1 site, 6 dmoz listings = little effect on serps

[Dominic]

One of our content sites has such great and unique content in it that it gained 6 listings in dmoz to seperate parts of the site (only one to the homepage).

The primary keyword for the site was used in all the listings as part of the anchor text. (widgets this, widgets that, brown rolly polly widgets, etc)

The listings have been added over the past 3 to 9 months and have all since migrated to the google directory.

So far we have seen almost no traffic from dmoz and ... for all those webmasters crying over their keyboards thinking "if only I could get 6 listings in dmoz to my site," the effect on our serps has been negligable also.

The categories range from pr4 to pr6 so some pr benefit has occured, but other than that... not much else.

I have other applications pending for other sites and as I have become more experienced with the effects of a dmoz listings or lack there of, my anxiety over the outstanding submissions not having been added yet has decreased to a bare 'well, if they add it they do, if they dont they dont.'

The seo value of a dmoz listing from my experience only comes into play if you get only the exact keyword or phrase as the anchor text.

PS - I'm not knocking dmoz, they have never claimed to be able to offer webmasters anything... I'm just sharing this to balance out some of the myths from other webmasters about how a listing in dmoz is so powerful for seo and so on and so on (you have heard it all I'm sure).

[Smyrl]

What I have seen as the value of a DMOZ listing is the number of backlinks you get from other directories which copy DMOZ content.

Shannon

[flawebworks]

I think the main benefit of dmoz is all the scrapers out there: who just use dmoz content for their own site - so you end up with all kinds of backlinks.

[Dominic]

Sure, heaps of backlinks... great. But I guess what I'm saying is the only help in the serps all these wonderful links will give you is for the exact phrasing of the anchor text used in the dmoz listing.

Like if one of Shawn's pages was listed as "Digitalpoint Keyword Tracker" the only search the listing and tons of subsequent links would really help on would be "Digitalpoint Keyword Tracker", not "Digitalpoint" or "Keyword Tracker" to any great effect.

[john_loch]

Dominic,

Great and not so great. I've never heard of six listings in DMOZ, so your feedback is great - I'd have thought the BL's would be a significant asset. In fact - the BL's are the biggest advantage - except of course where deviation from your chosen anchor text is concerned.

But even then, heavy on-page seo (ie - internal links to highly optimized pages from the landing page) can save the day on partials (searches against a partial anchor). It's never quite as effective as a complete anchor, but then you said your area was unique in that it warranted six entries ?

Either way - the feedback is great - I've not heard it all before :)

Cheers,

JL

[Dominic]

Cheers John.

[l234244]

Check digitalpoint out - http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=digitalpoint.com - 11 listings

[phrozen_ra]

The only way DMOZ could help would be if it would let you in... say 2 days after you lauched a site...

If it let's you in about 3-6 months... it really has no effect then

[Will.Spencer]

I've never heard of six listings in DMOZ...

Check out DMOZ Top Listed Domains (http://www.whois.sc/internet-statistics/dmoz-listings.html)

[dcristo]

What I have seen as the value of a DMOZ listing is the number of backlinks you get from other directories which copy DMOZ content.

Shannon

Surely these DMOZ clone backlinks cant weigh too much though?

[dcristo]

The only way DMOZ could help would be if it would let you in... say 2 days after you lauched a site...

If it let's you in about 3-6 months... it really has no effect then

This makes absolutely no sense to me.

[roadies]

Will, John, 1234244...

all very good information. Nice thread. Thanks guys. Subscribed.

[l234244]

Just shows if you have good unique content then they have no problem putting you in more than one category.

[CanadianEh]

Check out DMOZ Top Listed Domains (http://www.whois.sc/internet-statistics/dmoz-listings.html)

I found these stats fascinating. The stats are better explained when you know that ODP is owned by TimeWarner who owns CCN and AOL.

DMOZ is still a must submit but I have noted some interested tidbits in my DMOZ review (http://www.best-web-directories.com/DMOZ.htm).

[ShameJobBlog]

From your article:
"If you submit to only directory then sum bit to the"

may want to fix that.

[CanadianEh]

From your article:
"If you submit to only directory then sum bit to the"

may want to fix that.

