Open Directory Submission Guide

Having a good listing in Open Directory will help you on many major engines that now search the Open Directory listings including: AOL Search, HotBot, Lycos, and Netscape. Next to Yahoo, Open Directory may be the most important directory you will submit to.

Steps to Submit to Open Directory to gain an optimal position:

Step 1: Make sure your Web site looks respectable. Your site will be reviewed by a real person. If your site offers little content, looks unprofessional, or has "under construction" signs all over the place, it will likely be rejected. Spell check everything, check for broken links, and have a friend proof-read it before submitting!

Step 2: Next, query each of your important keyword phrases in Open Directory (http://www.dmoz.org) and note the categories that come up. Browse the categories and choose the best one for your site.

Generally you want to choose the category that is listed most often on the first page of results for your keyword searches, and that is appropriate for your site. The editor may place you under additional categories at their discretion. They could also move you to another category if they feel your selection was not applicable to your site.

Step 3: Once you've determined in which category you'd like your site to be listed, go to that category in your browser and click the Add URL link near the top of the page.

When the user browses Web sites by category, they will be listed in alphabetical order by the Site Title. Therefore, just like the Yellow Pages, it pays to have a Site Title that begins with a number, or the letter "A." Your actual home page should include the same words in the title. Also, you can't be fraudulent in your attempt to rank high alphabetically. A human will review your submission and if they feel you've called your site AAA Jerry's Auto Sales when your business is actually named Jerry's Auto Sales, they're likely to edit or potentially reject your submission.

NOTE: Anytime a human editor is involved, there is a high probability that your submission will be edited, shortened, or your keywords omitted. Your best chance is to submit a clear, thoughtful description sentence that does not include any hyperbole, questionable claims about your product or service or other marketing hype. Remember, your product is not the best, fastest and most ingenious widget ever invested, it is simply a product that performs a particular function and offers specific features -- at least that is all it will ever be to a directory editor.

The description field allows for far more text to be inputted than what will actually be accepted. The largest listing we’ve seen had about 270 characters. Craft your description to include no more than 270 characters. Do your best to phrase this description so that your targeted keyword is the first word of the description. Include as many of your best keywords in the description since searches will only find your site if the keyword is in the description you input here. Open Directory will NOT search the content of your site for keywords.

Try to make your description clear, concise and a complete and natural sounding sentence. This will make it less likely that the Open Directory editor will edit your submission.

Step 4: Wait. The time it takes to be reviewed will vary depending on the category you submit to and how busy they are. Allow 4 to 8 weeks. If your listing has not shown up by then, resubmit. There’s no guarantee that your site will be accepted

Tip: Generally Open Directory will accept only one listing per Web site. However, if you have significantly different content in various areas of your site, it’s possible to get multiple listings. For example, we have our main Web site listed under www.webposition.com which primarily sells our WebPosition Gold software. However, Open Directory also listed www.webposition.com/newsletters.htm as a separate listing since that page links to all our MarketPosition Newsletters. Therefore, it’s worth submitting different distinct areas of your site to achieve broader visibility.

Our recommendations to improve your odds of Open Directory accepting multiple pages from your Web site:

1. Put pages from the other "section" of your Web site in a different sub-directory. This will lend more credibility to the idea that the page submitted contains material different than the rest of your site. It could also imply it's an entirely different site altogether.
   
2. Consider waiting awhile between submissions. This increases your chances that another editor will end up reviewing your second submission and could be unaware of your first submission, particularly if you submit using a different e-mail address.
   
3. For the best odds of a second submission being accepted, purchase a different domain name and place different content on that domain than your first domain. This can be useful for promoting to other directories besides just Open Directory (such as Yahoo). You should use a different e-mail address and Web site title on each domain name so the two submissions will look more like separate entities.
4. Make sure your content is significantly different. For example, we sell WebPosition software AND have an extensive archive of MarketPosition Newsletters. Although they are related, the Open Directory editor thought they were substantial enough on their own to warrant separate listings.

Note: We're not advocating you create a duplicate of your site on the two domains! We're saying create a second domain that focuses on a different aspect of your business so that part of your business can get its own listing in an appropriate category.

If you're interested in becoming an Open Directory editor in your area of expertise, follow this link:

http://www.dmoz.org/about.html

If you can become an editor, it might be easier to get your site listed in the optimal categories with your preferred site description.

More Information:

Open Directory Submission Guide