Long having been a popular “must-list” directory for website owners to get their sites listed with, is DMOZ.org still as important as it was in the past when it comes to building link popularity and enhancing search engine optimization?  We’ll get to that in just a minute…

First, Let’s Take A Look A The Background Information

DMOZ.org, a very popular open source and editor managed web directory, goes back to the early days of “Web 1.0” and search engine optimization.  In fact, with popularity right next to the legendary Yahoo! Directory and with always-free listings compared to Yahoo! Directory’s slant towards paid inclusion, DMOZ.org was one of a handful of web directories that were considered absolutely essential to be listed with if a website would ever hope to be found by visitors.

Thing is, this was before search engines like Google really began to hit their stride.  Web directories were the standard—remember browsing them looking for new link additions to a cool new site to tell all of your friends about?  You get extra credit if you remember the Yahoo! sunglasses icon.

Then There Was The Second Phase Of Directory Popularity

As search engines began to steal all of the thunder away from the directories, DMOZ.org and the other major players didn’t exactly just fade into obscurity.  Quite the contrary, the idea was that obtaining a directory listing in the majors was worth its weight in gold when it came down to earning respect with the search engines.

Being directory-listed meant that your site was established and well-respected—after all, it wasn’t always easy to score a prime editor-approved directory listing to begin with.  Again, the search engines clearly respected this as early link popularity and simply as a way to determine your site was trustworthy and worth recommendation… Higher search rankings!

The Web Keeps On Changing With The Times

So we know how directories used to work.  Now it’s back to the original question—do you need a DMOZ.org listing to succeed?

The cut and dry answer these days is no.  Search engines like Google have progressed in complexity about thousands of times over compared to how they worked in the heyday of the directories.  The search engine algorithms are smart enough to look at countless other factors to determine how well a site should rank.

But you’re probably asking the next question right now.  Can it hurt to obtain a DMOZ.org directory listing?  Absolutely not—it never hurts to have incoming links to your site.  The only thing here is that the time and effort it takes to prepare a successful case for inclusion to the notoriously strict directory editors can often be better spent improving other rankings-influential components of your site.

Until Next Time…
George Chaney
President
SEO King, Inc.