Submitting your site to DMOZ

Let's dispel some myths and cut through the rubbish that is often talked about DMOZ.

... it isn't there to help you with your site promotion or to get your site higher in the search results. It is owned by AOL. It forms the basis of (amongst others) Google's directory.

.....it is a categorized "catalogue" of web sites, edited by people. The editors are by volunteers. Their job is to catalogue and categorize the web sites which have value to visitors and unique, useful content and information, and that is it.

Submitting your site to DMOZ If you want your site considered, you have to make it easy for them by requesting the right category. If you submit to the wrong category, it may be some time before an editor moves it to the right category, and that not only takes time, it can often be a bit of a pain in the ass for the editor, specially if the volunteer part time editor is busy. He or she may well leave it sitting until he/she "has time". After all they will be prioritising a queue of correctly submitted entries for their own "Cat" (category). It may just get deleted :( Remember, the Open Directory (DMOZ) is human-edited, and that means human nature has to be taken into account.

First rule: The most important thing! Submit your site to the proper DMOZ category in the first place

Pay particular attention to these points (*source The open Directory Project) and then make sure you Read and understand these DMOZ submission guidelines If you do ANY of the things listed as "Do Not" you are screwed and you have only yourself to blame. And even if your site does sneak in, it may soon get deleted from the ODP (DMOZ) - or worse.

Do not submit mirror sites. Mirror sites are sites that contain identical content, but have altogether different URLs.
Do not submit URLs that contain only the same or similar content as other sites you may have listed in the directory. Sites with overlapping and repetitive content are not helpful to users of the directory. Multiple submissions of the same or related sites may result in the exclusion and/or deletion of those and all affiliated sites.
Do not disguise your submission and submit the same URL more than once.
Example: http://www.dmoz.org and http://www.dmoz.org/index.html
Do not submit any site with an address that redirects to another address.
The Open Directory has a policy against the inclusion of sites with illegal content. Examples of illegal material include child pornography; libel; material that infringes any intellectual property right; and material that specifically advocates, solicits or abets illegal activity (such as fraud or violence).
Do not submit sites "under construction." Wait until a site is complete before submitting it. Sites that are incomplete, contain "Under Construction" notices, or contain broken graphics or links aren't good candidates for the directory.
Submit pornographic sites to the appropriate category under Adult.
Submit non-English sites to the appropriate category under World.
Don't submit sites consisting largely of affiliate links.

Second Rule:

Study the style of the existing listings in the category where you want your site to go. This is the style you need to make for your submission. Some editors are ryuthless in their brevity and factual description of web sites. eg. You might want to put "the worlds finest supplier of red widgets, see our fantastic web site for information, special deals and offers, see our galleries and sign up for our newsletter" and the editor may simply put "red widget supplier". So get it right in the first place

Third Rule

Wait

Remember that it can take some time for a human to get round to looking at your submission, specially in "popular" categories with lots of submissions each day. Sometimes sites get into the directory the same or next day, or in a few days, other times they may take 6 months or a year.

Note that you won't be informed if your site is rejected.

Benefits of listing in DMOZ

Well, for a start it can't do any harm, whatever you have heard or read. We have already discussed that the Open Directory forms the basis of 1000s of other directories and databases, so you never know who may use DMOZ data to create their own links pages or directories in the future. You may get a good Page Rank link out of it, but that isn't the point of listing in DMOZ, its just a bonus if it happens.

Myths: poor design will get me rejected = BUSTED

If your site still has unique and interesting content, and an editor liked what they saw, and thought your site provided some value to it's visitors, you are almost home and dry. Providing it could be navigated without too much fuss, and wasn't completely littered with spelling mistakes and complete bollocks if an editor has got round to looking at your site in the first place, it is in the right category, and he or she has already got it in mind to list it providing it complies with the listing criteria. Think about it - human edited is the key. Like everything to do with your web-site (except meta tags) your site is for humans.
editors differ in their approach to bad grammar and spelling mistakes. Ideally your site will not have any blemishes like that, so use a spell checker at least. They also differ in what they see as useful content. For example a business site in the United Kingdom may have different legal requirements than one in the USA (for example the legality of listing contact details, a physical address etc) so a business category editor for regional/(your_country)/business_and_economy may spot something they know does not comply with the law in the country the site relates to.
DMOZ editor's job is to list and catalogue web-sites, not police the internet. But see submission guidelines "illegal content". It depends how the editor views the content of your site.
Pop ups, pop-unders, excessive banners, links to "bad" sites, inappropriate content or irrelevant content might p*ss the editor off. They might also make the site less useful
DMOZ editors look at web sites all the time. They look at web sites in specific categories. So you won't get anywhere fast if your site has just scraped information from other sites (which may already be in that editor's category) particularly specialised niches
Don't hassle editors, ever. It isn't a good idea, it doesn't help.

add your site to the open directory - DMOZ

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