Check this site out: Open Directory Project
You can list your website here for no charge. The directory provides content feeds to all the major search engines. It also provides a link to your site from an informational hub that Google deems important. Pretty cool, huh? I just listed our site and it took about 5 minutes.
YOu can list your site but it will take up to a year to actually be included in it. DMOZ is an open directory project where every site is actually viewed by human eyes to make sure they are valid websites.
That is the main reason that Google values DMOZ input is because there are human editors from all over the world. In fact, if you have a specialty in some field, you can actually apply to be an editor. They will not take you if you are trying to become an editor in a field you own a website in though!
Elayna- Anytime :-)
Ron- True that it takes 2 weeks to be reviewed and up to a year to be published. However, even if it takes the full year it's worth the wait to help with SEO results. Especially for the limited amount of time it takes to sign up. Thanks so much for your input.
Thanks for the tip. Everyone looking to help SEO. It's just exploding.Going to be tough to keep up with changes as more people get into it.
TX for the info,....It's definately an SEO no -brianer!.. . Now I just need my own Website. BTW your website / bio marketing video is very cool.
Evening Tara, I have been putting this off. There, done ! Thanks for the re4minder.
I'll have to check this out as my blogs are already syndicated but this might add something to it.
Tara, thank you so much for the awesome tip. I just signed up and greatly appreciate your help.
thanks for the heads up. anything to increase SEO traction is appreciated!
Rob- You're exactly right. Anything that is this simple and can help your SEO is certainly a no brainer. I'll keep looking for more and pass them along!
Angela- Thanks so much for the compliment on our website :-)
John- I'm with you...we can also use the extra help ;-)
Make sure you do your submission correctly to DMOZ as they only accept less than 1% of submissions.
Things to take into consideration:
Is your website at least 2 years old?
Does it have any broken links?
Is it different?
Is it well designed and professional looking?
DMOZ is a great web directory, just make sure you do your submission correctly otherwise they may never accept your site.
Paul- Thank you so much for the information! This website was new information for me so I appreciate your input...GREAT stuff!!
Many people find their TITLE tag on their Google search engine results and their DESCRIPTION to NOT be what they want or were expecting. This is because Google oftentimes uses the DMOZ search titles for the Google search results title, DMOZ kind of does what they do (you don't always have total control on how it's displayed, unfortunately. They write it up the way THEY chose to write it up and it generally stinks!). I've been told that MSN search also occasionally uses DMOZ for their descriptions as well. But who uses MSN anyway, right?
This comes up a lot with Realtors who change offices - oftentimes the header on their Google search results reflect their ORIGINAL office or company and will not change.
What to do?
You can request a change at DMOZ and wait. And wait. And wait. They take months and months to do anything there.
Or... if you have control over your site, you can change it yourself by inserting the following tag:
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOODP">
or
<META NAME="msnbot" CONTENT="NOODP">
This will remove the DMOZ content and insert the Google content as it should be.
Fred- Thanks so much for your input here. I love learning about this site. I had no idea the in's and out's...pro's and con's of it all. I'm learning a lot so thank you for being a part!
Tara - Thanks for the information! I went to the site...We'll see what happens... :)
Thanks for the SEO details and for including the link. I am going to check it out tonight.
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