DMOZ and PR

I'm new here, so please flame me if I should have read the FAQ
but since DMOZ is huge- and there are a lot of site using dmoz/odp data, I would have expected every single URL that's in DMOZ to have a PR of 3 or 4 at least. But when I did some (not scientific) checking, most sites in dmoz get a PR0/1 or PR4/5/6 (probably based on just being great sites and therefore included in dmoz).

Why is that? Does google 'detect' dmoz based directories and then ignores those inbound links?

 

PR is based solely on links to your site. It has nothing to do with content, unless you assume a site with better content is apt to get more links. Google seems to give a fair amount of weight to a DMOZ link, but you can obtain a high PR without one. I have found that a DMOZ link will make a PR4 site a PR5. It will not make a PR5 a PR6 (but a PR6 requires 6X the weight of a PR5).

The Google Directory gets its feed from DMOZ. I think Google ignores most of the DMOZ clones (duplicate content) which use the feed to create a directory.

 

Frank is new here...don't give him hypotheses as facts...

My site is a PR5 and I can't get DMOZ to include me. I have another site that is a PR4 that is in dmoz with about half the links of the first site...hopefully that helps your research.

You'll find that in the future (hopefully) dmoz will be disregarded by google...but then again, I'm pretty bitter.

 

#1 That isn't a hypotheses. It's taken from pretty extensive research of backlinks on PR5 vs. PR6 sites.

#2 PR shouldn't play any role in getting listed in DMOZ. All a PR5 says is that you were able to get links to your site and nothing about the quality of the content. A PR0 site can get listed as easy as any established site with PR.

I've observed that a lot of people who complain about not getting into DMOZ don't have a site worth being listed. DMOZ has some real lousy sites, but that doesn't mean they should accept more.

Then you have a wide range in quality of editors- which makes getting accepted part luck which you can't do anything about. You apply and if you don't get accepted, you move on. DMOZ isn't that important. I am lucky in all my primary sites were accepted, but the listing generates very, very little direct traffic.... and almost never results in any sales.

Anyone should be able to get a PR5 with some link work. A PR6 is much, much harder to get (without the purchase of high PR links.

 

I had a PR5 for months before getting a DMOZ listing. After being listed in DMOZ I saw no PR change though a slight increase in traffic. A year after getting listed in DMOZ I changed my content significantly and traffic (mostly from Google) increased over a period of a year from 300 visitors/day to an average of 9000/day presently.

DMOZ later revised my site description, bungled it completely, it is inaccurate, though I am still listed. My index.htm PageRank is still 5, has not changed, other pages range from 2-5, I have one page at 6 due to an incoming PR7, it was at 6 for months before the DMOZ listing. I get about 3-4 DMOZ referrals/day and maybe another 3-4 from the clones.

go figure.

Andi

 

So to conlude: dmoz clones are probably ignored, traffic from dmoz clones is minimal, and still, we (well, you, I'm still new here complain about getting (not) getting listed in DMOZ... mmm...

to AfterHim.com: High PR should not be of any importance for DMOZ editors. I've seen PR7 sites which are not worth to be on the net... High Alexa rankings on the other hand should give editors some 2nd opinion. They may dislike the site, but what if so many others do like it? the only thing I've read (on dmoz.org) is that it's up to the editor in charge, who could have a bad day or be drunk or whatever. My experience is that a dmoz-listing is more about luck then anything else. Some of my sites are listed, some are not, some took 1 week, some more than a 5 months.

Still I think some dmoz clones are not seen as such because they use only a part of the entire database, sort things in a different way etc. So these sites should count as extra inbound links which could explain the PR4->PR5 experience by mjewel.

 

Frank - I agree that dmoz traffic is minimal. I am not sure about dmoz clones being ignored. If nothing else they feed PR back into dmoz with thousands of pages with a link back into dmoz. The tool over at www.searchengineengine.com shows some of the dmoz clones contributing to google profile on one of my sites.

I think that in the beginning, a dmoz listing by itself will pretty much get you a PR3. The impact on sites with pre-existing good quality links is probably neglible.