Submitting
your site to the Open Directory
By
Sumantra Roy
Getting
your site an optimum listing in the Open
Directory (DMOZ) is vitally important as far as search engine
positioning is concerned as Google
gives a lot of importance to sites being listed in the Open Directory.
In
this article, we focus on how you can get your site an optimum listing in
the Open Directory. Even if your site is already listed in the Open
Directory, you should read this article to find out how you can get multiple
listings in the Open Directory.
Before
you submit your site, go through your entire site and ensure that there are
no missing graphics, no links leading to empty or non-existent pages and no
"Under construction" symbols. Also, check for typos and
grammatical errors. Furthermore, your site must provide good content. If
your site simply contains links to various affiliate programs, you will find
it difficult to get through. The Open Directory does not mind sites
containing links to affiliate programs, as long as you provide proper
content.
You
now need to select the two most important keywords for your site based on
their popularity. If you don't yet know the keywords which are applicable
for your site, have a look at my article on "Choosing
the correct keywords for your site". In this article, I have
mentioned that while selecting the keywords for your site, you should look
at both the popularity of the keywords as well as their competitiveness.
However, for the purpose of this article, don't worry about the
competitiveness - select keywords only on the basis of popularity.
We now
discuss how you should write the Title and Description of your site's
listing in the Open Directory. You don't really have much choice regarding
the Title as the Open Directory insists that the Title be the official name
of your site. There is no way around it.
When
you write the description, your aim should be to make the Open Directory
editor's job as easy as possible. You should not give the editor the feeling
that he/she needs to edit your description in any way. The moment an editor
starts to edit your description, you risk having your keywords removed from
your description.
Your
description should be a single sentence which conveys what your site is all
about and contains the two keywords you are targeting as close as possible
to the beginning of the description. However, your description should not
just be a list of keywords - the description that you use should be a proper
sentence and should be grammatically correct.
Broadly,
here are the rules that you should remember when forming the description:
i)
Make sure that the description can tell a visitor what your site is all
about. Things like "Have a look at our site" or "Welcome to
my site" does not tell a visitor what your site does.
ii)
Avoid hype of any sort. Avoid using ALL CAPS or exclamation marks. Phrases
like "The best web site dealing with widgets!!" or "Offers
the BEST QUALITY, CHEAPEST WIDGETS you can find anywhere" are
inappropriate.
iii)
Don't capitalize every word in your description - capitalize only the first
word. Of course, if some of the words in the description are proper nouns,
then you should capitalize them.
iv)
Write the description in the third person. Don't say "We offer
financial planning and credit counseling services", say "Offers
financial planning and credit counseling services.".
v)
Don't make your description too long - limit yourself to 15 words at the
most. If you are lucky, you may be able to get accepted with a description
longer than 15 words. However, longer the description, higher the
probability that the editor will want to edit it.
vi)
Check your description for typos and grammatical mistakes.
vii)
End your description with a period. If the editor has to add the period to
the end of your description, she may also end up editing the description,
which is not what you want. Your aim is to have the editor accept the exact
description that you had written in order to ensure that your keywords are
not removed from the description.
Now,
we come to how you can select the right category for your site. Go to the
Open Directory, and search for the two keywords you have established. Does a
particular category come up at the top for both the keywords? If so, go to
that category, and see whether the sites present in the category are similar
to yours. Also see whether that category has a Description and/or a FAQ.
Read them and find out whether that category is applicable for your site. If
so, this is the category you should submit your site to.
If
different categories come up at the top for the two keywords, go through all
the categories and find out which is the most appropriate category among the
different categories.
For
some keywords, you will find that the Open Directory does not display any
categories. In this case, find out which category most of the top sites
belong to and submit your site to that category, assuming it is applicable
for your site.
Once
you have selected the right category, click on the "add URL" link
at the top. Type in the address of your site in the first text box, the
official name of your site in the next text box, the description that you
have earlier developed in the third text box and your email address in the
fourth text box. Although the Open Directory says that including the email
address is optional, I would recommend that you include it - if, for some
reason, your site is not accepted, the Open Directory editor may want to
tell you why your site has not been accepted.
