SEO News Tip of the Day!

Open Directory Project (DMOZ) is considered to offer a website very strong listings in terms of the value added to your SERP’s. In more recent times the directory has come under some strong criticism from webmasters who cannot or have not got listed after a few years waiting for a review. Another aspect that has seen a heavily negative attention is the public forum where amongst other things you can query an editor about your submission status (if you’re up for a belittling experience with undertones of condemnation).

ODP Bad Press

The problems that webmasters have been reporting with getting sites listed are as diverse as the directory it self. The general consensus is that no matter how good your site is or how long you wait for a review/listing, you receive nothing. Looking through the directory it is clear that some categories could do with some much needed updating. I can fully understand why some webmasters find this so annoying, knowing that their site would be a worthy addition to a category that is mainly comprised of outdated websites that didn’t survive the dot com boom or worse still contain no websites at all. Some people have even gone further to say that the catorgory they submitted too has not been updated since they submitted two years ago yet when they do some digging they found out the editor is one of their competitors that has added several sites owned by themselves purely to create a network of highly graded backlinks pointing to their main site that just so happens to be number one in Google. Of course I could not say how true the later is but one thing for sure is if you’re going to have something policed by humans, some humans can be and will be corrupt.

The second part that has really got webmasters backs up is the submission status forum where you can ask for a status update after waiting a month and then again after waiting six months. The replies webmasters are receiving from some editors are causing offence. Personally I would not use the public forum and think it was a mistake that the ODP are regretting as well; taking time to reply to threads that could have been better spent reviewing more sites and updating old cats.

The Value of Being Listed

Being listed in the ODP gives you a very strong link from the directory it self and because of the way it relies on human editors search engines consider a link from ODP very highly and are less likely to scrutinise it. The ODP also has its data used by a high umber of other directories the most famous being the Google Directory, so being included in the ODP will get you in loads of directories. Also the way that link analysis works is not only does Google look at the link going to your site but looks at the links going to the links that go to the link pointing at your site. Often the link you have in ODP will have quite a good link chain that adds even more relevance. Simply put being listed can dramatically effect your rankings.

Getting Your Website Listed

Even though a lot of webmasters are reporting difficulty getting into ODP there are ways to increase your chances.

1. Website Content

First of all make sure your site is full of unique content, one of the most common ways of being rejected is having duplicate content or content of little value. Don’t submit a website if it is full of affiliate adverts.

2. Submit To The Right Category

Make sure you submit to the right category. If you submit your website to the wrong category an editor will move it to what they think is the best place where it will join the back of the queue. The editor may not take the time required to find the best cat and therefore your site could end up in a never ending cycle of being resubmitted (in theory).

3. Submit To The Regional Category as well as the main

You can submit your site into the main and regional categories. Often it is much easier to get listed in a regional section and I have personally seen websites listed in as little as two weeks. Once you’re listed in the regional section you can use the status request forum to check your submission status mentioning that you have excepted into the regional section. Make sure you submit to the right regional section that your offices are physically based in.

4. Do not submit your website more than once

I don’t know whether this is just scare mongering but I have heard on several occasions that by submitting your site again can cause your website to be placed to the back of the queue.

5. Follow the guidelines

When writing your title always opt for the name of your site, in other words don’t add your keywords. When writing your description never use promotional language and superlatives, describe your website from a third perspective view. Read all the guidelines.

Conclusion

It is well worth getting listed in the ODP but it is not worth dedicating your entire existence on being listed. Submit your site in the best fashion possible and if it gets in great but if it does not don’t worry. There are hundreds if not thousands of other directories out there that will benefit your website so after submitting to the ODP find and submit to as many as possible.

The amount of time it will take to get your website listed will vary depending on each category. The site I work for (Podium Solutions) was listed in the Salford Web Design section just three weeks after it was submitted and has taken over a year to get listed into the main category for search engine optimisation. One of our website is still waiting to get listed but while waiting it has reached a PR 4 just by submitting to other directories.

