DMOZ.org Submission Tip

Just some thing that will help a bit to get you in - and you will need all the help you can get.

Study the style of descriptions that the editor uses. If there is no editor for that topic go up one higher will you find who is over the parent topic. Read up about them, see what other topics they are editing and then do your very best to write a description like they would.

My site was in 2 months after I applied on my SEO Company site seocompany.ca .

 

One caveat to this... you can't know whether a particular description was written by a particular editor. It could have been written by an editor who is no longer editing the category, or by one of the many editors who have priviledges (some would say "liabilities") to edit in that category.

Similar, on the flip side, you have no idea whether a named editor (found in the way you describe) is going to be the one that reviews that submission or not.

Bottom line is, in order to stand the best chance of a quicker listing (and I use the term "quicker" loosely, here - it's all relative....) - find the single best category for the site, submit a description which contains the title of the business (no keywords added) in the title, and a concise description (without marketing words, and opinion) of: What the business does, and what can be found on the site. (This is a much shorter version of what is in the submission guidelines)

And then move on and do other things to promote the site.

Expectation management: In high-traffic categories where there is low editor interest, it won't increase the chances of getting listed by much, but for a little bit of work on your part, it might do a little.

(and yes it bothers me that the ODP is like that - of course it does - there are so many great sites out there, submitted or not that haven't been listed.)

 

And the editors seem to be inaccessible too. I tried e-mailing the editor of an obscure category to see if there's anybody there and got no reply.

 

Some very very nasty discussions with site owners have caused a large amount of trepidation about entering into any sort of email exchange. (I ignored that when I started and got into a few where threats were made that I just plain don't need to deal with)

General questions can be asked on the Resource Zone, and that's about all the interaction that most can expect with the ODP, short of posting to fora like this one. It saddens me greatly that we can't interact more with submitters, but given my experiences I can see why.

 

Alucard: "...you can't know whether a particular description was written by a particular editor. It could have been written by an editor who is no longer editing the category, or by one of the many editors who have priviledges (some would say "liabilities") to edit in that category. Similar, on the flip side, you have no idea whether a named editor (found in the way you describe) is going to be the one that reviews that submission or not."
I think your objects may have a bit of weight but only a bit. If you look over the style of not one entry but of a good number of the entries of the editor of the category you are adding up to and you copy that style that will help.

"Bottom line is, in order to stand the best chance of a quicker listing (and I use the term "quicker" loosely, here - it's all relative....) - find the single best category for the site, submit a description which contains the title of the business (no keywords added) in the title, and a concise description (without marketing words, and opinion) of: What the business does, and what can be found on the site. (This is a much shorter version of what is in the submission guidelines)"
Of course you do all those things. They are a given. What I am saying is besides those things.

 

Do DMOZ editors stay away from sites that include adsense ads?

 

They want 'unique content' foremost I think. Don't think adsense would change their opinion unless it was really heavy handed.

 

Print out a few of your pages. Cut out all the advertizements with a knife. Put the pages on a white background.

Does it look like a good site with valuable conent? If so, it is likely to be listed.

Does it look like a bunch of white? If so, it is likely NOT to be listed.

 

Great advice, ziandra! I will definately perform the "paper test" on my next site

 

I asked about a submission status way before they stopped doing that on resource zone and never even got a single reply.

It was frustrating to say the least, I never replied back to the thread myself because I figured the point was moot but if the editors thought my site just plain stunk or that I was a jerk and I would never be listed I would much rather know that than nothing at all.

Oh well, with thousands of folks asking the questions all the time I can see why a lot get swept under the carpet.

The main part that bothers me most is I have a very high quality, targeted site with lots of traffic already and the category I submitted to only has 8 listings.

 

Please disregard this message as it is quite obvious that I am a complete moron.

Carry on...

 

It's not obvious to me.....

 

About 5 minutes after I posted this I noticed that my site was already listed in DMOZ in a different category. My apologies...

 

OK, now it's obvious!

Seriously, though - glad you got the site listed.

 

I couldn't believe it, the bad part is that I must have been out of my mind when I submitted the title and description for my site.

I went through the change form to get it to appear exactly as it does on the site, so hopefully that doesn't take long.

Mind if I ask you a question?

 

Chances are that what got listed wasn't at all what you submitted - there is a "style guide" we're supposed to follow.

Well, I deal with a lot of the update requests, and most are just trying to get keywords put into the title or description - this usually won't happen.

Questions are free.

 

Well, my keywords are in my title but I can't see how that would be a problem considering I see it all over in the categories with similar content with other sites like mine listed.

Honestly I was just trying to get it listed with my actual site title and description instead of the current which is:

The URL of my site as the title and a description of:

Forums and News Feeds

Good thing because I am broke!

There are several categories for sites like mine, I was wondering what your suggestion was on where it should be listed, how hard it is to get them moved or if I should even bother.

My current listed category:

http://www.dmoz.org/Sports/Football/American/NFL/Teams/Kansas_City_Chiefs/Chats_and_Forums/

Others available:

http://www.dmoz.org/Sports/Football/American/NFL/Teams/Kansas_City_Chiefs/Fan_Pages/

http://www.dmoz.org/Sports/Football/American/NFL/Teams/Kansas_City_Chiefs/News_and_Media/

My site is a little bit of all of those.

Perhaps closer to News/Media since I have lots of different options.

 

Standard ODP answer: Just because an editor did it that way in the past doesn't make it right. Seriously, I spend a lot of time trying to clean up listings that were either written by editors who didn't have a great grasp for the ODP style guide, or were written before the thing was at its current stage of development.

Well, an editor reviewed the site, and decided to list it in the category where it was listed, which, judging by your comment, was not the category you submitted it to. That means they looked at the site, and made a determination as to where, in their opinion, it best belongs. So in a lot of ways, you already have the opinion of an editor.

I would leave it where it is.

 

Yes, if you try and move it, it might get removed.

 

The entire News/Media category ever site listed has: Kansas City Chiefs - XXXXX (X being site name) in the title, so I figured it didn't matter since most of those sites use kansas city chiefs as their primary keywords and anchor text.

The other part that surprises me is that my site has so much more than just a forum, in fact way more than a lot of the sites listed in the other categories.

Ultimately, I am just glad its listed, so I am taking your advice and leaving it alone.

I appreciate all the answers and since it appears that you are an editor I can now firmly dispute anyones comments that all DMOZ editors are evil.

Just one last thing, I really feel like a dunce about my listing, is there anyway as an editor you could take a peek at my listing to see when it got added or is that even possible?