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4 items tagged "Open and Directory"

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Search Engine Roundtable

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  Almost Everything You Wanted to Know About DMOZ (ODP)

  Posted: October 28th, 2009, 2:52pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  Open Directory Project  

  Debra Mastaler wrote has an excellent interview with the man in charge at DMOZ (Open Directory Project) at Search Engine Land named DMOZ: A Solid Directory Or The Great Pumpkin Of Search?

  It really goes into a great number of questions and answers about the iconic web directory. I'll pull out a few Q&As that I particularly enjoyed:

  Debra: Why is the directory sometimes referred to as the ODP and other times DMOZ? Is there a difference?

  Bob: The directory’s “official” name is DMOZ: The Open Directory Project. DMOZ means “Directory Mozilla” – the idea was to align the directory with the Mozilla brand, even though it was not actually part of that group. DMOZ and ODP are now used interchangeably to refer to the directory.

  Debra: Has there been any discussion about the ODP offering a paid review program?

  Bob: This issue has been raised and discussed many times. Paid review really goes against the whole idea behind the ODP. In fact, our Social Contract with the web community takes an especially firm position on this issue.

  Debra: Do you think people would be so passionate about being included in the directory if it wasn’t used by Google?

  Bob: It depends if you are talking about Webmasters or editors. Clearly, webmasters would not care much about DMOZ if it weren’t for its influence on search engines. Editors, on the other hand, have a different perspective. The reasons editors participate in the ODP are as diverse as the global makeup of its participants.

  The interview is a really great read, so go check it out.

  Forum discussion at Sphinn.

  
  

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  DMOZ (ODP): "Submit Once & Forget It" Says SEOs

  Posted: July 14th, 2009, 4:10pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Open Directory Project  

  Earlier this month, we polled our audience asking how important is DMOZ to your SEO strategy? As expected, most SEOs take the philosophy of "submit it and forget it." Why? Simply because to many SEOs, it is not worth them wasting their time following up with DMOZ when many editors won't act on those follow ups.

  Here are the full poll results:

  Question: How Important is DMOZ (ODP)?

  :: Submit Once & Forget It said 158 respondents or 63%
  :: Don't Bother Submitting said 49 respondents or 20%
  :: Submit & Follow Up said 40 respondents or 16%
  :: Other answer... said 2 respondents or 1%

  Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

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  Want Your Listing to be Approved in DMOZ? Use Real Titles

  Posted: May 21st, 2009, 3:24pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Open Directory Project  

  There is an excellent thread at WebmasterWorld on the topic of web directories. Moderator, incrediBILL, runs directories and he goes off on how many of the submissions are not able writing your titles and descriptions to be click worthy, but rather they are stuffed with keywords for the SEO benefit, if any.

  There is a key point in this thread which explains why possibly many DMOZ listings that are reviewed (many are not even reviewed) are not approved. Most SEOs who think of web directories don't think about the possible traffic benefit, they think about getting a keyword rich anchor text link. But they should not think that way. Why?

  (1) Keyword rich links won't necessarily encourage a person to click on your listing
  (2) Directory editors hate submissions that are not designed for the directory user, but rather designed to improve the ranking of a web site in Google

  Jim Noble, an experienced DMOZ editor, said:

  As a DMOZ editor, I don't mind them doing that at all. It's an indicator that the site is likely to be a content mill/MFA/affiliate link farm - none of which we knowingly list.

  Even if it's not, we need to amend almost all suggested titles & descriptions to make them guidelines compliant anyway. Of the tens of thousands of sites I've listed in DMOZ over the years, I guess I've only accepted around 50 without change.

  When faced with a pool of listing suggestions, some spammy and some not, and limited time, guess which ones I process first :).

  These are just tips to keep in mind when submitting your site to a web directory. Yes, getting those keywords in the hyperlink is a good thing, but honestly, it should not be your primary goal.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

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  SEOs Split On Value of DMOZ.org (ODP) Link

  Posted: April 9th, 2008, 3:30pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Open Directory Project  

  On February 20th, I asked our readers if they thought a listing in the Open Directory Project would have a major impact on a site's Google ranking. The response was split down the middle.

  We only had 58 responses, which is very low for a typical Search Engine Roundtable poll, but the results were really down the middle.

  As you can see, 47% said that a link from ODP does not have a major impact on your Google rankings. While 45% said a link from ODP will have a major impact on your Google rankings. Of course, the question is not clear cut and there can be "it depends," answers.

  Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.