Open Directory Project (ODP) Submission Tips

DMOZ Directory Is Used By Google

Originally Published: May 20, 2003

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.

Submitting To The Open Directory Project

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.

Open Directory Project Submission Guidelines

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: http://www.whois.sc/internet-statistics/dmoz-listings.html .

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.

Editor's Note: For help submitting to other directories see: [Internet Directories: How To Get Listed. If you are having problems getting accepted by ODP see: [Internet Directories: Directory Rejection Causes, Part 1]. Also note that submissions to ODP can now take more than a year to be reviewed.

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March 21 2010 18:17 UTC