That’s exactly the message I feel I am getting every time I visit Dmoz.org to try and list another website into its directory. You visit the site, leave your directory submission (your message), and never hear from them! Yes, it takes a long time to have your website reviewed for submission and it gets you thinking if they are even home in the first place. I have had many questions and complaints about Dmoz and have tried to answer them as correctly as possible. But the common question is “when will they return my call?”
For those of you who are new to the term “Dmoz”, it is the Open Directory Project which is the largest and most comprehensive human edited directory of the web. For your website to be accepted into Dmoz, it has to be reviewed by a human editor. If accepted, then your site is seen as a trusted source by search engines, especially Google. Combined with some SEO work, it will give you that extra boost within the rankings, however the only problem is that the editors take a long time to review the websites.
If you take a look at how many volunteer editors they have (71,816 last time I checked), compared to the number of website submissions they receive (we’re talking hundreds and thousands of websites), then obviously it will take a long time for the editors to get around to yours. To add to that, theses editors work for free and each one is assigned to a certain category for reviewing websites. The worst case scenario, you have a new website that has just been submitted to a category with the least number of editors monitoring it, which explains the long waiting time (up to 2 years, if not longer).
When Dmoz first started (1998), it took no longer than 6 weeks to have you website listed into their directories. With demand now running high, the wait is a lot longer and editors are a lot more selective. Never the less, there is no need to get frustrated as there are alternatives to gaining links from a combination of other sources that are just as effective as a link from Dmoz. For instance, you can submit your website to various directories such as Yahoo! and find many other resources on the web on ways to improve your link popularity. If you perform any search and look at the top five websites, you will notice that in most cases these websites do not have a Dmoz listing. This shows that some ethical SEO work and incoming relevant link building will get you those desired ranks.
Having said all that, there is no need to wait for Dmoz to come around. All focus should be diverted on other ways to improve your search engine rankings. If you don’t hear from Dmoz, then there is no reason to get frustrated on their lack of efficiency, for your goals can be much easily attained through other sources. On the other hand, if you do hear from Dmoz, take it with a smile and be sure to make good use of their listing with some search engine optimisation for your website.
David Touri works for SEO Sydney, providing search engine placement services. He is currently working on The Love Club single matchmaking website and Gay Match Maker gay dating service website.
