Does DMOZ have a method to deal with inactive sites?

In May, I started a business directory website for the city that
I live in because the one that existed/still exists (and has the #1
Google ranking) was actually 7 years out of date. In fact, the index
page discusses an election held in 2001! In addition, at least 30% of
the businesses no longer exist.

Despite all my SEO efforts to my own site, I still am unable to bump the outdated competitor from it's top ranking, and as a newcomer, my site still appears on page 2 in Google. I know that because this outmoded site is on top, people click on it all the time in the hope of finding useful info, but only realise after clicking on it that they are dealing with an outdated site. Thus,
much to my frustration, the "popularity" of the ancient site continues...

I also noticed that DMOZ ranks it as number one for the key words muswell + hill. Is there not some function available to DMOZ to be able to highlight a site has not been updated for a long period of time and demote it somehow? It seems quite unfair to keep more useful and updated sites down when some of those at the top are archaic and useless. Any plans for DMOZ to look into this issue, as I am sure that others also are affected by this?

DMOZ does not give PR

Pange Rank is a funtion of Google. Google only uses DMOZ as an index as well as other numerous methods to spider sites.

While this is not a forum for SEO the only thing other than a reference to sites for spidering DMOZ would be is a heavy one way link.

With that said there are other methods to get heavy links from other worthy places. One must realize that because you have links to other sites this does not mean that your directory is or can not be considered a link farm. By both DMOZ editors or even Google.

I could list a number of things you could do to promote your site unfortunatley this is not the place. I would suggest searching the internet for SEO and you will find other ways to promote your site that are just as affective.

I am continually amazed that everyone here that posts seems to believe that 1) there site not being listed in DMOZ is the reason for their sites failure to perform 2) thinking there is an obligation by the unpaid DMOZ editors to act 3) the belief that anything in life is fair

The one thing I got out of college (my first business teacher) which has stuck with me "There are only two types of fair in life State and County"

I also noticed that DMOZ ranks it as number one for the key words muswell + hill. Is there not some function available to DMOZ to be able to highlight a site has not been updated for a long period of time and demote it somehow?

Click to expand...

The ODP does not "rank" sites. They are simply listed alphabetically in each category according to the site title.

There is a method of "cooling" a site in a category, which will place it at the top of the category regardless of the site title, but this feature is used very sparingly and is strictly monitored. (You can read more about site cooling in the public guidelines here.)

In addition to what makrhod says, when you use the search function to find sites in the ODP, rather than look directly in the categories, the search results are presented in an order that is - as far as I have ever been able to tell - completely random. (The search feature isn't meant to be a way to find specific sites, its purpose is to help you locate the relevant categories you are searching for, and it is much too basic to do anything like ranking sites.)

Also, not all websites need to be updated frequently. For example, a history of England's Tudor kings would still be useful even if it was written 15 years ago .