What
to do if your site is not accepted
After
submitting your site, go to the category where you have submitted your site
every day and see when your site gets listed. If you find that your site is
not in that category, it may so happen that you have been placed in a
different category. Type in your domain name in Open Directory's search box
and see whether your site comes up in the results. I have seen some sites
getting accepted within 1 day and some sites in about 2-3 weeks.
If
your site has not been listed after three weeks, then re-submit it to the
same category and wait for another three weeks. If your site is still not
accepted, then have a look at your site again. Does it contain any missing
images or links, links to empty pages or under construction signs? Does it
provide good content? Does it have any spelling or grammatical errors?
If you
are absolutely convinced that your site is eligible for being accepted by
the Open Directory, then the fact that your site is not being accepted may
signify one of two things:
i) The
editor of that category is inactive, i.e. he/she has not been reviewing
sites for a long time.
ii)
He/she is your competitor, and does not want to list you.
In
this case, the first step is to write to the editor of the category. Scroll
down to the bottom of the category to which you are trying to submit your
site and click on the name of the editor. If that category does not have an
editor, go to the category above that in the hierarchy. For instance,
suppose you are trying to submit to the Computers: Consultants: Business
Systems category. At the time of writing of this article, that category did
not have an editor. In this case, you should go to the Computers:
Consultants category and click on one of the editors there. Click on the
"Send to editorname" link, and in the Comments field, write a very
polite message to the editor. Tell her that you have been trying to submit
your site to the Open Directory and you have been unsuccessful. Give her the
complete details of your submission, i.e. the category to which you
submitted, your URL, the Title and the Description that you used and the
dates on which you submitted. Ask her as to whether there are any mistakes
that you are making and whether she would be kind enough to point out the
mistakes to you so that you can correct them.
If,
after two weeks, you don't get any reply from the editor and are not
accepted into the Open Directory, then look for another category which is
applicable for your site using the method outlined earlier and submit your
site to this category.
Getting
Multiple Listings in the Open Directory
If you
have already got your site listed in the Open Directory, you may try and get
your site some additional listings in it. Begin by selecting two keywords
which are different from the keywords you selected earlier. Then try and
locate another category which is applicable for your site and submit your
site there with a new description which contains the two new keywords you
have selected.
If you
are lucky, you may be able to get a listing in this new category, especially
if the editor of this category is different from the editor of the category
where your site is already listed. Again, if the second category to which
you want to submit your site is a regional category (i.e. a category
applicable to the geographical region in which your company is located),
that again improves your chance of getting a second listing. Alternatively,
if you were originally listed in one of the regional categories, then
getting your site listed in one of the general categories is also possible,
assuming that the products or services you are selling are not intended for
a regional market only.
However,
you have a much better chance of getting a second listing if you submit one
of the internal pages of your site to a different category (assuming you can
locate a category which is applicable for that particular page), rather than
again submitting the home page. Submitting an internal page has the benefit
that the Title of your submission no longer needs to be the official name of
your site. This allows you to include keywords in the Title. Before
submitting one of the internal pages of your site, you should change the
title of the page (here, by "title", I mean the Title tag of the
page, i.e. the Title that is displayed at the top of the browser window when
the page is opened) to the Title that you want the page to be listed under
in the Open Directory. This improves the chance that the Open Directory
editor will accept the title that you had submitted.
However,
don't go overboard with submitting internal pages - you can be penalized for
spamming. Don't start submitting any doorway pages that you have created -
they will be rejected. Any internal page that you submit must provide some
unique content and must be relevant to the category to which you want to
submit the page.
This article may
be re-published as long as the following resource box is included at the end
of the article and as long as you link to the email address and the URL
mentioned in the resource box:
Article
by Sumantra Roy. Sumantra is one of the most respected and recognized search
engine positioning specialists on the Internet. For more articles on search
engine placement, subscribe to his 1st Search Ranking Newsletter by sending
a blank email to mailto:1stSearchRanking.999.99@optinpro.com
or by going to http://www.1stSearchRanking.net
