Does DMOZ have any value at all?

As far as I can gather DMOZ has been a racket for a few years. The listings are outdated, categorized incorrectly, subject to favors and payoffs. Google knows this. I'm convinced that Google has completely discounted DMOZ to the point where its link weight is worth zero. I would not even be surprised if we see an announcement within the next year or two of the closure of DMOZ.

My question to you is not whether DMOZ is worth a link equal to many other sources, but whether a link on DMOZ is worth anything at all. Think about it. How can Google give any weight to that directory?

 

If a DMOZ link is worth zero, then every other directory is worthless as well.

IF Google give weight to DMOZ or not, it will not because of what you or I think of DMOZ, it will be because their testing has shown that giving a weighting to a DMOZ listed site or not improves the overall global quality of their search results or not.

It does not matter if corruption is widespread or not; it does not matter if your or my competitor is listed or not; its does not matter what webmasters or editors think - Google's decision on to use it or not will be based on their testing of the impact on the SERPs or not. Google do a lot of testing.

 

Yahhhhoooooooooooooooooooo !

Roses are red - Violets are blue and I can't understand you.

Really ?

Errr... Pffffttt.

Perfect example is Q and Anonymously ! ROFL !

Please explain further !

Like what ? Test tube ? Paper ? Toilet Papers ?

 

It comes down to relevance. Google or any search engines first priority is to return relevant results, and to do so in a timely way. It does not matter if the content is 3 years old or 3 days. What matters is returning the most relevant results to the search query.

DMOZ, or any other human edited directory's only connection with relevance is tied to the individual that presides over a particular subdirectory. Humans - all humans - are subject to vast fluctuations in interpretation, bias, beliefs, moods, attentiveness, you get the point. It is not possible to consistently apply values and relevance across a large number of human editors. Some are good at what they do, some are not, some are clean, some are corrupt, some only joined to get their own link posted, some are fair.

Google knows all of that, its their business to know how to weight site relevance. I can not imagine that Google gives much weight, if any, to DMOZ. Certainly it must discount the 1000's of link farms, I mean directories, on the internet.

If there is any weight given to DMOZ links, it is fading fast. All human edited directories are dinosaurs.

 

Directories have been loosing favor with SE's for years now, is there any reason the ODP should be held to a higher standard?

 

Of course there isn't. Google's own directory is abandoned.

In the specific case of DMOZ there is a lot of reasons for dumping it instead of giving any credit.

There was a time when it was a good idea indeed. But time and corruption made it a shame.

 

I think DMOZ does still have some value because it's hard to get into. How long this will last I have no idea. Not many people get in (due to a lack of editors) so don't worry about it too much. Submit your site then move on.

 

Submit to 100 free directories and tell me how many you actually make it into. You'll find that there are three categories.

1. Those that manually check and approve all submissions = quality
2. Those that accept ALL submissions = crap
3. Those that seemingly approve anything = dead/crap

You should find that in many cases the 3rd grouping still has the paid listing feature ON and that it does work. Seemingly this may apply to the ODP as well, but then they say that's not the case, so, erm, they are just dead crap.

HOWEVER, that is a case by base issue based on category, so it's always worth submitting if you are bothering to submit to free directories at all.

 

To be honest with you I’m not a huge fan of directories at all paid or free. If paid directories accept every submission they are pointless to Google and the other search engines. Most free directories I have seen will accept any website and some directories even get away with using rel="nofollow" but people still submit. Madness.