Why should I submit my site to DMOZ?

First off, what is DMOZ?

The official description:

“The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors.”

Basically where sites such as Google send a robot (spider) to systematically index (crawl) your site on a regular (or not so regular in some cases) basis - the ODP is different - It is totally dependent on its editors.

This is what happens:

You submit your site (URL, Description, Contact details) into a submission form - first you have to surf to a category that you think your site belongs. Each category has an editor who will check your submission for errors and omissions. They’ll pop over to your site to make sure you’re not submitting a site that has no relevance to their category. If all goes well they’ll approve the submission and your site should show up in the next update of the directory.

As DMOZ is loved by the search engines, you should get a backlink from them within 2 weeks to a couple of months.

Why does DMOZ have editors?

If they didn’t have editors the directory would be useless and full of spammy sites like most of the FFA (free for all) directories out there.

Put it this way - If you had a directory would you let people post just anything where they wanted? No, I guess you wouldn’t. DMOZ editors make an excellent contribution to the Internet as a whole - If you want to find an authority website on a subject - DMOZ is the place to go. Categorized, sensible listings, relevant and up to date.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that paying $50+ to lots of these new directories is a good deal, IMHO it isn’t. Most of them operate on the ‘Pump and Dump’ principle - Pump the directory full of links (making money along the way) - then Dump the directory by just leaving it to rot or by selling it, domain and all, to the highest bidder. Caveat emptor - buyer beware!

Just because DMOZ is free and sometimes can be difficult to get listed on - don’t be fooled into overlooking it’s true value in getting your site indexed. Most of the search engines use the fact that you’ve been listed by a human on DMOZ to establish your links worth - you’ll get a higher PR (page ranking). Oh by the way - DMOZ is old! It has stood the test of time - Highly revered and loved (and hated) by almost anyone who knows anything about the Internet.

This Article was written by Steve Dorrington (AKA CarpetDog). Steve regularly contributes to the Get Your Site Indexed blog. He’s also written an ebook called The 48 Hour Plan – How to get your website indexed in 48 hours or less.

Why Do I Need To Get My Web Site Indexed

You need to get your web site index by the search engines so people can find you!

If you were to think of your site as a shop on the high street of your local town - People would walk past, see your displays and shop front and maybe pop in. This however is not true for the web. The way the internet is made – there is no such thing as passing trade. You can have the best site in the universe. You can have a revolutionary product which will change the way millions of people search the internet. You could have a very important message that everyone should read – but no one will come if they don’t know where it is.

To get people to visit your site, to read your message, to buy your products they need to know where to find you. People need to know your website address, your URL or be able to follow a hyper link to your site.

How do we tell people about your site? Word of mouth? Yes, this works but you can only tell so many people face to face. Should you send out an email to a list of people you recently bought from someone on the internet (10,000 email addresses for $10)? In one simple word - NO – This is the easiest way for you to lose your website, your credibility, your hosting - even your email and internet account. This is called spam.

Even though you personally may get tons of spam in your mailbox each day doesn’t mean you should do it too. It is something protected by law. Yes, you can be in serious trouble if you spam. As a rule of thumb - Only email people who have either emailed you (not spam) or someone who has personally asked you to send them information of a particular type. It would be a waste of time sending someone an email about automobiles if they are only interested in stamp collecting. I know, there could be an exception to the rule where someone could be interested in stamps with automobiles on them.

Statistically most people visit web sites by searching for them in a search engine. The funny thing is, that even if someone knows your URL or website address, they still type it into a search engine. Almost everyone has either a search engine as their homepage or they use the one provided by their internet provider and that almost always has a search box provided by a search engine.

They type your URL into the search box and press enter. If you aren’t listed in the search engine they are using, guaranteed one of your competitors will be.

Just to summarize:

You need to get your web site indexed by the search engines so people can find you!

This Article was written by Steve Dorrington (AKA CarpetDog). Steve regularly contributes to the Get Your Site Indexed blog. He’s also written an ebook called The 48 Hour Plan – How to get your website indexed in 48 hours or less.

Directory List, Free Directories

Here is a list of free directories where you can submit your website to, all of the directories should be search engine friendly meaning that the directories will be spidered by google and other search engines. None of these directories require a link back, and that means its totally free. Read the rest of this entry »

How To Generate Traffic Using Only Free Methods

Putting up a company would of course require a lot of things, to get straight to the point, you need a capital. To make money requires money as well. But of course, with the versatility the internet offers, there are many ways you could find that could help optimize the potential of your site or business in generating traffic.

While there are ways to jumpstart your traffic flows, many sites don’t have the resources that others have to generate more traffic for your site. Well, you don’t have to spend a cent; all you need is the proper mindset and a lot of eagerness. You also must have the drive and perseverance to do hard work and research to generate more traffic for your site.
Read the rest of this entry »