Dmoz Links Are Worth Gold In Googles Eyes

Posted on: May 28th, 2008 by Jeremy Schoemaker

From the Dmoz blog published earlier this month:

I think we can all agree that the most exciting take away is that search engines love place a different value on free, human edited directories. The point is easily debatable. Perhaps a link in DMOZ is as valuable as any other link on the web or maybe it is worth more.

He also goes on to quote a recent SEO article and adds underscores to the quote he wants to stand out

Getting a site into DMOZ is like Gold.

Google loves links from DMOZ and your site will reap the benefits.

I find it very strange for them to quote a SEO article and tell people Google gives more weight to DMOZ then other directories and even more strange to place value on that. It actually contradicts what I have heard search engineers from Google say publicly. I guess they would know though since they power the Google Business Directory.

Post written by Jeremy Schoemaker

Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.

More about Jeremy at http://www.shoemoney.com!

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72 Comments. What Say You?

  1. Adergaard
    May 28, 2008 at 1:35 am

    When are ppl gonna learn.

    A link is worth more if the PR of the page/domain it is linked from is realtively high. Links from PR6 sites will lift your site to a PR5 giving you better SERP.

    It’s just that easy.

    dmoz has a PR of 8 which is huge. It’s up there with the best of them, so getting a link from dmoz is good but not gold. you need more than ONE PR8 link to reap the benefits from it.

  2. Burgo
    May 28, 2008 at 1:45 am

    Um. Actually, I think far too much importance is put on TBPR, so I’m not sure it’s “just that easy”.

  3. ShoeMoney
    May 28, 2008 at 1:45 am

    lol… (sorry)

  4. jan
    May 28, 2008 at 1:59 am

    did you just wake up from a ten year coma?

  5. Spleep1
    May 28, 2008 at 2:05 am

    Wow.

    Crack is bad.

    Adergaard tell the kids that crack is bad. (sorry lol)

  6. purposeinc
    May 28, 2008 at 2:16 am

    I love Shoe’s personal DMOZ story. Don’t know if he will repeat it here or not. ;)
    dk

  7. Bob
    May 28, 2008 at 2:17 am

    Yes Dmoz is very popular in the weblog directories but adding your link to DMOZ is not sufficient for any weblog to have profit & audience…. What you say??

  8. Hyder
    May 28, 2008 at 2:21 am

    I got one of my sites listed in DMOZ in under a month, I’m selling the ebook for $99.95.

  9. Stak Loaded - How to make money doing nothing!
    May 28, 2008 at 2:27 am

    I’ll take it for $free.95

  10. Da Ma$ter
    May 28, 2008 at 2:41 am

    YES, DMOZ’s links are worth like gold.
    Why?
    1) Not only you have a link back from a high PR domain/page
    BUT
    2) You get thousands of links back from the directories that take the data from DMOZ. Including Google’s own one ;)

  11. Miles Galliford
    May 28, 2008 at 3:02 am

    If anyone has any hints, tips or tricks about how to get a DMOZ listing, I’m sure there are a lot of readers who would welcome the advice.

    I have tried submitting our site twice a year for the last three years and still have not been listed. The site is five years old, PR6, Alexa 60k, 49k inbound links, over 1,000 unique articles about publishing online for profit …. but still no DMOZ entry!

    • scumbag
      January 24, 2009 at 3:46 am

      Your site has all that. You don’t need dmoz. f**K em.

  12. Da Ma$ter
    May 28, 2008 at 3:05 am

    Taking into account that thousands of directories take the data from DOMZ, yes it is like gold indeed. Such directories include Google’s own among others with high PR.

  13. Olga - Used Cheap Laptops
    May 28, 2008 at 3:25 am

    Yeah it’s worth gold, when you finally get listed, months and months later.

  14. Funky South
    May 28, 2008 at 3:25 am

    Submit and forget with dmoz…if you can even be bothered ! I gues it only take a minute..

  15. Make Money Talks
    May 28, 2008 at 3:25 am

    DMOZ listing probably have some more valuse then just a PR8 base.

