| By Sumantra Roy
Getting your site an optimum listing in the Open Directory
(http://www.dmoz.org) 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 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.
Article by Sumantra Roy. Sumantra is one of the most
respected search engine positioning specialists on the
Internet. To have Sumantra's company place your site at
the top of the search engines, visit
his site.
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