Things You Must Realize When Searching

For the uninitiated, searching for web pages can seem a slow, obscure process. Unless you have a high-speed Internet connection, web pages may seem to take days to load. And the searching itself ? you have to admit it looks weird typing in bunches of plus signs, asterisks, parenthesis, and other funny symbols and operators to find what you want.

To help you in this process and show that you are not, I've compiled a top five list of things you must realize when searching the web for information. No pencils will fly, no drums will roll, but you just might learn something.

5. Search Engines Have to Make Money

Before you grumble over the growing number of advertisements and sponsored links that appear in search engine results page, remember that most search engines are free. You're not paying anything for a very costly service. Thus, these sites have to earn income somehow to stay afloat (computing power and bandwidth isn't cheap!) So, to put it bluntly? live with it.

(Yes, I know some types of advertising are much more obtrusive than others. Popup ads, dancing animations, and other larger advertisements may make it harder to use some search engines that support these types of ads. If you don't like it, vote with your mouse clicks and move to another search engine).

4. Sites Go Down

Worse yet, you've entered in your perfect search query, looked at the results page, and the first site you see no longer exists!

The Internet changes all the time. Unfortunately, search engines and directories are not able to constantly query every site on the Internet to see if they are still online. Occasionally (in other words, probably frequently) you will find links to web sites that no longer exist. It is just a part of life. Especially with the dot-com bust, many web site owners can no longer afford to host free resources. If they could not convert their traffic to paying customers, they just took their sites down

So when you find a link that is dead, don't pump your fist in anger ? just go back to the results page and move along. Or, better yet, if you're using a search engine that caches pages, such as Google, just look at the cached version of the now defunct pages and find the information contained therein. It's like stepping through a time machine!

3. Your Web Browser Will Crash

On a related note, not only do web sites go down ? but so may your web browser. Sometimes it will be due to visiting a multimedia-intensive web site. Sometimes it will seem to happen for no reason. But it will happen, and when it does, don't go blaming yourself saying that you did something wrong.

Web browsers, like just about any other type of computer software program available on the market, are not infallible. They can and usually do contain bugs. These may predictably rear their ugly heads when visiting sites containing a lot of multimedia and advanced interactive elements, or they may appear completely at random.

If your web browser crashes, do what I do. Just restart it. Don't say you did something wrong. Don't think that you must be so bad with computers that you crashed the Internet. Just restart your browser, and if you have to restart your computer to do so, then do it as well. Most likely the crash is not your fault.

2. The Internet Can Be Slow

No matter how fast your on-ramp to the Internet may be, there will be times where it seems to take forever to load a web page. This is just the nature of the beast.

As the Internet is a loosely connected network, if certain connections go down, computers may not always be able to route information via other networks. Thus access speed will suffer and your web browser will start to crawl. If this seems to be happening often, step away from the computer, go outside and take a nice, long walk (unless it's 30 degrees below). You can run your search another time when the speed is back to normal.

And the #1 thing you must realize when searching?

1. The Best Result Just May Be On Page 10

Most people only look through the first page of search engine or directory results, usually the top ten listings. Others may visit the second page, but relatively very few people venture to the higher numbered pages.

This is a shame ? sometimes the best results to a search engine query are not in the first ten listings as they may only contain links to commercially driven sites or sites run by web owners who know how to manipulate listings. In some cases web sites containing perfectly good information may not be listed in the top 10, 20, 50, or even top 100 results.

Obviously searching through the many pages and pages of resulting sites will take extra time, especially if you do not have a high-speed connection to the Internet. But, this time spent may well be worth it if you find some gems in the rough! So if you have the time, speed, and patience, browse through the deeper results pages. You never know what you may find!

And that's it ? my top five list of things you must realize when searching. This covers slow access time, results not on page 1, browser bugs, web sites popping up and down and changing management, and the need for sites to make money, causing advertisements to become more obtrusive. Gosh, that just makes you want to go out and search right now, doesn't it? .

About The Author

This article was written by Andrew Malek, Internet Search Guru and author of Find Stuff On the Net, an e-book that can show even beginning computer users how to navigate the Internet without fear. Gain confidence using your web browser. Master search engines. And more! For further information and free snippets of the book, visit http://www.findstuffonthenet.com/

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