How Would a ODP Listing Help Websites?

Hi Everyone!

I hope everyone has a great Holiday Season!

I have a question that I could not find an answer to so if it has been discussed before I apologize. My question is how would a ODP listing help websites that already have a decent to good ranking in the major search engines and are already listed in numerous other directories? I have 4 websites that I have submitted to the ODP without success but they all rank pretty well for my keywords in Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask. And I have submitted one site to 3 or 4 of the other larger directories (including Yahoo). After submitting my one particular site to the directories I noticed no significant increase in traffic and no appreciable increase in my rankings. So you can see why I am curious.

Thanks in advance for any insight!

We aren't really interested or expert in SEO matters here; we're just building a directory. You'll be more likely to get answers in one of the several other forums devoted to such matters.

DMOZ does not have any special influence on search engines and the rankings used by them. Only the same effect as a link on any other site will have. This comes down to 2 things: it enables the SE to find your website and it will increase Google's PR (and similar rankings of other SE's) a little.

It does make a difference. I pretty big one at that. As far as google is concerned it is the single most important link you could possibly have. That is, short of a link from the microsoft or apple homepage if say your website was about computers.

Previsouly discussed http://www.resource-zone.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=46324&page=2

We know what your ideas are about this subject. The problem is we never have seen any prove about it and Google itself denies that is has a special influence (read their blogs)

The original question was how would an ODP listing help your websites. First off, I have a website that was repeatedly denied by ODP - at least I think so since they don't tell you However, I obtained a PR 7 and am now listed in the top 10 of google and yahoo. That may change with the next update An ODP listing should never be looked at as a site saver or something to propel you in the search engines. It can be done without it. It just takes the willingness to pull up your sleaves and put in the work. The site I am referring to above will probably never be listed in ODP because of the type of personalized products I carry are not classified as original enough based on DMOZ criteria.
Now back to the question. I have a new website I started within the last two years. It is a parenting site with good rich original content from professional writers. So why should I desire a DMOZ listing? Not for backlinks, not for SEO or search engine listings. I know how to accomplish this without DMOZ. While DMOZ may help speed things along, that is not my motivation. Sites which are listed in DMOZ have a certain level of quality and professionalism about them. It is that which I am trying to achive in order to provide a quality and educational experience to our visitors. Visitor optimization is what I am trying to acheive, not search engine optimization. I believe the process of bringing my site up to the DMOZ quality standards will help and make for a better site in the long run. Will it take a month, a year, 5 years? That is not a concern to me. A DMOZ listing is major goal, but my site and online business is not, or should not, be dependant on it. For those in which it is you really need to think twice about being online. I was at that point a couple years ago with my first site and just decided to move on and start concentrating on my visitors and making sure they get quality products, information, and service.

I have a website that was repeatedly denied by ODP - at least I think so since they don't tell you

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Provided you can be objective, you can see for yourself whether a site is listable by reading our site selection criteria. If you think it's listable, you'd do better assuming that it hasn't been listed because no editor got around to reviewing it yet. We get lots of site suggestions, and there are only a finite number of volunteer editors with a finite amount of time to spare to review them all. It's not uncommon to see sites being reviewed a year or two after they were first suggested.

chaz7979 wrote: It does make a difference. I pretty big one at that. As far as google is concerned it is the single most important link you could possibly have. That is, short of a link from the microsoft or apple homepage if say your website was about computers.

Previsouly discussed http://www.resource-zone.com/forum/s...t=46324&page=2

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Not according to Matt Cutts a Google employee. It should be noted that this was a comment from Matt in a de-bunking post.

I think the $64,000 question is: how does knowing how much an ODP listing helps a website, help a website owner?

Well, I suppose it could give the said webmaster an added incentive to improve on the quantity and quality of the content...

I think this thread has gone as far as it should in this forum. As jimnoble mentions above, this is probably a better question for one of the numerous SEO type forums out there.