Open Directory Project Guide

David Callen 

Even more important than Yahoo? You might ask. Well yes in my opinion anyway, you see the ODP based at http://www.dmoz.org, formally known as NewHoo not only operates its directory from its headquarters at dmoz.org but also supplies its directory data to such big player engines as Google, AOL search, Netscape Search, Lycos and Hotbot to name just a few. In addition to these 'mainstream' engines hundreds of other sites also use ODP's data.

This means that a listing in the ODP directory will enable your site to show up for searches done on any engines or sites which use the Open Directory Projects data, provided of course your title and description are optimized for the searched terms. The fact that lots of third party search engines and sites use ODP data is the main attraction of applying for a listing with them. The main attraction is not as one might think to be found at searches done at dmoz.org. Dmoz.org itself receives only a tiny percentage of the traffic that sites such as Google and Lycos receive.

In particular, a listing in the ODP directory can be very advantageous for sites wishing to rank high in the Google search engine. Google not only uses the Open Directory Projects data for the Google Directory located at http://directory.google.com but it also 'mixes' the data with its own to determine where sites should be ranked in the search results. A listing in the ODP will help boost Googles view of how important your site is (ie. boost your Pagerank) and hence help to increase your ranking for your chosen keywords and key phrases.

Presumably you now know that getting listed in the ODP is very important. Getting a listing is not hard, it does sometime take a little time but it's not hard and what's more it's completely free. This article is your guide to submitting to the Open Directory Project.

A few pre requirements

Before I continue on and tell you how to submit your site I'm first going to tell you not to bother.. IF your site doesn't meet a few pre-requirements that is. I believe these pre-requirements to be very important to the ODP and almost all other directories.

Firstly your site must be finished. That means no fancy 'under-construction' graphics with smiling builders waving their hammers back and forth on them, ODP editors don't care if you know how to use a free animated GIF's directory, either do I for that fact. That means no broken links, how do you expect an editor to review your site if he or she can't first view it. That means fast or average page loading times, editors are busy editing their chosen category, they don't have the time or the patience to wait for an eternity to see your site load.

Secondly your site should be unique and contain useful content. This means that your site should not be a mirror site with the exact same content as another site listed already within the directory. This means that your site should not be simply an affiliate farm designed specifically to promote products of other companies.

Thirdly and finally, your site should not be an illegal underground type site, ODP editors will simply move on to the next submission if they come across a site like this. Remember the ODP is a directory just like Yahoo and Looksmart so real people will visit your site, these people are experts in their chosen fields and can spot quality sites when they see them. If your site is of poor quality then I'm sorry but your rejected - "Next!!!"

Which category?

The Open Directory Projects data is organized into 16 top level categories each with many many subcategories, however only 15 are visible from dmoz.org as the adult category can only be accessed direct from its URL, this is of course for the protection of minors.

It's imperative that you submit to the most appropriate category for two main reasons. These being the fact that if you submit to an inappropriate category the editor will most likely reject your site and move on and if you don't submit to the most appropriate category you may have lost some valuable keywords from your category name. This last point is important as the Google directory and indeed dmoz.org themselves not only search titles and descriptions for keywords but they also search within category names and paths, so having your keywords in your category name will help you be found.

Deciding on which category to submit to isn't that hard, what I suggest would be to visit dmoz.org and enter in your primary keywords and or keyphrases and see what results come up. Categories which contain returned websites will be listed at the top of the page, one of these categories will be the one you should submit to. Start by eliminating those categories which you know are not right for your site, for example foreign language categories and other categories which although they contain websites returned from your search do not fit your sites theme and hence keywords very appropriately.

Imagine why don't we that there are three categories which seem really right for your website and your submission, how do you decide which one to submit to? Well when I'm submitting any site and come across the same problem there's a couple of things I do to help me out.

I always check if there's an FAQ and description page associated with a particular category, within these pages are specific category guidelines concerning what sites the editor deems highly fit for his or her category among other things. If you submit to the right category your much more likely to get accepted and this information will help you decide on the 'right' category. Not all categories have FAQ and description pages however.

I always check if there is in fact an editor for any categories I'm considering submitting to as editors of parent categories are often too busy to deal with subcategories of theirs without their own editors. I also scroll to the bottom of the category page and check out the 'Last update' date, if the date is fairly recent obviously there's an active editor for this category as opposed to an editor that rarely updates and looks after his or her category. I do both of the above as I'm a businessman and time is money, if these checks return unsatisfactory results chances are I'm going to be waiting months at least for a listing in that particular category so I might as well submit to another one.

Often I use the handy 'little green ball' feature on dmoz.org to help me decide on my category. Let me explain, the 'little green ball' feature as I like to term it is simply a graphic (the graphic is of a little green ball) hyperlink from a dmoz.org category to the equivalent category in the Google directory. ODP does this as it provides users with the chance to see a categories sites listed in order of decreasing Pagerank instead of dmoz.org's standard alphabetical ordering. I use this to see what the competition in a category is like, Pagerank wise that is. Googles directory displays listings in order of decreasing Pagerank by default, so sites with high Pagerank will be displayed at the top and hence get considerable more traffic than sites listed near the bottom. Taking this into consideration I would always try to submit to an ODP category which hasn't got too many high Pagerankers as I would most likely be buried in the listings and hence receive very few visitors from Googles version of the directory. Remember the Google directory does get used an awful lot too, even though Google search is very accurate and powerful. The green ball link is located at the bottom right of each category page.

Now for a note regarding regional operations and category Pagerank. If your business is region specific you should always submit to a category dedicated to that region as this will help you get very targeted visitors from dmoz.org, Google and the other sites which use ODP data. As for category Pagerank that refers to the actual Pagerank of the ODP category in dmoz.org which your considering submitting to, remember a link from within a category with a Pagerank of seven, is more valuable than a link from within a category with a Pagerank of five, in Googles eyes anyhow.

When you've decided on your category the submittal form is found through the 'add URL' link located in the top right corner of each applicable category page. Now I will discuss each aspect of this form.