| Getting
your site an optimum listing in the Open Directory
(DMOZ) is vitally important as far as search engine
positioning is concerned. AOL, Netscape & Lycos
all take their results from the Open Directory.
Google gives a lot of importance to sites being
listed in the Open Directory. In addition to this,
getting registered by the Open Directory will also
help you improve the link popularity of your site.
In
this article, we focus on how you can get your site
an optimum listing in the Open Directory so that
your site gets a high ranking in the search engines
which use results from 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.
Now,
we need to review the factors that AOL, Netscape
and Lycos use to rank sites from the Open Directory.
You should not be too worried about the ranking
of your site in the Open Directory itself - not
too many people use the Open Directory for finding
information. However, the algorithm that the Open
Directory uses is similar to the algorithm that
Netscape uses, and hence a high ranking in Netscape
generally means a high ranking in the Open Directory
and vice-versa.
Before
we begin reviewing the factors influencing the ranking
of your site, you 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.
Broadly,
here are the factors which influence your rankings
in AOL, Netscape and Lycos:
i)
Presence of the keyword in the Title and Description
If
you want to rank highly for a keyword, the Title
and the Description that you use to submit your
site to the Open Directory should contain the keyword.
Note that this Title is not the Title that you have
used in the home page of your web site and that
this Description is not the description that you
have used in the Meta Description tag of your home
page. Rather, it is the Title and the Description
of your site's listing in the Open Directory.
ii)
Prominence of the keyword in the Title and the Description
"Prominence"
means how close the keyword is to the beginning
of the Title and Description. Other things remaining
the same, closer the keyword to the beginning of
the Title and the Description, higher your ranking.
iii)
Presence of the keyword in the URL
Other
things remaining the same, your site will get a
higher ranking if a keyword or a part of the keyword
is present in the URL of your site.
iv)
Presence of the keyword in the Category name
In
Netscape, other things remaining the same, if the
keyword is present in the name of the Category,
your site will get a higher ranking. Even if only
a part of the keyword is present in the name of
the category, your site will get a higher ranking.
Note that this is applicable only in Netscape.
v)
Number of sites in a category which contain the
keyword in their descriptions
In
Netscape, other things remaining the same, more
the number of sites in a category which contain
the keyword in their descriptions, higher the ranking
for all sites in that category. Once again, this
is applicable only in Netscape.
Now,
as you can see from points i) and ii), if your site
has to be ranked at the top for a particular keyword,
the keyword needs to be present in the Title. However,
the Open Directory insists that the Title be the
official name of your site.
Hence,
unless the official name of your site contains the
keywords, you have little or no choice with respect
to the Title. Short of changing the official name
of your site, there is not much that you can do.
Now,
assuming that your target keyword is not present
in the official name of your site, search AOL for
the keywords which you had selected and find out
if the top 10 sites in AOL all have the keyword
in the Title. If they do, your site will not be
able to get a high ranking for those keywords. In
this case, select two more keywords based on their
popularity and again search AOL for those keywords.
If the top 10 sites all contain the keyword, reject
the keywords and select the next two keywords. In
this way, find out two keywords for which the top
10 sites don't contain the keyword in the Title.
Of
course, if the official name of your site contains
the keywords, then you are in luck! This means that
your Title will contain the keywords and there is
a good chance that you will get a high ranking for
those keywords.
Now
we come to how you should write the description
of your site. 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 for which
you are already ranked well. 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. For instance, if you type in 1stSearchRanking.com
in Open Directory's search box, you will notice
that my site has four listings - the home page of
my site, the page linking to all my articles, the
page which describes my newsletter on search engine
positioning and this page on submitting sites to
the Open Directory.
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. For instance, the listing for the page containing
my articles has the title of "Search Engine
Positioning Articles", which, of course, has
no relation to the name of my company - 1st Search
Engine Ranking.com. 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.
Don't
have time to submit? Click
here to check out our submission services and
let us do it for you.
back
|
e-Submitter.com ............."Where the World Gets Submitted..."