  16. Dan Horton SEO
    May 28, 2008 at 3:27 am

    hmmm DMOZ..last I heard you could kinda buy your way in,,,
    Hey Shoe,,,you must know some of the best looking Seo’s….check out Dave’s blog ;)

  17. Mayank Rocks
    May 28, 2008 at 3:48 am

    I was listed there but then got delisted or something. I dunno why .

  18. Mayank Rocks
    May 28, 2008 at 3:49 am

    haha what?

  19. Mike
    May 28, 2008 at 4:28 am

    My site is listed, but not getting much love from Google.

  20. Bill
    May 28, 2008 at 5:37 am

    Sooner or later DMOZ will kill itself. Google should be embarassed that they give this directory any weight anymore.

  21. Link Snitch
    May 28, 2008 at 6:17 am

    I think the DMOZ link is just one of many pieces that must be in place or it is all pointless. Not to mention in my eyes, you either have to be doing unspeakable favors for one of the editors or 2nd place in the lotto to get in.

  22. Levi
    May 28, 2008 at 7:03 am

    It only takes such a long time before they list a submitted site. For my site http://www.love2poker.nl it’s already taking weeks!

  23. Adergaard
    May 28, 2008 at 7:23 am

    Well you can laugh and heckle all you want, but the basic premises of the algorithm used by Google is just the way described above i.e. many links from credible sources ups your SERP placement.

    PageRank or PR is just a way of quantifying how many links from credible sources you currently have, thereby being as-good-as-any proxy to how measure how “good” or “credible” your site content is.

    So in essence, YES a link from dmoz or any other high PR sites is better than a link from junkyardcontent[dot]com with a low or not PR at all.

    Tell me again what you are laughing about?

  24. Jagdeep
    May 28, 2008 at 7:25 am

    i think you just reduced the dmoz link weight with this post lol

  25. Darren
    May 28, 2008 at 7:28 am

    Yes…submit and forget. If you do get listed, great. If not, no sweat. You can look at the PR’s for all those sites in the directory and see that it doesn’t have a huge bearing on a sites PR. You may get spidered easier, but then again, good blogging and pinging do just as good.
    Yoursponsor.ws

  26. Binary Ant
    May 28, 2008 at 7:36 am

    A link always is valuable (unless a penalized link but this is not the case) so it won’t hurt you to spend some minutes adding your site ti DMOZ. The worse point is the time it takes them to review sites…handmade things are the best ones ;)

  27. Georgia
    May 28, 2008 at 8:00 am

    Dmoz links are great if you can get them. They are so strict on editor requirements that they don’t have enough editors and listing take months to get published – if ever.

  28. Geiger
    May 28, 2008 at 9:08 am

    I NEVER have gotten into DMOZ for anything. They blow!

  29. Geiger
    May 28, 2008 at 9:10 am

    What he is trying to say, is that “Themed Natural Links” can be MUCH better than just a link from a high PR page. They are also much easier to get! Besides, PR is updated so slowly, it’s kind of BS now that Google is hand editting everything.

  30. Geiger
    May 28, 2008 at 9:12 am

    That is a very good comparison, but I don’t think DMOZ is really important at all nowadays. It seems so corrupt.

  31. Hustle Strategy
    May 28, 2008 at 9:17 am

    is that the extortion story?

  32. Hustle Strategy
    May 28, 2008 at 9:22 am

    Seeing AOL and Netscape on websites kinda brings back memories…

  33. Rasim
    May 28, 2008 at 9:27 am

    The problem is that the page where your link will be listed is not PR8. I don’t know why you guys pay so much attention to the directory PR. Each page on the directory has it’s own PR, and the one that will have your new link is PR0-PR2!

  34. Georgia
    May 28, 2008 at 9:32 am

    I was a Dmoz editor years ago and would have all sorts of people emailing me begging for help. I always helped when I could. I got shot down by DMOZ eventually. I didn’t do anything unethical but didn’t follow their TOS. I don’t mind seeing DMOZ fall a little now. They earned it.

