The Value of DMOZ Links, Less in 2008?

Posted by admin

I have studied DMOZ links in the past somewhat (see “wizards of DMOZ“) and being a long term professional SEOer I have probably submitted more sites than most to the open directory project (DMOZ).  Yesterday while checking the Alexa details of one of my sites I noticed that the description that Alexa uses had changed, to one that I did not recognise - quickly coming to the conclusion that this must have meant that I was now listed in an appropriate category at DMOZ I quickly checked.

I am happy to report that the site was indeed now DMOZ listed, and I quickly followed up with a few checks of my other sites and was pleased to find that a further two more sites had also gained that holy grail of the backlinks, an ODP listing.  I did have other sites already listed in the directory so I started to delve deeper into the ramifications of having a site listed and came up with a few interesting things that I either hadnt noticed, or has recently changed.

The DMOZ link did not (does not) appear in my google webmaster tools at all, and not just for my newly added sites, also for a few sites that I own that have had a listing for nearly 10 years.  To be fair there isnt much activity on those sites and not many other backlinks so Im not 100% sure if google has stopped counting DMOZ links in its webmaster tools,  if so then I wonder what about the other directories that “feed” off the information dumps from the ODP,  surely they will count towards backlinks.

A quick check ensued, and as an example the Alexa Directory did NOT appear as a backlink in the test sites I looked at either in Google’s webmaster tools. So this begs the Question:  Has Google Now Discounted DMOZ from its algorithms?  

In short I can not answer that question immediately but I will certainly do some more investigation and come back to you folks when I know more!

Anyway, off for my cafe con leche!

MM

The Wizards of “Dm”Oz

Posted by admin

This ones definately for the soapbox section !

Dmoz - or the “open directory project” as its also known albeit less well known have this paragraph at the start of their about us section:

Since 1998, the Open Directory Project has been the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a passionate, global community of volunteer editors. 

Any SEO’er worth his salt is aware that this is just tosh, of the highest order.  A good case in point is an acquiantance of mine who has recently managed to get a new site a PR7 in record time (less than 10 weeks) for a client.  Dmoz plays a part in this story (along with a few thousand dollars worth of links) - in that the site uses its Dmoz listing to assert a certain authority with google,  and you might be wondering just how the site has got listed in such a short time (I certainly did,  I’ve got about 10 sites that have been waiting from 3 months to three years for a listing).

The answer is simple, the SEO’er in question bought the link, through personal knowledge of the editor of the niche in question. How is this fair? Well it isnt… How can this be stopped? Well it cant.

Where does this lead us? Well surely DMOZ cant possibly claim any authority when things like this are going on. Furthermore, Google should stop regarding it with ANY advantage to any other reputable directory.

Anyway,  rant over.

Im off for a calimocho.

Buenas Tardes Muchachos
MM.