Reasons behind non listings in DMOZ

It appears that there are a number of viewers who do not get their website listed in the DMOZ directory,for whatever reason, if none at all, despite numerous attempts and submissions from keen website designers or dark side SEO mystic wizards.

Would'nt it be good to see a forum to see the reasons why websites have not been included and the suggestions to get listed possibly in future submissions.

or perhaps it doesnt really matter these days, if websites are not listed at all in DMOZ, as some good SEO experts claim.

<URL removed. Link drops not appreciated here.>

Websites aren't listed for two reasons.

Either an editor hasn't yet volunteered to process it.

Or the site is unlistable. You can check the latter for yourself in our guidelines (which are very slow to load ATM).

> Would'nt it be good to see a forum to see the reasons why websites have not been included
The reasons why websites will be rejected are already available for everybody to read.

> and the suggestions to get listed possibly in future submissions.
From our experience there are no ways to change a non-listable site in such a way that it is listable in future sugggestions.
With one exception. If a site that is still under construction is suggested it can be suggested again after the site is completed. Under construction sites get rejected (although some editors keep them a few weeks for a new reviewe) but could be listable when completed. Al other rejected sites can only be made listable by deleting all content and creating a complete new website with complete (now unique) content and most possibly a complete new business plan.

From our experience there are no ways to change a non-listable site in such a way that it is listable in future sugggestions.

Click to expand...

Depends on why it isn't listable, doesn't it. If, for example, it's unlistable because it lacks sufficient unique content (which is different from being under construction), then adding significantly more unique and relevant content might in turn make the site listable.

Yes, it's that "unique" word that makes things so complicated. There are an infinite number of potentially unique sites, so every site COULD become listable, and every site (by definition) has to have a different way of becoming listable.

But, of course, only the site's own content creators can know which ways are feasible. It's easy enough for me to say, "surely you know SOMETHING nobody else has ever posted online!" But I can hardly figure out what that something is. I can say, "now go figure out what it is from yourself, and stop wasting your time plagiarizing or imitating what's already online." But I can't know what anyone else is able or willing to do.

So, yes, any site can theoretically be made listable. But many website owners are never going to make a listable site. And we really can't tell which ones they are. All we can tell is which people have already made a listable site. And people who have made a listable site, know what they did.

Another way of looking at it is: we USUALLY(*) don't have reasons to reject a site. And we don't EVER need reasons to reject a site. What we need are reasons to list a site. In the absense of reasons to list, a site doesn't get listed.

(*)There are a few reasons to reject a site: abusive site suggesting, illegality, attempting to threaten or bribe an editor. But in practice, those reasons only apply to an infinitesimally tiny fraction of all websites. And again, people who've managed to get their sites banned, know what they did: and offering THEM help would be truly counterproductive.

There are a few other reasons that I encounter sometimes that are caused by a blind spot in the web site publisher's perception.

I refer not to your basic original-content-less affiliate of made-for-Adsense site but to bona fide sites of (usually small) businesses or institutions that have a fatal flaw which makes them untestable or uncategorizable to an ODP editor.

My advice to people putting up web sites: Ask some acquaintances who have not participated in the web site's construction and who ideally aren't too familiar with the site's subject to search for information on the new site. Ask them to use their computer to do this, not yours.You will sometimes be amazed what you have overlooked.

Examples what I have seen on some such bona fide sites which would have been listable, "if only...":

• Site of a club and restaurant, very nicely made. Photographs, special events, menu, even videos. Address is given as 1234 Example Street (free parking). Only: nowhere on the site is a mention in what city that paragon of the hospitality industry is located. So, we cannot verify what locality category it is to be listed in.
  
• Site of a school, named after someone after whom hundreds of schools are named. Again, no information on the town/city.
  
• A site with a homepage and links to subpages with the actual content. The URLs of these links all begin with something like file://C:\My Documents/, i.e. they refer to files on a local hard drive. I made the mistake of mailing the site owner to alert her to that error. Got accused of underhandedly denying her a listing by transparent lies - after all the site worked fine viewed from her PC (which was true - only hers was the only PC in the universe that the site was viewable from. Which somewhat defeats the purpose of putting up a web site.)
  
• Site of some alumni of a trade school, intended public is other alumni. They always refer to their old school with a TLA nickname - the other alumni know what school they refer to. Outsiders (such as an ODP editor) cannot know this, so they cannot categorize or properly describe the site. Lesson: for all important references, include information so outsiders can make sense of them.
  
• Sites whose main page is a piece of Javascript which opens the actual site in a popup window (seems to be popular with some who want to have control over the window size). This is deadly if the visitor has a popup blocker enabled...

Heh heh, you forgot such delights as mystery meat navigation and all those sites where coolth defeats function .