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Tips for submitting to DMOZ.org (OPD)
DMOZ is also known as "Open
Directory Project" (ODP). Besides Yahoo, it's the
largest human-compiled directory of the Web. It contains almost
four million Web sites maintained by a global community of
volunteer editors.
If you manage to get your site listed in the DMOZ directory,
you will improve your Google ranking considerably because
your site will also be listed in the Google directory which
mirrors the DMOZ directory.
Besides Google, many other search engines use the DMOZ directory
to supplement their own database, for example AllTheWeb, Excite,
HotBot, Lycos, Teoma and many country specific search engines.
If your site isn't listed yet, you should read the DMOZ guidelines
carefully. Then you can add your site at http://www.dmoz.org/add.html.
On top of the guidelines, you should also read the tips at
the following two sites:
It's also worth reading the specific guidelines
for the DMOZ editors. These are the criteria the editors themselves
use to determine if your Web site gets added or not.
According to the official DMOZ guidelines, it's prohibited
to submit the same URL more than once. In addition, you may
not submit URLs that contain only the same or similar content
as other sites in the directory.
With all the rules and guidelines, some find it hard to get
their Web site listed in the DMOZ directory. However, others
have managed to get their domain listed multiple times in
the DMOZ directory.
Recently, the people at nameintelligence.com compiled a list
of domains that have 5 or more listings in the DMOZ directory.
You can see the list here.
This Web page also tells you where you can report any abuse
of the DMOZ guidelines.
In general, it takes up to three weeks or more for your site
to appear on any of the search engines that use the DMOZ data.
For example, last time Google needed several months to update
their directory listings.
If you submitted your site and it was not listed after 3-4
weeks, you may want to ask about your site's status at the
public
forum of the DMOZ editors.
You can also try submitting your site to the next level up
of the directory to see if you can get some attention of another
editor.
Finally, remember that the DMOZ directory is maintained by
humans. Using tricks that get your site listed in the search
engines will not work here and may prevent your site from
getting listed at all.
However, if you carefully follow the tips on the Web pages
mentioned above, it's very likely that your Web site will
be listed in the DMOZ directory and thus that your Web site
will improve its ranking on Google.
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