After six months of waiting, I have finally been given a DMOZ listing! Can anyone tell me: will this in any way lend 'credibility' to my site and, if so, will this be reflected in the google SERPs?
I think to an extent it does, your serp will increase if your all pages are well indexed and your site has some good backlinks,.. "Backlinks" is secret to having good serp.
Well, according to yesterday's 'brief' update - and to five datacenters on mcdar - my backlinks will soon be going from 19 to 971. I take it that these, plus 100 indexed pages, plus the DMOZ listing, all count in my favour? If so, when will google let me out of the sandbox? !!!
This only google can answer, some times it comes out soon, some times it takes raelly really long time..
I didn't notice a change, but then again I was sandboxed... and it didn't help me get out either. I'm coming out now though, about 3 months later and 9 months of domain age. The backlinks are good, so I'm sure it does help.
From my experience (about 10 websites in DMOZ, hand promoted by me, all), not at all. Or let's say 1%. I made an experiment. I have a website, that has only 1 backlink. One Dmoz link that is. It gets indexed once a month, it does not have ANY rating at all, and barely ranks on the first page, even for the website's and URL's name. I have websites that ranked very nice, and after that i got 5 links from DMOZ (different categories, to the same website), and rankings stayed the same, or even decreased. So i guess Google doesn't pay, anymore, attention as he used to, to DMOZ included websites.
A DMOZ listing certainly helps, but not to the extent most people think. I have about 10 DMOZ listings and you couldn't tell which ones had them by looking at the SERPS. Google has stated that a DMOZ listing is given no more weight than another link - however, there are a lot of directories that use DMOZ to "seed" them - which results in much more than a single backlink. I think google has started to discount or ignore most of these directory clones which is why a DMOZ listing no longer carries the weight it once did. It's worth the time it takes to submit a site, but it either gets listed or it doesn't and I don't worry about it any longer. There is nothing you can do to get out of the sandbox early, including a DMOZ listing. During the sandbox, google doesn't factor in your backlinks (including DMOZ) when it calculates your rankings. PR passes, and the backlinks show- just not used. The sandbox lasts at least 3 months - and some claim that highly competitive sectors (hosting, mortgage, etc) take much longer. I have never experienced it, but I do believe that older domains are given extra weight with google. This isn't the sandbox, and it doesn't mean a one-year old site can't rank well (they can) I just think it is easier for older domains. I've owned some domains for 8 years and have newer domains in the same sector that "should" rank higher based on the amount of relevant backlinks. Of course there are so many variables it is impossible to say for sure - but this is my belief.
DMOZ listing will give you few backlinks and PR as well. Also it will pave the way to get into Google Directory.
But, it will help you in getting into Google Directory. DMOZ + Google Directory = 2 FREE links (high VALUE)
The google directory is an exact duplicate of the DMOZ directory. It's the only way you can get in, and a DMOZ listing means your site will go into the google directory. Google only updates their feed occasionally, so there is a delay on a new listing - meaning you won't be included until they update the feed.
You too ? . Damn it I have a list (built it on my own about two months ago) with all the DMOZ clones that link to one of the oldest websites in DMOZ, i own (about 3 years). So i guess 3 years is enough time, for all the DMOZ clones at the present time (two months ago, when the list was made by me), to offer a backlink right ? Well, there are about 98 Dmoz clone pages, that link (clean href) to my websites. Google sees 2 or 3 links. Out of all the 98 clones, about 3 of them have Pr 1 for the page my link is on, and 1 has PR2 on the page my link is on (and that DMOZ spain, or something like that, anyway an official DMOZ mirror). So what does this tell me ? DMOZ clones are USEFULL
Thanks for all the replies folks. I suppose either way it's good news. I had completely forgotten about the Google Directory aspect of getting a DMOZ listing! Does anyone know roughly how often google updates the directory (monthly, bi-annually, annually, etc?). My site went live in October 2005, so it's still young. My industry (Escort Agency) is VERY competitive here in London, so should I prepare for the worst, ie maybe a one-year wait until google lets me out? The most annoying thing is that my allinanchor: results are excellent
The clones may pass PR, but PR doesn't mean automatically mean higher rankings. If google doesn't count a backlink as relevant, then it isn't going to help you with rankings. A page can pass 85% of its PR divided among the number of outgoing links, so a PR1 page with 20 outgoing links passes almost no PR - you would need approximately 25 of those links to make a page a PR1 and approximately 150 of those links to make a page a PR2.
There are a few sites that keep track of the exact google directory updates but I don't remember the urls. There is no set schedule, but it used to be about every 3 months - with some longer gaps. As far as the sandbox, I would do a whois on the top 10 or 20 listings and see what the newest domain creation date is. If there are sites less than one-year old in the top ten, chances are the sandbox period has passed for that sector.
A very good idea mjewel. The problem is that the youngest domain I can find was registered in 2003. At least now I know I should be out of the sandbox within 2 years - worst way!