Thanks. Like they say, "you only have one chance to make a good first impression". It helps if you can get the first sentence right.

[Blogmaster]

This makes absolutely no sense to me.
It's true, have a brandnew domain, get a dmoz, yahoo! directory and joeant (or skaffe) listing before anything else and you will not even be in a sandbox

[bobmutch]

John Loch: This site has over 100 links in dmoz www.religioustolerance.org .

[Blogmaster]

and that'll do a lot!

[Joffrey]

I also got quite a number of DMOZ links. I didn't notice any sudden increase in traffic though.

[glengara]

I recently lost a lucky DMOZ listing for an inside page, the page is down about 20 positions in G, and most of its PR is gone... :-(

[bobmutch]

Joffrey: I think you are going to get more link pop and PR vote that traffic from DMOZ and its clones.

[yisou]

Well done,I have submit many times to DMOZ,but never add my site.

[davedx]

I think a BL from somewhere like dmoz isn't really going to be to boost your 'relevance' (i.e. KW matching in the G. algo) unless you're extremely lucky with the editor's choice. The point of submitting to dmoz is, in my opinion, a solid, straight PR boost ('vote') from a respected authority site. Onsite optimisation and backlinks from sites where you have more control over anchor/surrounding text are where you'll get better relevance. If you don't have both, your SERP ranking won't be hot in an area with lots of competition.

[bobmutch]

davedx: This is where it comes to thinking ahead when you purchase your domain name and form your company name. For example my company name is "SEO Company" and my domain is SEOCOMPANY.CA . Hence my title in DMOZ is "SEO Company" which is one of the main words I am targeting. I am currently #12 on Yahoo and #18 on MSN. My site is only 7 months old I don't have any ranks in Google so I am experiencing the sandbox effect what ever that is.

Strange enough my ranking when down (well on MSN it did - used to be on first page) when I got entered into DMOZ which shows that DMOZ is very bad for rankings and your site is better off not in DMOZ. Now if I can just find some way to get my self removed so my rankings will come back : )

[mcfox]

Strange enough my ranking when down (well on MSN it did - used to be on first page) when I got entered into DMOZ which shows that DMOZ is very bad for rankings and your site is better off not in DMOZ. Now if I can just find some way to get my self removed so my rankings will come backSurely ye jesteth, sire?

[CanadianEh]

davedx: Strange enough my ranking when down (well on MSN it did - used to be on first page) when I got entered into DMOZ which shows that DMOZ is very bad for rankings and your site is better off not in DMOZ. Now if I can just find some way to get my self removed so my rankings will come back : )So you are thinking that MSN is possibly discounting the ranking of sites in DMOZ. Very interesting theory.

I guess it makes sense with my own results. I am still blown over by the number of top 5 results from my new sites.

It would make some sense if MSN reduced the number of backlinks it counted from a DMOZ site since the DMOZ site will receive hundreds or thousands of extra links from sites using DMOZ data. Maybe when your site was added to DMOZ it went down because many of the new DMOZ backlinks had not made it into the MSN index yet.

Like I said, interesting theory.

[bobmutch]

mcfox: Yes. I was just making a point that just because two events happen one after the other, or close to each other, that they don't have any relationship to each other but are what we call a coincidence.

How ever my ranking in MSN did drop shortly after I was added to DMOZ.

I had even a worse coincidence not long ago. I posted on searchenginewatch on the sandbox thread that GoogleGuy was making comments on. I was complaining very much about my rankings in Google and that when I applied the sandbox filter I ranked very high on a number of my keywords. PageRank Update, SEO Company, SEO Techniques etc.

In this post I noted that I had never done anything spammy but... and I confessed that some time ago when I was not thinking straight I had added 40 nice commments on a blog that had numbers of PR5 pages. I also noted I stopped doing that when I learned better : )

The very nice day I was hammered. In my mind I was sure Google Guy had read my post and had personally hammered my site. I deleted my post, send I even more stupit email to Google confessing my wrong and begging to be added back to the index. I contacted the said blog where I had done my er, posting and confessed and asked from him to remove my posts. Then I found out the next day that there had be a big Algo change and that I had just got filtered cus of all my site wide links and over optimization.

