Directory submissions: DMOZ & Yahoo!

The main difference between directory submissions and search engine submissions is that a directory submission has to be examined and approved by a person before it is listed in the directory. The examination that is performed by this person is very thorough and your submission can be rejected for many reasons.

If you are lucky enough to get your submission accepted it is a huge advantage for you. The DMOZ (Open Directory Project) and Yahoo! Directory are viewed by search engines when a user submits a request. The sites in these directories are given a higher priority than sites that do not appear in them, allowing you to direct more internet users to your site than you can without a listing in these directories.

Obviously if you want to have your website entered into these directory listings, you are going to have a much better chance if you know what to expect. It is very difficult to get a good listing in a reasonable time frame and some websites never get into a directory at all.

The most common mistake that people make is to try and submit to be included in the directories too early. Before submitting, you will need to fully understand what these directories are looking for so that you can develop your site to the appropriate standards.

You are going to want to make sure that you have no broken links, pages under construction or any banners or links that say a page is going to be coming soon or is under construction. You also want to make sure that your site is hosted from a good web server and that there are no problems when trying to load any of the pages. If there are problems, the person that is reviewing your site will stop exploring and will decline your submission for the directory.

If you have a site that is not 100 percent complete, Yahoo and DMOZ directories will not list your site under any circumstances. Your site will also be immediately rejected if it takes too long to load your webpage. Be sure that you have checked absolutely every page of your website to make sure everything is complete. Also make sure that the code used to write you page is as clean as possible as this will get you faster loading times.

If you have a large website that will take many hours to check over, you may want to use a program such as the CSE HTML validator. It will check your code and links to make sure that everything is complete and is easy to use. It will cost you some money, but is much cheaper than more expensive validators that are out there. Of course, if your website is smaller, it might be worth your time to just have yourself and others check it over.

Once you have a completed website that loads smoothly without any problems, you will need to determine for sure which category is going to be the most appropriate for your website. The directories will expect you to determine the category and any sub-categories to fit your site perfectly before you make your submission. You have to make sure that you have pinpointed the exact category that fits your site the best or your submission will be rejected.

Once you have found the exact category that your website belongs in, you will be able to add your site from that page. If you have submitted into the wrong category your submission will either be sent to the appropriate category and will put of the back of the line for someone else to review. Another alternative is that your submission will be rejected and you may or may not be notified. You will be able to resubmit once you have found the correct category.

Make sure that you submit the correct URL for your site or you will be rejected immediately. It is also recommended to submit your site with a top level domain rather than a sub-domain. Very few sites with a sub-domain address are accepted into directories.

You are going to have to write a description of your website before submitting for a listing in a directory. You will want to make sure that your description is to the point and factual. If your description sounds boring then chances are it is what the directory is looking for. Sometimes the person that reviews your submission will re-write the description for you, but this will depend on how close your description was to what they are looking for.

When submitting to a directory, also be sure that you use the proper title for your website. The reviewer is looking to get the title of your site, which is not necessarily the title that shows up in the internet browser's title bar.

There are a few things that you are going to need to expect when submitting to the Yahoo and DMOZ directories.

For example, the Yahoo directory will charge you $299.00 just to review your site and if you have submitted your site correctly it will be listed in the directory within a couple of days. You will also be charged another $299.00 per year to keep the listing on the directory. If Yahoo rejects your submission, you will be notified by email and you will not receive a refund of the submission fee.

The DMOZ is a free directory that only has two employees and some volunteer reviewers. It could take up to a year to get your site reviewed. You will not be informed of the status of your submission. It is best to submit your site and forget about it. You can check the status after a few months by posting on their forum as long as you have the information on the URL and the exact category that you submitted to. You will not get details but you will be told if the site was declined or is still waiting for review.

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