Creating Quality Websites...Eye Opener!

I'm new here and came in to try to figure out why my website falls to the DMOZ wayside.

Now, I'm reading, and it was a "light bulb" moment. :icon_idea

Everything I've read online that mentions DMOZ has been related to the need to get listed for SEO and marketing purposes. Consequently, that is how I viewed it, and how I interpreted the value of my website.

NOW I GET IT! Finally... I wish I had noticed this forum sooner. It would have saved me some frustrating thoughts of "Why aren't I good enough?".

Creative and unique content that adds value to the users of the DMOZ listings is what you are looking for, not just general business submissions of sites that might be a fun shopping experience. Is this correct or am I still lost?

I'm not writing with any negativity intended...I want to make sure I'm read properly. This is a true "light bulb" moment for me.

Hallie

The ODP is a very large Directory with both Topical categories and Regional categories. Most category pages will have a description up in the right hand corner that explains what type of sites it accepts or doesn't accept.

I'm not an editor in the Topical category of Shopping, but as I understand it, it's for sites that offer online shopping with a way to pay online. It gets a lot of submissions, and a lot of spam, so getting listed there might take a long time. Not because a site suggestion isn't worthy, but because there are many submissions and it hasn't been reviewed yet.

In the Regional section of the Directory, a shopping site must have a walkin, brick and mortar location to be listed, like a shoe store or a pet store.

Unique content has to be judged by the editors who edit in those areas, and are familiar with them. As I'm not a Shopping editor, I can't truthfully comment on that area of the Directory.

But, as a Regional editor, a business site with a DBA name and address walkin location gives it unique content. It's one of a kind.

A site about Janes water garden in:
Home/Gardening/Gardens/Water/Personal_Pages/

has unique content for that particular category. If she had 3 sites about her water garden, two of those sites would not have unique content, and not be listed, as the information exists on her first site.

The web surfer, who is all we're interested in serving, doesn't want to see two more sites about Janes water garden, they've already seen it, .

Creative and unique content that adds value to the users of the DMOZ listings is what you are looking for, not just general business submissions of sites that might be a fun shopping experience.

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Unique, yes, but not necessarily creative. A website for a genuine business providing products itself (rather than just collecting orders for some central distribution company -- otherwise known as drop-shipping) can easily provide enough unique content about who they are, and what they will do for money. You can read about the types of sites we do and don't want to include here: http://dmoz.org/guidelines/include.html

Everything I've read online that mentions DMOZ has been related to the need to get listed for SEO and marketing purposes.

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I wouldn't take much notice of what you read online (elsewhere) about the ODP. We don't exist to help webmasters with their SEO, and SEO-opitmised-ness of websites does not figure at all in our inclusion criteria.

I'm new here and came in to try to figure out why my website falls to the DMOZ wayside.

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You shouldn't confuse "not being listed yet" with "having been rejected". Unless an editor has told you one way or the other, there's no way to know whether a site suggestion that hasn't appeared in the directory has been rejected or just hasn't been reviewed yet.

We get a lot of suggestions, and only have a finite number of volunteer editors to review them. We aim to review everything that's suggested in time, but obviously can't provide any guarentees of a time scale (months and years are not uncommon). Also, public suggestions aren't the only source of sites to add, and in more 'competitive' areas, the suggestions attract so much junk -- what we call spam, for obvious reasons -- that it's easy for genuine suggestions to get burried under it all.

If you can be objective, you should be able to decide for yourself from our Site Selection Criteria whether your site is the sort of site we'd like to list. If it is, and you've already suggested it, then all you can do is wait patiently for an editor to get around to reviewing it.

Crowbar

but as I understand it, it's for sites that offer online shopping with a way to pay online.

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Is only partially correct.

Shopping is for sites that
1 Offer a catalogue of products with prices
2 Offer a way to order and pay from your home - Mail Order, Phone, Fax, Online Cart
3 Offer delivery to the majority of the US (for US sites) or internationally (for non-US sites)

This of course is the simplified version - details can be found in the Shopping FAQ at http://dmoz.org/Shopping/faq.html

In the Regional section of the Directory, a shopping site must have a walkin, brick and mortar location to be listed, like a shoe store or a pet store.

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Is true in the US as Shopping is effectivly the Topical level of the US, but as 1.6 of the FAQ ponts out

In addition, for countries other than the United States, a country-level category may also contain distance-shopping sites if the prices are quoted in the local currency and the products are shipped from that country.

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