Anyway this all goes to provide (other than I am a bit wacked) that many things are a coincidence and have nothing to do with what you just did.

[subnet_rx]

Check out DMOZ Top Listed Domains (http://www.whois.sc/internet-statistics/dmoz-listings.html)

nice find.

I have the saw the same results as the author with DMOZ, been in 3 months now and no BL's, no traffic.

[Richmond, Virginia SEO]

I wonder if the legend here is greater than the truth. DMOZ is horrible about posting sites in a timely fashion so the old adage, you want what you can't have may be at play. So over time it has become something that has more myth than truth when relating to SEO effectiveness.

I submit all my sites, but in the last six months haven't seen any get in.

[CanadianEh]

The biggest DMOZ reward in my opinion is the potential thousands of backlinks from sites that use DMOZ data and not traffic from DMOZ itself.

I have generally had the same experience of not getting sites listed, but it will always be worth the 10 minutes to submit.

[Richmond, Virginia SEO]

I agree, always submit to dmoz, it would be foolish not to. But we should also realize it won't solve all your seo challanges. :)

[CanadianEh]

You are right. I have heard this hundreds of times but I believe its the first time that I repeat it.

Submit it and forget it

[Blogmaster]

You are right. I have heard this hundreds of times but I believe its the first time that I repeat it.

Submit it and forget it
That's all you really can do

[ziandra]

I just checked my logs for my small gaming site for this month. 250 links from google, 30 from yahoo, 3 from netscape, 2 from dmoz. Another dozen from dmoz clones that awstats didn't recognize as DMOZ. I am rated between #1 and #6 in google for all my (not very popular) targeted keywords.

I don't have as much experience as a lot of you but I think that submitting to DMOZ is definately worth the few minutes it takes to read their editing guidelines and write a DMOZ perfect title and description. I found that doing so helped me to better understand how to present my site to the public.

[Richmond, Virginia SEO]

I agree in every way. I submit to about 80-100 directories for every client and dmoz is always the first one. Just wish they would move along a little quicker. I may look into becoming an editor just to understand the process better. Anybody know anybody who is an editor?

[bobmutch]

Richmond, Virginia SEO: there are SEO forum sites with DMOZ forums on them where you will find the odd DMOZ editor.

ziandra: I think also it is content that is important. I got into DMOZ with in 3 months of opening my site. I just had lots of good content and the editor must of liked it.

[Dominic]

This site just got another listing in DMOZ. As mentioned in my first post... nothing to pop a cork over but another decent link.

[Alucard]

Richmond, Virginia SEO: there are SEO forum sites with DMOZ forums on them where you will find the odd DMOZ editor.And even on this forum you will find some very odd ODP editors. :D

[Richmond, Virginia SEO]

I have had a devil of a time getting my client's toy site listed. I think it may be because of his site's name, http://www.sillyasstoys.com. He and I debated this name for hours. I never thought it was a great name for a children's toy site. Now I sonder if DMOZ won't accept it because of the name. Google adwords had problems with it at first as well.

He has been online since October and I have submitted him twice with no luck.

[Alucard]

I have had a devil of a time getting my client's toy site listed. Now I sonder if DMOZ won't accept it because of the name. Highly unlikely that that is the problem. More likely is the general random nature of when sites get reviewed.

[Richmond, Virginia SEO]

I can only hope. His site deserves to be there. I'm just waiting another month or so before submitting it again. I do it every three months or around there.

[jimnoble]

I do it every three months or around there.
What's the logic behind that?

If the site is lstable, probably nobody has got around to evaluating it yet. Resubmissions overwrite earlier ones so resubmission is not a good idea if the editor processes the pile in submission date order.

If the site is unlistable because it's not the sort of site we list, resubmission won't magically make it listable.

If the site is potentially listable but has inadequate content, doesn't work or is still obviously under construction, it needs to be improved before resubmission - but I guess you'd be doing that anyway.

Blindly hammering on the submission nail every three months won't irritate us into listing it - and could have other consequences.

[Will.Spencer]

Blindly hammering on the submission nail every three months won't irritate us into listing it - and could have other consequences.

