Submitting
your site to the Open Directory
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", available
at http://www.1stSearchRanking.com/keywords.htm
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, go to http://www.1stSearchRanking.com
For more advice on how you can take your web site to the
top of the search engines, subscribe to his FREE newsletter
by going to http://www.1stSearchRanking.com/wsletter.htm
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