  35. Goran Website
    May 28, 2008 at 10:12 am

    I would love to have a link from DMOZ, I have submitted a few times over the years and I have not go it. yeah its from an internal page but its from several pages on their network. It can only be good and once you are on its there for ever.

    So if anyone can do it for me…

  36. Website Reveiws
    May 28, 2008 at 10:24 am

    I have found DMoz to be rather corrupt anyway. One of my websites (that ranks #1 in Google with out them) is continually denied listing in DMoz. The category only has 3 listings in it (not odd, it is a micro niche) and all the listings are owned by one person. I have a feeling the category editor is the owner of this category!

  37. TrueGuy
    May 28, 2008 at 10:43 am

    I have been a DMOZ editor for more than two years and can tell you that I have never seen any corruption whatsoever. In fact, some of the very hard working editors at the top go out of their way to make sure editors are doing it right.

    No one is paid, and it is all volunteers, so it does take a while to get listed. But there is no need to bash the directory fwith unfounded rumors an innuendo. I have never heard SEOs speak well of DMOZ, probably because they are getting rejected often for trying to spam links.

    Let’s just appreciate it for what it is. The oldest and most credible (and free) human edited directory. I think it is certainly up there with Wikipedia as a volunteer created resource.

  38. Paul
    May 28, 2008 at 11:53 am

    I submited my url to DMoz almost a year ago and still have not been accepted. I am not sure if we will ever get into that directory. We do pretty okay in the search engines without it.

  39. Moneybites
    May 28, 2008 at 12:16 pm

    A link from the DMOZ is about as good as you can get!

  40. Best Videos
    May 28, 2008 at 12:20 pm

    yes, i have heard that google decided not to give much importance to dmoz listings as there was some corruption.

  41. Goran Website
    May 28, 2008 at 12:29 pm

    So what do you charge for the guaranteed submission, no ebook

  42. Sockmoney
    May 28, 2008 at 12:45 pm

    I am going to share a secret for getting into dmoz. Please do not share this with everyone, as it may not work if it is abused.

    So here are the steps that will give you the best chance:

    1. Locate a time machine
    2. Go back to 1999, start your site.
    3. You are done! Back then Dmoz listed any site they could find. ;-)

  43. jim
    May 28, 2008 at 12:52 pm

    Did i miss something? this chian makes no sense…

  44. Web Marketeer
    May 28, 2008 at 1:02 pm

    Oi vey – this is so yesterday – DMOZ’s value has dropped since people started blogging about gaming their system by becoming an editor, or bribing one….

  45. Start Blogging
    May 28, 2008 at 3:25 pm

    I’ve heard that it is a bit corrupted as well. I remember a story about DMOZ removing a popular sites listing and asking for money in order for it to be re-added. I think it was at Problogger or something. I can’t say much because I don’t remember exactly.

  46. Nate Hill
    May 28, 2008 at 3:48 pm

    Yes that is definitely true about the DMOZ directory and it does contradict what many people teach about web directories.

  47. Nate Hill
    May 28, 2008 at 3:48 pm

    LOL nice one :)

  48. petnos
    May 28, 2008 at 3:53 pm

    DMOZ is ok. it includes valuable web sites. not at all but there is no other directory like it. and because of this its very important for google i think. but there is a point we have to think are DMOZ editors doing well everytime. maybe they are doing something for money.
    i read about this from a web site but didn’t believe much of the written things. what you think?

  49. Robert
    May 28, 2008 at 9:50 pm

    HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa. ROFL, Whoooeeee! That’s a good one. Besides actually receiving bribe requests from “editors” like yourself, there is a plethora of proof to the contrary of your statement. I’m sure there are plenty of above board and honest DMOZ editors, but please don’t tell me you’ve never seen corruption of some form.

  50. Chetan
    May 28, 2008 at 10:58 pm

    Dmoz.. The most expensive listing directory on the web. And a crap too.. If you are lucky you get listed there after ages, or else you just have to pay the hungry editors to see your website in it.

