dmoz.org - the Open Directory Project

The Open Directory is a human edited listing of submitted Web sites. It is significant as almost all the search engines make use of it to add to their own results. By getting into dmoz you get into nearly everywhere, and it is a well respected source which will boost your ranking. There are two problems. The first is that you have to give some serious thought as to your best category and how you descibe your site. The second is that it can take a very long time before your site is added as the site editors often have many, many other sites to review. Here is a piece by one of the editors showing you how to improve your chances of a more rapid listing:

 Beating the odds
Smart submitters understand that when they suggest a URL for consideration that they are, to a great extent, unable to do anything but wait. As ODP (Open Directory Project) editors are increasingly fond of saying, a site can be reviewed in as little as two minutes or as much as two years. The really scary part is that the two years is not an absolute ceiling. So, wouldn’t it be nice if there were some way to get editors to take a faster look at the sites you submit – without running afoul of ODP’s unflinchingly strict anti-bribery rules?

Well, there actually is a way that you can possible get the sites you submit looked at before others in the existing pool/heap/mound/quagmire of unreviewed sites. A quick caveat before I begin…there are no guarantees here. This technique does not always work, it depends greatly upon how the individual editor approaches the editing process, but it has worked enough that it is certainly worth passing on (and in the worst case, it does nothing to harm or slow the review process).

So what is this magic trick to a possible faster listing?
Submitting your site with a guidelines compliant title and description. A simple concept, but one that is rarely executed.

Why does this help?
Because the editors are, despite rumors to the contrary, human beings. And as such, we often take the path of least resistance. Here’s how it works. One of the categories where I edit has about 9,000 sites spread among hundreds of subcategories many levels deep. There are times when I decide to edit and simply grab a likely looking subcategory and slog my way through the unreviewed submissions. I may edit by submission date, I may edit by URL, but in those cases I edit with the idea of getting through all of the suggested sites in that subcat. In those cases, the advice I am offering here does not do anything to facilitate the review of the sites.

Other times, I know that the amount of time I have to spend editing is limited. Dinner may be on the stove; company may be coming over, or whatnot. I may feel that I have ten to fifteen minutes to spend on editing. In cases like this, I may just want to grab a large pool of suggested sites and see if I can make a dent in them. I’ll run a tool that looks for dead URLs and kill off those sites that are dead on arrival. Then I’ll go after the low hanging fruit. This is where the advice I am offering can come in handy. Simply put, I want to publish as many sites as I can in as little time as possible. I’ll look at a screen full of submitted titles and descriptions and try and pick off the easiest sites to publish. I’ll do this by looking at the submitted titles and descriptions. Those that are the most compliant will get the quickest looks. Sure, I am still likely to “tweak” the submitted description, but if I find a site with a compliant title and description, and the site accurately reflects what is submitted, I’ll publish that site and move on to the next target. It is as simple as that. The people who took the time to submit a compliant title and descriptions will, on certain occasions, get first look from this editor – regardless of order of submission.

So what makes up a guidelines compliant title and description?
Glad you asked. Let’s start with the title: The ODP guidelines state that “The title should identify the site, not describe it. It should be both informative and concise.” Generally, the title is obvious and is prominently displayed on the site you are trying to submit. If the site is about a business, an organization or other entity, then use the official name of the business as the title.

Some categories have specific title requirements, and these are stated in the submission guidelines (which are always worth reading). For example, real estate categories require a title like: Alice Smith – Acme Realty.
Be sure and capitalize the first letter of each word in the title, except for articles, prepositions or conjunctions unless they begin the site title or a new part of a compound title. Titles in all caps are a nightmare, as is random capitalization. If the name of the company begins with a lower-case letter it is going to be capitalized in the title. So, aCme Tool & Die is going to appear as Acme Tool & Die, or perhaps ACme Tool & Die.
Skip the keywords, the unnecessary punctuation, the phrases "Welcome to," "Online" and "Homepage of" or "Website" as they are unnecessary and will be deleted.

The title is not the URL.
Some great examples of what to do and to avoid can be found at http://dmoz.org/erz/sites/title.html

On to the description.
Those pesky guidelines state: “The description gives specific information about the content and/or subject matter of the site. It should be informative and concise, usually no longer than one or two lines. The basic formula for a good description is Description = Subject + Content.”
The very best descriptions are concise, informative, and objective, to let end-users know what they will find when they visit a web site. They don’t use a bunch of pronouns, they don’t sell the site, they do not consists of long strings of keywords and they don’t repeat the title of the site or sections of the category path name.
The guidelines (there is a link at the bottom of the article) list extensive do’s and don’ts. The simple thing to keep in mind when writing a description is that the descriptions are written to benefit the person who is searching the directory, not the entity that controls the website. Thus, the description that your client “loves” is probably going to get heavily edited. The description needs to tell the surfer what they can find (not in excruciating detail, either) on the site. It is as simple as that.
Keep the marketers and lawyers away, don’t let the advertising copyrighters play with your submission. Just submit an accurate title and a dispassionate third-person description that does not include the word “site.” Also, and this is very important, make sure that the description reflects the current content. Don’t write a description based on what the site will contain in the future, write a description based on what a site contains today.

For example:
Title: Acme Tool & Die
Description: Provides mail order delivery of mechanical devices used to capture roadrunners. Includes catalog, color photos and contact information.

Wow! That’s easy! No new-age capitalization. No strings of exclamation points, no plea to visit the site, just a straightforward description of what the surfer is likely to find. This is the type of submitted title and description that is likely to catch the eye of an editor – which may or may not result in a faster listing.
Finally, the Open Directory Editorial Guidelines are a public document that can be found at http://dmoz.org/guidelines/describing.html

This is one of an irregular series of essays on various aspects of ODP that are being contributed by ODP editor spectregunner. The opinions in these essays are those of the author and are not official policy statements of ODP.