Very general questions I have!

Here they are - A few general questions!

1) I have submitted a site and have found out it has been received and is up for consideration. I understand that at this point I should wait a minimun of 6 months to see if it is accepted or declined! My question is: Are you notified by email yay or nay when a decision to include is made? - Declne or accepted? Or do I just continue to periodically do a search for my site to see if it "shows up" one day? Someone please tell me more!

2) For a business site - Ours is a landscaping company in Houston Texas - How important is it for search engine searches of our customers in general for a site to be approved here on the ODP or DMOZ? Is it just a "good thing", helpful, or critical! as some submiters seem to act for a site to be accepted here?

3) Im a new web designer This site that I am waiting on www.swplandscaping.com to see if it gets approved is my very first effort and I am hoping for approval but I would like to know this- How important is the ODP and getting listed on it to the succesful optomization and possible first page listings on all the search engines?

Finally - any critique of my site www.swplandscaping would be VERY appreciated. I am disabled and am attempting to make some extra money for my family by making a few sites for folks if I can, I am very appreciative to any answers anyone can give to my above questions and feel like there are many who read this forum whom have similar questions.

Thanks all for reading-

We do not normally notify anyone if a site is refused or accepted. Some editor may choose to do so. About one out of 1000 sites I review, I might notify the webmaster if the site is rejected because of a technicality that can be easily fixed. You should continue to search for swplandscaping.com [no www no http:]

We don't get into discussion about other search engines, it's just forum policy. We review without regard to search engines. There are several good SEO forums that you should join - since we don't post them in threads I will PM some suggestions to you.

Getting listed in ODP is overrated as to your success in business. If you can't survive with an ODP listing, your business will fail. If you get an ODP listing, you may get some small percentage increase in sales. My opinion.

We don't do site critiques [though I see you fixed the title overlap problems that were there last month] - SEO forums will do that for you.

Reply to Bobrat -

THANKS - GREAT INPUT AND HELPFUL - As far as comments you are not allowed to make I thought maybe someone like me whom can speak freely might reply. I keep hearing about sites that were "declined" - If no notice is ever given how do they know they were declined anyway? ODP seemed so MYSTERIOUS - Think Im starting to finaly understand it a little bit - TY for reply.

We don't get into those discussions because they invariably go downhill -- and there is a truism that the people who throw the biggest fits are usually the biggest directory abusers.

Sites usually get turned down for one of three reasons:

Technical -- it does not work.
Lack of unique content.
Abuse.

Our editing guidelines are a public document, so there is really no mystery involved.

Don't count on the ODP for website promotion. (We'll spend much more time promoting your competitors!) Put your URL on your business cards, your trucks, your newspaper ads (and yes, editors may consider URLs from those higher-quality resources before reviewing submittals.) Get local links -- Chamber of Commerce, local nurseries, etc. The ODP review will come, but ... who knows when?