The DMOZ is referred to as the Open Directory Project. This site relies 100% on humans to index and place websites in appropriate categories. Google and other major search engines rely more on computers to find and index sites using programs such as search engine robots. Since the DMOZ (Open Directory Project) is manned completely by humans, it may take weeks, months, or even years for your site to be indexed after submitting it.
Why the DMOZ (The Open Directory Project) Is Important
A long time ago, in what seems like a distant memory, Yahoo! had a directory which also depended on humans to index sites and place them in the appropriate categories. For a while Yahoo! Was considered the most important “search engine” available. Yahoo enjoyed this level of importance until Google introduced search engine spiders which were able to index sites much faster than any human, or group of humans, could. Google quickly overwhelmed Yahoo! and became the dominant search engine. Yahoo shortly followed suit with their own web crawlers to compete with the large site.
Although there are many things a human directory cannot do that search engines like Google and now Yahoo! can do, there are still some things that a man made directory can do more accurately than search engine spiders. Hand crafted directories are able to more accurately index sites in appropriate categories. This is why although Google uses technology to index sites it still uses the Open Directory Project to more accurately index sites in appropriate categories. Yahoo! still has their online directory but you have to be willing to pay to be indexed and unless you are willing to pay up to $299 dollars a year just to be indexed it may not be a viable solution for your business.
Why You Should Care About the Open Directory Project
The number one reason you should care about the Open Directory Project is submission is free, but there are additional important factors. Having your site index in the correct category is extremely important for your niche market. Assisting the search engines correctly index your site in the appropriate category is always one step in the right direction. Having your site listed in a site with high Page Rank, like the Open Directory Project, will help your business stay that much further ahead than your competitors.
Determine Your Sites Eligibility For Submission
The process of submitting your site is fairly simple but you must first verify if your site is eligible for submission into the DMOZ. You can read the guidelines in their entirety by visiting the submitting a site to the Open Directory page. Below is an extremely condensed version of the guidelines of submission for the DMOZ.
1. Do not submit any domain with an address that redirects to another address.
2. Do not submit sites which are under construction (wait until your site is finished than submit your site, would you rather someone visit your house under construction or visit your house once it is complete? Same rule applies; do not submit your site if all anyone will see is a garbled mess.)
3. Do not submit a site consisting largely of affiliate links.
Verify Your Site Is Not Already Listed In the Open Directory Project
It is possible that your site has already been indexed by the Open Directory Project. This may be because somebody already submitted your URL for you, or an editor liked your site and submitted it to the index themselves. Before you submit your site you should check and see if it is already indexed by visiting the Open Directory Project and searching for your site. If you find your site than your site has been indexed you can sit back and relax with the satisfaction of knowing you have one thing less to do. If your site is nowhere to be found than you need to continue on reading to see how you submit your site.
Submitting Your Site to the Open Directory Project
1. Go to the dmoz.org and click on Suggest URL. This will take you to the guidelines page we mentioned earlier. It will not hurt to read it again to ensure your site is eligible for submission.
2. Select a Category: This part is extremely important so pay attention. You must select the best category possible for your site so do a little digging in the directory in advance to see which category will best fit your site.
3. Creating your description: This part may take some time the description guidelines are as follows:
“ Submitting a promotional description rather than an objective, well written description may significantly delay your site from being listed or prevent your site from being listed at all.“
Take the time to review your site description to ensure it accurately reflects the objective of your ecommerce business rather than it’s selling point.
4. Once you have your description and the correct category you are ready to submit your site. Click on the appropriate category and click suggest URL and enter your description.
After Submitting Your URL
After you submit your URL to the Open Directory Project that is it, you are done, do not do anything else. This is the hardest part for some business owners, to accept that they cannot do anything. The introduction of the Open Directory Project submission process states:
“ We don’t accept all sites, so please don’t take it personally should your site not be accepted…. We may reject, delete, or edit submissions that violate these policies or that we otherwise believe, in our sole discretion, should not be included in the directory…”
Yes this means exactly you think it means they may reject your site for no reason other than the fact they simply do not want to include it in their directory. Some people think that they should submit their site several times which is a stark contrast to the statement:
“Multiple submissions of the same or related sites may result in the exclusion and/or deletion of those and all affiliated sites.”
Not only do you risk having your site excluded by resubmitting your site you also rick having every site associated with your site excluded from the Directory as well. The Open Directory is already hit or miss index, why would you want to increase your chances of missing?
You Should Not Care (After Submitting Your URL)
Simply put if you decide to submit your unique URL to the Open Directory Project, and you should, take some time to prepare. Once you are ready just do it, and keep these thoughts in mind:
-Find the most accurate category
-Create a well written non-promotional description
-Submit it and Forget it!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
about 1 year my blog doesnt get approving from dmozz
there’s many submitted url for our blog, but dmozz is the one is difficult approving