Submitting Your Site to the ODP

About the ODP

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If you launch a new web site, it is crucial to let the world (and most notably the search engines) know that it exists. There are many search engines and directories that you can submit to - some of which will charge you for submissions (e.g. Yahoo!). Although submitting to general and vertical directories can make sense, there is a great alternative: the Open Directory Project (ODP, located at dmoz.org).

The ODP is organized in the form of a huge community of volunteers, so-called editors. Each editor maintains the quality of one or more categories by removing dead links and by adding new sites. If you submit your web site to the ODP, an editor will take a look at it and hopefully add it to the index. Unfortunately, you won't receive an email when you're added to the ODP; in case you're rejected, no editor will give any specific reasons for their decision.

One of the advantages of the ODP is obvious: it's free to submit to. As opposed to Yahoo! Express submissions, it can take some time until your submission will be looked at. Unfortunately, as pointed out before, you will never know if you have been rejected or if you're still in the queue, waiting for an editor to take a look at your site.

The benefits are clear

So, why bother with the ODP? At first sight, its web site dmoz.org is not as much of a traffic magnet as other directories and search engines are. The biggest advantage of being included in the ODP becomes clear when you focus at other search engines' directories, e.g. the Google directory (http://directory.google.com/): Most search engines and directories syndicate their directory content from the ODP. Try Netscape, Lycos, and HotBot - they are all based on the ODP.

The ODP content is open to everyone who wants to use it (as usual: some restrictions apply). Not surprisingly, there are 200+ sites that use the database of more than 3,000,000 web sites with more than 400,000 categories.

ODP related challenges

Unfortunately, this syndication creates another problem: Even if you make it into the ODP database, it might take months, before other directories update their content accordingly. While Google is said to update its directory at least every 60 days, others need much more time - if they update at all.

The structure of the ODP creates another inherent issue: There are categories without editors. Therefore, you can submit your web site, but it could literally take years to be included. You can easily tell if there's an editor or not by looking at the bottom of a category that you can to submit you: the Editors should be listed there.

Submit and be patient - it's worth the wait

With all those issues, it is worth the effort, since you not only might get traffic from your directory listing: You will also see an increase in your link popularity, since a lot of ODP-based directories will link to your site.

If you need help with the ODP, it is usually ineffective to contact the ODP directly. Instead, simply visit the support forum at www.resource-zone.com. Good luck.

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