you can add your site at http://www.dmoz.org/add.html.
On
top of the guidelines, you should also read the tips at the
following two sites:
http://www.laisha.com/odp.html
http://www.ideasformarketing.com/opendir.html
It's also
worth reading the specific guidelines
for the DMOZ editors. These are the criteria the editors themselves
use to determine if your Web site gets added or not.
According
to the official DMOZ guidelines, it's prohibited to submit the
same URL more than once. In addition, you may not submit URLs
that contain only the same or similar content as other sites
in the directory.
With all
the rules and guidelines, some find it hard to get their Web
site listed in the DMOZ directory. However, others have managed
to get their domain listed multiple times in the DMOZ directory.
Recently,
the people at nameintelligence.com compiled a list of domains
that have 5 or more listings in the DMOZ directory. You can
see the list here.
This Web
page also tells you where you can report any abuse of the DMOZ
guidelines.
In general,
it takes up to three weeks or more for your site to appear on
any of the search engines that use the DMOZ data. For example,
last time Google needed several months to update their directory
listings.
If you
submitted your site and it was not listed after 3-4 weeks, you
may want to ask about your site's status at the public
forum of the DMOZ editors.
You can
also try submitting your site to the next level up of the directory
to see if you can get some attention of another editor.
Finally,
remember that the DMOZ directory is maintained by humans. Using
tricks that get your site listed in the search engines will
not work here and may prevent your site from getting listed
at all.
However,
if you carefully follow the tips on the Web pages mentioned
above, it's very likely that your Web site will be listed in
the DMOZ directory and thus that your Web site will improve
its ranking on Google.
Sources:
Mark Carey's
web
site collects quotes of GoogleGuy. The ultimate source is
the webmaster forum "http://www.webmasterworld.com"
but a subscription is required to read all postings.
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