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RSSDMOZ – Is it Essential to Get into ODP to be Successful?
DMOZ, also known as the Open Directory Project or ODP for short, is essentially a web directory much like Yahoo’s except that it is maintained by a community of volunteer editors. What makes ODP special is that the search engines, especially Google, place a lot of weight on your website if you manage to make it onto the directory. In the case of Google, this usually results in a higher page rank and an immediate ticket out of the Google sandbox.
Of course, DMOZ wouldn’t carry so much weight if it was easy to get in. The problem with DMOZ is that because it’s run by volunteers, it can take forever to make it on the directory if the person in charge of your category doesn’t review sites often. The fact that it takes forever to get in coupled with the fact that you can’t really do anything about it makes it really frustrating for shop owners trying to get in. Is it really worth it?
DMOZ Won’t Generate You Much Traffic
A few of my friends have made it onto DMOZ and according to their Google Analytics metrics, only a small fraction of visitors actually find their store through DMOZ or any directory for that matter. These days, people either use a search engine or a shopping engine to find the items they want to buy. There are still people who use directories, but their numbers are dwindling with time.
Is it Really Going to Help Your Search Rankings?
This one is a bit harder to quantify. Getting into DMOZ will increase your page rank but I’ve found that page rank matters very little to the actual search rankings. The fact that I now consistently break the front page with my targeted search keywords even with a low page rank indicates to me that Google is weighing page rank much less than before. Many of our partner sites are seeing the same sort of behavior.
Is it Worth Your Time?
My advice to you is to submit your website once and then forget about it. Its not like you can do anything about it anyways. If you get in, you get in. If you don’t, you don’t. It really won’t have that much effect on your site traffic. Instead of obsessing over DMOZ, you should spend your time adding content to your store and making it a great place to shop.
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Seriously, I think Dmoz is overrated. I seldom hear of people shopping for stuff or websites in Dmoz.
I sure hope I make it onto Dmoz though. I really want to help people save money as best as I can!
Anyway, I beleve to be listed in DMOZ…
Wow, this is the first article I have read that says Page rank is not the “end all, be all” when it comes to listing in search results. Makes sense though, because even Google themselves says content and accessibility is what’s most important in their listings, and not all the other things people get stressed about.
Great article!
Mo,
Completely agree with you on this one. Pagerank looks to be all but a dead duck as far as Google goes. I have sites that lost PR in the last update but are still holding position in ranking (ie the dreaded Panda Update). Think PR has had it’s day. Long live content!
I have a number of websites, some nearing a decade old (happy birthday to them!) and I have never had any success with DMOZ submissions with any of them. Editors seem to be very particular about sites they accept, given the Alexa ranking of them (ie top mil globally). I gave up on dmoz in 2003 and found I could still rank organically without them back then. However, it still frustrates the hell out of me that I find competitors listed in DMOZ with some very uninformative and lacking sites.