Is submiting to DMOZ a viable strategy for SEO

It seems that sites could take between 1 year + to be reviewed by DMOZ? therefore is it really a viable part of SEO or just submit and hope that you will one day be listed!

And how much do you really get out of beeing listed in dmoz?

 

It's not exactly a 'strategy' as even if you get listed it'll usually take a lot more to get to the top of the SERPS, it's worth doing as it only takes 5 minutes and every link helps

 

It's just one small piece of the puzzle.

 

Submit to it but don't rely on it... With DMOZ in the state which it's currently in, you'll be lucky if anyone ever looks at your submission... But if you do happen to get in, then grats... It helps some but is not the saving grace which it was a couple years ago (when the big G used them).

 

Yeah it seems due to its success it nolonger functions

 

Yeah, what Matt said.

 

dmoz should be on your list for directories to submit to but not given primary consideration of your promotion/SEO efforts. Your listing will likely not contain your preferred anchor text, and getting listed takes far too long. There are better options when considering promotion and SEO.

 

Recent statistics show that the only part of the main English language DMOZ directory that is growing is the Regional branch with overall numbers of listings in other branches actually dropping. The net increase that DMOZ claims is primarily in non-English language listings. Couple that with unreviewed submissions probably in seven digits and calculate for yourself your chances of getting a DMOZ listing. It never was a good strategy to put any reliance on a DMOZ listing, less so now. Submit once and forget. Focus on other means of marketing and any positive impact DMOZ could have made will quickly seem chickenfeed.

 

I recently applied my site to dmoz and an my submission was hand reviewed in 2 weeks by an editor and I recived a rejection email.

He explained to me why my site why rejectes, and I agreed. he tol me why is DMOZ one of the best directories

1) its very deep
2) very strict
3) no junk

he explained that if they accepte all submissions, then all the categoires would have thousands of links and be very cluttered. They can only accept the top 5% of the sites for the category.

for example the site addyoursitefreesubmit is a free directory most links. Sure I recently had my link added on page 50. My site is in a 2nd level cateory with nearly 600 links, in dmoz the same category has just 70 links. Imagine if dmoz had all 600 links, no1 would search threw all the crap.

Dispite that, I still feel google should boot dmoz and make a $300 a year directory like yahoo, people will pat

just submit your site and forget it, check it once every 10 days or so. It is imporant somewhaat as it passes a nice PR, will get you in the google ir, and has your pages inexed much faster.

 

Yeah, right....

 

Would you like to buy a famous bridge in New York? it is in great location and condition and if you act today, you can buy it for only $100.

 

It is not worth the time to read their submission rules and appropriate category to submit your list to.
Even if you go through the pain and finally submit it, the chances of someone looking at is remote. Some volunteers don't look at your submission intentionally and some don't becuase of lack of time. If you again attempt to add your site, almost all volumteers consider it spam and you get banned.

The best course for you to do is
1) Add more content and get those pages designed well.
2) Find out list of heavily used keywords in your area and use them to write content. One possible source is to use overture tool.
3) Get few quality IBL's from related websites.
4) Within a year, you will see more hits to your website from organic search.

By following this approach, i stopped paying for Adwords and getting daily 100-200 unique visitors from (google, yahoo, msn). Over next few months i am sure i will get better results.

I hope, i did not hurt any DMOZ editor here.

Best regards

 

If you want a DMOZ listing then not paying attention to the submission rules and choosing the right category is the quickest way to see it languish forever.

No you won't. If you resubmit in the same category no-one but you will ever know. If you scattergun it around you have a good chance of it being caught in automated filters and a reasonable chance of all the submissions being removed leaving one if you are lucky, and a distinctly unsympathetic editor who will leave your review till last. To get banned for spamming takes a real effort.

That is what DMOZ editors like. If they don't find the submission they are as likely to find the site independently using Google search and list it.

 

Very True.

 

I have tried to get listed in DMOZ as well and to this date I have been unsuccessful.

 

I heard it was very very hard to get listed. But once you do everything goes well. google starts to recognize you etc. But I myself have never got in..yet.

 

It is easier to get a PhD from MIT, IIT combine than getting DMOZ listed.

Anyways coming back to the main topic, i would suggest the poster to concentrate on design aspects of his website and not worry about directories.

Funny thing is, my website shows up above a site (DMOZ listed) in google search for all those keywords that matter to my website area.

So, ignore dmoz for the moment and the more time you spent on tuning your website following ethical means, the better your website shows up on google.

It takes time but less than the time it takes to get DMOZ listed.
good luck.

 

brizzie,
Assuming someone chose the right category and understood all submission polisies of dmoz, what would_be/Should_be the meangfull timeline to get listed?

Can you guarantee that all those sites that were submitted 5 years ago in the right category got listed by now?
Atleast in your category which you look after?

Anyways, don't answer with usual DMOZ policies that DMOZ doesnot guarantee anybody of listing bla bla.....

Come up with a proper answer or just ignore the post.

 

If unreviewed submissions are growing more than the existing editors could handle, then the best course is to suspend accepting the new sites.

Atleast the suspension of accepting new sites will give a ray of hope for those website owners whose website is not listed. This way you can also send the status info as to why the site was rejected.

Anyways with new websites coming every minute, i am not sure what the future looks like for directory ownsers and also search engine who rely on niche directories.

If search engines had better resources to implement better Full text search indexing applications, we would have lived in directory-free world.

 

When I was an editor I would start with the sites that appeared from the titles and descriptions to have been submitted to the right category with a half decent title and description. Because it is maximum gain for minimum pain. No-one can give anyone any timelines because the system doesn't set any targets, only that relatively speaking following guidelines will, on average, result in a faster listing than otherwise. What category, how many editors are around, is the site an easy no-brainer add. Too many factors. In some categories all submissions were cleared daily. All submissions. In other categories there will never be another site added ever. Which category is which no-one knows.

I can guarantee that in the categories I primarily edited in, three Australian states in Regional, there are no sites waiting more than 18 months. This is because I cleared them down to nothing on a couple of occasions. Add the time from the last exercise to the time since I retired from editing and it must be around 18 months.

It doesn't guarantee ... blah blah blah. It's a fact. It is also a fact that the number of listings in the main English language listings is falling, and the number of unreviewed submissions is rising. If all submissions were cut off now and editors did nothing but review existing submissions, then it would probably take somewhere around 5 years (finger in air) to clear the whole lot. So there is a great deal of random selectivity.

Proper is a subjective term. What sort of answer were you looking for? Reality or something else?