SEO Step By Step Guide– 115. Leveraging the Benefits from DMOZ Listing

The Open Directory Project, DMOZ does not require any introduction. If you have not heard about DMOZ, then you are certainly new to the World Wide Web. DMOZ is the most respected multilingual directory on the Internet. It is one of the largest directories and it has a huge collection of listings in DMOZ. A number of top search engines use the data from this master directory.

It is believed that search engines give a special place for websites that are listed in DMOZ. Secondly, since DMOZ is the largest web directory, it attracts millions of visitors each day. Therefore, by being listed in DMOZ we will be able to drive considerable amount of traffic to our websites.

However, getting listed in DMOZ is not an easy task. DMOZ is a free directory and it does not have any form of paid submissions or featured listings. All the listings are treated equally. One of the biggest challenges in being listed in DMOZ is complying with the DMOZ guidelines. DMOZ is a manual directory; it has been free since its launch and it will continue to remain so. This makes the submissions and approval all the more difficult.

We need to find the right categories for submissions. One of the easiest ways of finding the right category for our submission is to use the search tool in DMOZ and make a search using terms that would best describe your site and review the results displayed. The results will tell you in which categories your site too can go because only the sites that are approved by DMOZ will get listed. If sites that are similar to your site are in a particular category, it is best to use the same category for your listing too. However, try to pick the closest match from the results. This is one of the shortcuts to finding the right categories. As there are hundreds of categories in DMOZ, it will take a long time to review the categories manually for our submission.

The second aspect is selecting the right title for your website. DMOZ recommends us to use the official name of the site and certainly prohibits usage of promotional language of all kinds. Remember that your listing in DMOZ is not to sell your products in DMOZ but to drive traffic and to make your site more respectable by getting listed here. So be clear about your goals so that you will be able to get your submission approved in this most respected directory and also get the desired results through your submission to this directory.

When you want to get listed in DMOZ, do not be impatient. DMOZ suggests that it will take a minimum of 2 weeks for the entire process and inclusion. So give enough time for this process to be completed before you retry.

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