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DMOZ Directory

DMOZ Directory, also known as the Open Directory Project, is a directory where volunteers manually categorize a large number of websites and web pages. Unlike most other directories on the Internet, the websites and web pages here have been reviewed manually by these volunteers before being included into the directory, the DMOZ directory is also a free directory.

However, not many people make use of the DMOZ directory for their searches as one does with Yahoo!, as this directory is poor to generate traffic. The benefit or plus point of using the DMOZ directory is that the data in the directory can be downloaded for free for any website to use. Websites of all sizes use data in DMOZ directories; and one of the websites that uses this data is Google. With this, any listing in DMOZ directories gets two links to a website; one link is from DMOZ where the site is spidered by Google and another link from the Google directory. With this, it can be seen that it is beneficial to be listed in a DMOZ directory; PageRank values get increased from 3 to 4 and from 4 to 5.

However, the irritating point of the DMOZ directory is that it takes a long time for a website to get listed in the directory. This is mainly because of the fact that the sites have to be manually edited by editors. Though there may be front-page claims of having tens of thousands of editors working for the DMOZ directory, this information is often misleading. This is usually the number of editors who have worked for DMOZ directory since its inception. Most of them do not edit anymore and the remaining editors are not that active in editing. Therefore only minimal numbers of editors are trying hard to review a large number of sites that usually get backlogged. Individual editors have their individual categories to edit; so sometimes some editors’ end up editing small categories with minimal submissions while other editors have to edit categories with a large number of submissions. This takes them a long time to review all of the websites. 

The deficiency in the number of editors takes a long time for a website to be submitted in the DMOZ directory. However, sometimes, it is the fault of the person submitting the website that causes the delay. This happens when the website is submitted into a category that is somewhat close to the matter of the website, but is actually the wrong category. So the website ends up in the queue for the wrong category; and when the editor reviews it and finds that it is in the wrong category, he or she will not edit it. So this website is passed on to its actual category where it ends up in another queue to be reviewed.

Then there are some editors who consider the fact that if the person who submitted the website cannot be particular in submitting the site to the correct category, then why should they? They then submit the site into the wrong category and the same process takes place, adding to more delays in the submission of the website. So when submitting into a DMOZ directory, take some time to choose the right category to save time in submissions.

DMOZ directory has a principle of including sites having unique content, and this is the reason why most sites are rejected from submission. Of course, some affiliate content is acceptable; however, if there is too much of such content, it is rejected. Another reason for rejection is its submission. Titles and descriptions not followed according to DMOZ guidelines are rejected as the editor is seldom bothered to do this work for you.

As people submitting their sites are not informed of its rejection, they are often of the impression that their submissions are pending, when they have actually been rejected. The best thing to do to get information on the status of a submission is to get it from someone in the DMOZ directory. This was once possible through the Open Directory Public Forum that was run by some editors of the DMOZ directory. They helped by finding out if a website had been accepted or rejected. If rejected, they used to explain the reason for rejection. However this service has been cancelled and now it is not possible to know if one’s site is rejected or waiting for a review.