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[S189]Search Engine Marketing Manager

by Robert Martin, Rob

The DMOZ (Directory Mozilla) or Open Directory Project (ODP) is the most comprehensive human edited directory of the Web which is compiled by a vast global community of volunteer editors. Majority of search engines including AOL Search, Netscape Search, Google, Lycos, DirectHit, and HotBot, and hundreds of others get their data from OPD. So if your site is listed on OPD it becomes automatically listed on majority of search engines. There is no need to submit your site to any search engine manually, or to use expensive site submission software or services. For Web Site marketing and promotion all you need is to submit your site to OPD and just relax. Search engines will automatically find your site.

And the best part is that listing on ODP is 100% free. There is no cost to submit a site or to its data. Anyone can download and use ODP data at no cost provided they comply with the ODP's free license agreement and attribution. Also, there is no cost associated with listing and submitting sites. Getting a DMOZ listing is very beneficial and even critical to your business since it is an Open Directory listing. As an open directory there are many other search directories that use ODP's results to generate their pages. In addition, a multitude of webmasters use scripts to list all or part of the DMOZ directory on their site, and this in turn boosts a site's Page Rank.

Who is running the ODP?

The ODP is managed by Netscape Communication Corporation. It is operated by a very small staff responsible for editorial policies and direction, community management and development, and systems engineering. However, the ODP is first and foremost a self-regulating community of net-citizens that basically runs itself. Through a system of self-governance, the ODP volunteer editors manage the directory's growth and development, and through a system of checks-and-balances, ensure the directory is of superior quality.

What does "DMOZ" mean, and how is it related to the Open Directory Project (ODP)?

The ODP is also known as DMOZ, an acronym for Directory Mozilla. This name reflects its loose association with Netscape's Mozilla project, an Open Source browser initiative. The ODP was developed in the spirit of Open Source, where development and maintenance are done by net-citizens, and results are made freely available for all net-citizens.

What is difference between the ODP and a search engine?

The ODP is a Web directory, not a search engine. The purpose of the ODP is to list and categorize web sites. OPD does not rank, promote or optimize sites for search engines. The ODP is simply a data provider to majority of search engines. ODP data users, such as AOL, Netscape and Google and hundreds of others, install their own search functionality on their site.

How to Submit a site to the Open Directory?

Identify the single best category for your site. The Open Directory has an enormous array of subjects to choose from. You should submit a site to the single most relevant category. Go directly to that category on dmoz.org and then click "suggest URL." Follow the instructions on the submission form carefully. Descriptions of sites should describe the content of the site concisely and accurately

Getting Your Site Into Portals and Search Engines Using ODP Data

If your site has been accepted into the Open Directory, it may take anywhere from 2 weeks to several months for your site to be listed on partner sites which use the Open Directory data, such as AOL Search, Google, Netscape Search, Yahoo Search, and hundreds of other sites

Answer: Nothing good.

Unless, that site is search engine friendly and well optimized.

I would like to utilize this column as a forum to answer three of your most pressing search engine related questions.

1. ) It is my understanding that search engines have historically expected tags to be the most important words on the page and this is widely abused. Is this the case and should I put my keywords in tags if they are used in the title tags?

In the past it is true that tags have been very important in terms of SEO. While they do still play a role, its value has declined over the years. I typically only suggest using an tag when it makes sense to do so – in a heading setting. Do not use too many tags on a given page. If you do not want the text to be as large as the displays, then use a lesser heading tag. Also, do not place entire paragraphs into heading tags. Be sure to use them exclusively for headings. Proper use of the tags will not get you into any hot water. Use the tag that best represents the look you are going for. You should also not have too many occurrences of an tag on any given page, while you are likely safe with 2-3 instances, I typically recommend no more than once.

2.) We have a site map for Google and Yahoo. Can it be used to help us identify problems with our site and if so how do we use it for that purpose?

(Note: I am assuming you are referring to an XML sitemap) If you log into Google’s webmaster tools, and ensure that the site is “verified" Google will display errors associated with your sitemap (such as 404’s etc). Here you can also set your preferred domain. I recommend setting it to display URL’s with the “www" version only (using the non-www version is also fine, but using the www version is slightly better as most inbound links will likely use the www version.). By using just one version, you can help focus page rank and site rankings, and help to reduce the duplicate content problems associated with www and non-www versions being visible at the same time.

3.) Our main pages seem to be in the regular results, but many of our pages are in the supplemental results. (These pages seem to be linked to database search results).

Supplemental results will only achieve rankings when VERY specific searches are performed and limited resources are relevant to the search. Typically pages achieve supplemental status if they have very limited content, are very ad heavy, or have a large number of outbound links. Pages can also receive supplemental status when they simply do not meet the high standards of other highly relevant pages within your own site. Google would rather rank the most relevant page of your site, and if the now supplemental page has less relevant content, the other page will rank instead.

Article Source : Pg. 16

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Robert Martin has sinced written about articles on various topics from Search Engine Marketing. . Robert Martin's top article generates over 1000 views. to your Favourites.

Core Magazine has sinced written about articles on various topics from Finances, Search Engine Marketing and Finances. CORE is the largest online resource for Search Engine Marketing can help you get th. Core Magazine's top article generates over 1300 views. to your Favourites.