Yeah, instead of not listing it, they might not list it. :rolleyes:

[Richmond, Virginia SEO]

The site is good to go in every way and has a large number of products and content. I can't understand why it isn't listed. I submitted the second time because the site had doubled in size and thought it hadn't gotten in the first time because the editor might have thought it wasn't large enough for a toy site.

I didn't consider that I was blindly hammering at it, more like, "take another look it is even better now." But as I stated, this site is very good toy site for unusual toys. I don't understand why DMOZ would not want it especially when I see other toy sites in there that are inferior.

I guess I'm at a loss as to what to do other than resubmit. I will take your advice JimNoble and hold off submitting. Any advice other than wait. If it doesn't get listed over the next 6 months should I assume it never will be?

[gworld]

Any advice other than wait. If it doesn't get listed over the next 6 months should I assume it never will be?

Check if one of your competitor is the editor of the your category, you will have not a chance in hell to get listed in this case.:mad:

[jimnoble]

@Richmond, Virginia SEO

I must have entirely misunderstood what you meant by I do it every three months or around there.
Just ignore me :)

[Richmond, Virginia SEO]

My toy client is still not listed. I am really wondering how this directory can have any power when it is so poorly executed. Any word on its demise or resurrection?

[Birdie]

The editor is not "dead" - they have been busy deleting your duplicate submissions.
Perhaps you should consider giving your client a refund, as you have been putting your client at a disadvantage by failing to follow the guidelines. You made a choice to not follow the guidelines and now you are complaining!!! ... don't figure???
how this directory can have any power
What power?

[Will.Spencer]

DMOZ has power due to it's many clones, including the Google directory.

It's one of the most poorly managed directories on the Internet, so that power won't last forever.

Forget about DMOZ -- get your client links elsewhere. DMOZ is just not worth the effort.

[Blogmaster]

If Google found a way to discard the many clone links and recognize them as being really the same link, that would solve a lot of the problems :)

[Will.Spencer]

I think that Google has.

I do not think that MSN has.

[minstrel]

Yeah, instead of not listing it, they might not list it.
:D :D :D

Now THAT is comedy... :o

[photofox]

It's one of the most poorly managed directories on the Internet, so that power won't last forever.

It may seem so from a webmaster perspective, but that assumes processing submissions is an editors priority and that is just not the case. It's important to remember the directory is not 'managed' to benefit webmasters.

DMOZ is just not worth the effort.

What effort? You submit your URL (hopefully with some attempt at a guideline compliant title and description) and then forget about it, seems rather simple to me.

(And hello to everyone :))

[Richmond, Virginia SEO]

I wasn't complaining and I took the advice back in July and haven't repeated any submissions (Look at the posting dates next time) I've also submitted many others and not one has been posted.

Of course, I post to many other directories, but I'm confused whey dmoz gets or was getting such credit when they are obviously way behind the curve. I also applied to be a editor for my home town and have not recieved any notice from them. If they are so far behind as they keep bemoaning, why not accept help.

Disappointing and frustrating is all I can say about dmoz.

[photofox]

I wasn't complaining and I took the advice back in July and haven't repeated any submissions

I did not say you were complaining, I was commenting on something said in item50.

[Richmond, Virginia SEO]

I should give credit where it is due. I just checked a submission for a different client done August 1 and it was in the directory. Thank you, DMOZ!

[Will.Spencer]

It's important to remember the directory is not 'managed' to benefit webmasters.

Exactly -- DMOZ is run for the benefit of the editors. :cool:

[minstrel]

It's important to remember the directory is not 'managed' to benefit webmasters.
Exactly -- DMOZ is run for the benefit of the editors.
I was just about to ask the question, "Who IS the directory managed for?", since I don't think anyone but DMOZ editors and webmasters ever look at it - but I guess Will answered that question already... :o

[bobmutch]

Richmond, Virginia SEO: "My toy client is still not listed. I am really wondering how this directory can have any power when it is so poorly executed. Any word on its demise or resurrection?"
I would just submit your site once and leave it at that. You might want to resubmit it if you make major changes in the site to where it is not relevant to the category you submitted it to.

Some times it can take 1 to 2 years to get your site reviewed and accepted.

DMOZ used to answer status requests and you were allowed to ask every 6 months but they don't do that anymore.