| Submitting Your Site to
the Open Directory Project:
Some Do's And Don'ts
One of the most important steps in any site's publicity campaign
is submission to the Open Directory Project since this directory
provides search results for many of the most important search engines
and online portals. The ODP is not a robot driven spider, but a
human edited directory and you must observe a few important points
if your submission is to be successful.
1. Make Sure That Your Site Has Original Content.
If you are only publishing a collection of affiliate links or,
if your site is a clone of other sites that are plentiful on the
web, then your submission is likely to be rejected. If you are
dealing with affiliate products you can of course add content,
such as product reviews or additional information and thus show
the editors that your site has something original to offer.
2. Check Your Site For Spelling Errors And Make Sure That Your
Site Looks Good.
Though the editors are looking for original content, they are
only human and will be annoyed by errors and by a clumsily built
site. It is my experience that professionally designed sites, with
good content, always make it into the directory eventually (more
on the time factor later).
3. Be Sure To Put Your Contact Information On The Web Site.
An e-mail address is not enough. I spoke to one editor and he
told me that if he doesn't see a physical address or telephone
number then the entrants in his category "are toast." Especially
if you are selling something, you need to build credibility with
your customers, and in this case, with the Open Directory editors,
by giving proper contact information.
4. Choose The Right Category For Your Submission.
When you submit a URL to a robotic search engine there is not
much to think about, but whenever you submit to a directory an
important part of that submission is choosing a proper category.
Go online and see where sites similar to yours have been placed
in the directory. When you find the category that you think is
best, press the add URL link. In some categories the editors put
a note mentioning the restrictions for that category. Please heed
these notes carefully and don't submit to this category if your
site doesn't meet the criteria.
5. Record The Date And Category Of Your Submission.
It is good to keep a record of when you submitted and to what
category you submitted your site. If your category has an editor,
make a note of who the editor is. This information will be useful
if you need to make an inquiry about the status of your submission.
How long does it take to get listed? I have had one site listed
within two weeks of submission and I have also waited eight months
for other sites.
6. Don't Sp@m The Directory!
Submit your site one time and be patient. Generally, you are only
allowed to submit to one category, though if your site is huge
and has many subdivisions, you may be able to submit sections of
the site to different categories. It takes time for entries to
be processed, especially in categories where there are many submissions.
If you hastily resubmit your site, then it will end up on the bottom
of the list of sites to be reviewed, since they are stored according
to date
7. Contact The Directory Through Proper Channels If You Have Questions
About Your Submission.
If the category where you submitted has an editor, it will be
indicated at the bottom of the page, and you can send him or her
a message. Another excellent way to make contact with the editors
is through their online forum located at Resource-Zone.com. There
you can ask about the status of your submission, but you must give
them the date and category to which you submitted your site. You
can ask questions about the procedures etc, but one more thing,
don't argue with the editors. Find out how the editors of the directory
work and do your best to meet their conditions and you will be
successful.
About The Author
Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor and social worker. He
has been working on the Internet since 1995 and is currently the
director of A1-Optimization a firm providing affordable search
engine optimization and other website promotion services. You can
get his monthly newsletter "A1-Web Promotion Tips" by
sending an email to: subscribe@a1-optimization.com
|
