DMOZ submission tips
How to get listed in DMOZ
Getting listed in the DMOZ directory, also known as the Open Directory Project, used to be of paramount importance when optimising your website and although it no longer has the same pull that it used to, DMOZ inclusion is a good way to get good quality incoming links, (as they feed other directories and engines) and is a direct route into the Google Directory. Bellow I offer DMOZ submission tips - how not to and how to submit to the DMOZ directory.
DMOZ is not a search engine, it’s a directory that is moderated by human editors and from submitting to DMOZ to appearing in DMOZ can take a year in some cases. There are shortcuts into the directory, which I’ll touch on later on, but if you intend to submit to DMOZ, you must ensure that you stick to the rules, as if you step outside of them, the DMOZ editor will simply delete your submission and ignore all future submissions by you.
The rules of submitting to DMOZ:
- Don’t submit duplicate URLS, duplicate content, mirror sites, or sites that are not substantially different.
- Don’t submit sites with repetitive content, or content that could be seen as unhelpful to DMOZ directory readers
- NEVER submit your site more than once. They sit in a DMOZ editor’s admin area and duplicate entries are automatically flagged up, which 9 out of 10 times sees all submissions binned and the domain name blacklisted in the DMOZ editor’s own admin area - which other DMOZ editors can access.
- Don’t submit internal site pages to DMOZ, submit your root URL.
- Don’t waste your time submitting sites featuring illegal material.
- Don’t submit sites with broken links, graphics that don’t load or incomplete sites and never, ever, submit a site to DMOZ that has an under construction page on it.
- Don’t submit a site with affiliate links on the index page, or a site that is substantially an affiliate site.
- Don’t try and submit a site to DMOZ in a category that it doesn’t fit into - you are simply wasting your time.
How to give yourself the best chance of being listed in DMOZ
- Try to choose the most appropriate category that has an editor. If you submit to a DMOZ category that has an editor, your submission will be looked at much quicker than a Cat with no editor. The category editor’s details are featured at the bottom of every DMOZ category page.
- Submit your root URL. http://www.kenkai.com and not http://www.kenkai.com/search-engine-optimisation.htm.
- Submit a short title. The name of the site is usually preferred by DMOZ editors. Don’t try to use an optimised string, if the editor doesn’t simply bin the submission as a result, it’ll likely be changed to the name of your site.
- Use a short description of your site - under 20 words, use sentence case only, don’t use promotional language and DON’T repeat the title in your description. Keep it short and straightforward.
- Ensure your email address matches the domain that you are entering wherever possible. DMOZ editors like to see an email address like Tom@boboo1001.com, when they are looking at a DMOZ submission for the site boboo1001.com.
- Once your site has been submitted, don’t resubmit for another month.
- If the site has a contactable editor, it can be helpful to drop him a quick email to ask about your submission. Don’t ask why it has not yet appeared - you are likely to have it simply deleted for pestering them! Instead, ask advice from them. Something along the lines of: I appreciate you are really busy, and I’m sorry to trouble you, but I was wondering if you could take a minute to answer a quick question from a DMOZ novice. I have submitted my site to (and then name the category), and I am wondering if you feel that is the best cat to list in. My site is (domain name) and I offer (product or service). I would appreciate any help or advice you can offer me. It doesn’t always work, but it’s worth taking the time to do it if you are not listed in DMOZ within a month.
How do I know all of this? I was a DMOZ editor for 4 years!
One Response to “DMOZ submission tips”
December 4th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Hi, thanks for the informative article (wish I’d have thought about reading advice like this before submitting to Dmoz).
As a former Dmoz editor, can I ask you whether it is worth re-submitting if a submission hasn’t been listed after a year?
Truthfully, I’m at a loss to understand why our submission hasn’t gone through.
From what I can see, we adhered to all the points you make in your article.
Thanks Antony
I would suggest that you write again to the editor of the upper category and ask him to look into it, before resubmitting. For example, if you are in the cat Shopping: Crafts: Toiletries, you have to go back to shopping before you find an editors name and that’s sunkist. His email address is pageje67@hotmail.com. If you email him directly and briefly explain the situation and briefly outline the details of your listing and ask his advice on how to move forward. Good luck with it. BM
