Website 101: Why Webmasters Need the DMOZ Project

What is DMOZ?

DMOZ is a directory of web sites carefully grouped into categories by volunteer human editors. This directory is used extensively by search engines as a major source of websites that need to be crawled and added to their search indexes.

Thus if your are launching a new site it is a good idea to get your DMOZ application in as soon as the site is live. (Yes and no – see below DMOZ Detractors for a contrary argument!)

DMOZ History

The Open Directory Project originally was run by volunteers and was trying to be a complete directory of all sites on web. Later the directory was taken over by Netscape, who changed its name to the Open Directory Project. It is “Open” because anyone can use the content as long as the appropriate credits are given.

Currently the Open Directory Project is the largest human-edited directory of the Web. It is run by volunteer editors.
DMOZ comes from the words Directory Mozilla, which reflects its association with Netscape and Mozilla.
To quote “The Open Directory powers the core directory services for the Web's largest and most popular search engines and portals, including Netscape Search, AOL Search, Google, Lycos, HotBot, DirectHit, and hundreds of others.”

Why Does DMOZ Matter To Me?

DMOZ matters because a listing in DMOZ is a trusted listing that has been visited and reviewed by a human. Editors make sure that the each site is what it purports to be, it is listed in the correct category and it represents a legitimate site with legitimate goals.
Listings can then be used by search engines like Google which uses DNOZ as the core of their directory.
So the goal of most Webmasters is to get listed in DMOZ – as soon as possible.
Now that is the problem! Most normal listings can take weeks or even months to happen. If you get listed at all!

Tips for Getting Listed

1) Spend Time to ensure that you get your Site Category Right. Make sure that you submit your site to most relevant category. Many sites submitted to DMOZ are rejected due to having been submitted to improper categories.

2) Before you submit view other sites already in the category you have chosen to make sure that they do the same thing as your site does.

3) Be Patient! Don’t resubmit unless 2 or 3 months have passed without any results. Each time you resubmit your entry goes to the end of the line again.

4) Make absolutely sure that you have the text for a good Description ready. When you create your description make sure that you follow the DMOZ Guidelines. (http://dmoz.org/guidelines/describing.html)

DMOZ Detractors

Some say that a DMOZ listing is not nearly as valuable in the current state of the web as it once was. This is because now GoogleBot and other search bots find your site by themselves and do not need to have a DMOZ listing to know your site exists. However I still think that a human vetted link for your site in DMOZ’s directory HAS to be more valuable than any random back link.

There are many webmasters out there that do not like the way DMOZ is run at all! There are stories of corruption among editors who accept $$$ for making or removing listings. Some editors are also Webmasters and run their own sites and thus can sometimes be accused of bias. However the main gripes about DMOZ, relate to slow or no listing periods with some frustrated webmasters waiting years for listings. If you need more info on the dark side of DMOZ go here for a start www.dmozsucks.org.

References:
1)DMOZ How to add a site to the directory http://www.dmoz.org/add.html