  51. Mayank Rocks
    May 29, 2008 at 6:55 am

    maybe you havent noticed it as of yet. You will get, dont worry

  52. Mayank Rocks
    May 29, 2008 at 6:55 am

    Google is penalising all web directories, but why Dmoz is worth so much? Thats biasm

  53. Mayank Rocks
    May 29, 2008 at 6:56 am

    Same here. My other urls never got approved. Been year or more!

  54. Mayank Rocks
    May 29, 2008 at 6:56 am

    Please fine me a time machine :p

  55. Mayank Rocks
    May 29, 2008 at 6:57 am

    I was lucky to get listed once, but then unlucky to get delisted or something. Maybe they hated me lol

  56. Język
    May 29, 2008 at 7:43 am

    Got 4 pages listed on DMOZ, but you’re right – it takes ages. This, however, may be due to the fact that they are understaffed.

  57. Anthony a.k.a. OldSchoolSEO
    May 29, 2008 at 9:57 am

    Yes, a DMOZ link is worth gold… fools gold. I assume Google will wise up and drop DMOZ completely, but have you noticed that you no longer get the directory results displayed in Google searches like you used to? It’s a step in the right direction for Google. AOL has been content tarnishing it’s rep with DMOZ, and sadly Google has followed along as well. They would do the world a service if they both wised up and either fixed or dropped DMOZ.

  58. Goran Website
    May 29, 2008 at 10:41 am

    If you hear anything then I would also love to know, Miles

  59. Link Snitch
    May 29, 2008 at 12:03 pm

    Are there any other directories anywhere near as “praised” as DMOZ? Almost seems worth creating a human edited directory to try to complement the available directories.

  60. Terry Tay
    May 29, 2008 at 8:20 pm

    When it comes to PR and SEO, and everything else, there is always someone saying one thing and someone else saying another. We are all in between wondering who is telling it as it is. :-D
    ~Terry

  61. Chetan
    May 30, 2008 at 11:51 am

    Understaffed is not the reason in my view.. its just that the staff doesnt want to do everything for free, they accept $$ to list a website(talking with experience!)

  62. Coach
    June 1, 2008 at 10:05 am

    [...]have you noticed that you no longer get the directory results displayed in Google searches like you used to?[...]
    Yeah, that’s true – although I must say, I haven’t seen DMOZ results displayed in G! searches already since about 4 or 5 years if not more. I always thought, that’s just because G! is transferring links from DMOZ anyway, so that they simply economize by not repeating these results. They do it in the same way with many other directories which only repeat G! results. Anyway, I agree that if they did display DMOZ results earlier and now they don’t, it certainly shows that G! does not consider these result to be very significant.

  63. Urban Wear Addict
    June 3, 2008 at 6:17 am

    Really, DMOZ doesn’t have that much weight these days.

  64. Epurplemedia – online marketing news
    June 4, 2008 at 12:34 am

    dmoz is a very popular and free directory. Its very difficult to be listed in the directory. Getting link with dmoz which has 8 pr and very popularly definately help you in getting good link but not in serp

  65. forumistan
    June 10, 2008 at 7:06 pm

    If you have a link in dmoz, your pr + 2 ;)

  66. Woqer
    October 8, 2008 at 1:36 am

    I am trying to use DMOZ – nothing

  67. DRK Blog
    August 4, 2009 at 7:22 pm

    If you get listed from DMOZ your page rank will improve —that’s for sure.
    But, getting listed in DMOZ is almost impossible unless you have good luck and end up with a decent editor (not seen all the time on DMOZ).
    If you check ten DMOZ categories you will find sites violating DMOZ rules in five of them.

  68. DRK
    August 5, 2009 at 6:15 am

    Here is a review I made myself over “Open source” top category at DMOZ. I started my revision to find some site not complying with DMOZ guidelines. But I’ve got surprised by the number of wrong listing in there. As you can read in this article: http://blog.drk.com.ar/archives/45-DMOZ-Open-source-category-dissection.html

    Contrary to what I was expecting, such major category is in very bad shape. With sites not matching the subject or abandoned for the last eight years.

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