How do I get my site listed on DMOZ? This is a million dollar question that everyone in the SEO industry is asking. Being in this industry for a while now, I’ve had a chance to experiment on how to get listed in DMOZ. As a result of this I’ve managed to get 4 of my sites listed in this highly reputed directory. I would like to share with you some of these experiences and help you in my small little way to scale this Mt. Everest of the SEO industry.
Just a word of caution, please don’t treat this post as a guide for a DMOZ listing. I’ve mentioned factors which I feel (from my personal experience) play a role in getting selected or rejected.
Selecting the Category
This is the most important factor. Selection of the right category is of utmost importance. For sites targeting a niche category (something like DNA Testing), it is better to select the appropriate category straight away and submit your site. For sites targeting popular categories (something like Internet Advertizing or SEO), it would be better if you take the regional route. First select your region, county or city (city in which your company is based) and then choose the appropriate category. For example if you are an SEO company based in Sydney, Australia, then it would be good if you select Australia first, then Sydney and then choose SEO.
Once the category is selected, its time to fill the form

URL
Submit the URL of your home page. Inner pages may be accepted but I’ve never tried that. Good luck to those who want their inner pages listed.
Title of the site
It is advisable to submit the official name of your site or company. I’ve never got an acceptance by using a keyword or any other text.
Description
After the category selection, I feel that this is the second most important aspect. The description should be short, precise and to the point. Please don’t include any marketing messages for your website.
Email address
A valid email address is a must. Since they don’t email (I haven’t received an email from them as yet) and send spam messages, it would be a good idea to include your corporate email address, it would make it look more genuine and not spam. If not, then Gmail is fine.
Patience & Perseverance
Patience is a golden virtue when submitting to DMOZ. Be patient, since every site is reviewed manually, it can take a lot of time. If patience is golden then perseverance is the silver virtue. If you are denied a listing at the first attempt, it’s not a bad idea to resubmit your site. Just make sure that you don’t resubmit very often, once in 2-3 months should be a good bet.
At last, I would like to say that going through the Submission Guidelines and DMOZ Blog is not a bad idea, you can get some new insights into the world of DMOZ. Good luck and Happy Submitting!!!

Tags: DMOZ, internet advertizing, SEO

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 at 6:33 pm and is filed under Search Engine Optimization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.