One of the most common questions, Jeff and myself are asked at Internet Marketing Academy seminars is about the importance of being listed in DMOZ, Yahoo Directory and BOTW.
My personal view is,
Yes for Yahoo Directories and yes for BOTW
No for DMOZ – screw you Dmoz. – You can try, but it’s set and forget. They won’t came back to you or list your business in at least a year’s time.
The main point is are they still valid to help your SEO efforts? Are they considered by Google and other Search Engines?
Yes, they are seen differently from the other crap directories. These ones are still in the good books with the Googles of the world, as you can see in the video below.
The most important thing, please don’t forget, if you decide to pay for the listing in one of the directories remember to be careful and pick the right categories and use the right description about your business.
Don’t use keywords that will help you to rank better but keywords that will help you convert better on the search engines.
One example we use in the seminar:
You are a tourism agent and need to decide whether to use the keywords “tour” and “travel” .
At the begin they seem to be the same, as a matter of fact the number of searches on travel is way bigger than tour.
However, we found that users searching for the keyword “travel” are generally still very early in their research and far from making a decision – they’re still trying to decide where to go. However, those searching on the keyword “tour” were much further into the buying cycle and much closer to making a decision.
Thanks Google
Best
Lucio Ribeiro
If you are in Australia, type “best online agency in melbourne” on Google.
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I agree with you about your point on the use of keywords that it is more helpful to use keywords as a means to convert better on the search engines rather than using it to rank higher.
.-= David McMahon´s last blog ..SMS Broadcasting: Making You Stand Out =-.
Posted by David McMahon | June 29, 2009, 3:40 amHi David,
thats my point. SERP’s are not a game, its about business and ROI. When people/users/marketers realise that is a channel for conversion things will be better off.
Lucio
Posted by lucio ribeiro | July 1, 2009, 1:58 amHi David , we are seo company based in Melbourne, for some of our customers we have achieved top positions in Google without Dmoz, Yahoo Directory and BOTW. However it may speed up the seo process
Posted by seo melbourne | July 1, 2009, 10:50 amVery good article though I would not say “screw DMOZ”. It is always wise to try and get a submission in and it will not take that long either. If they index you then it is always a plus above the websites that are not listed.
BOTW and Yahoo are absolutely directories you should get listed in since not only serps but also users seem to value these directories. It makes your website/business much more trustworthy as well.
Posted by Seth Rietdijk | July 6, 2009, 10:09 amSeth, Yes, screw you DMOZ was more like – I won’t bother to kill myself or my clients to get them listed there.
Yes, it’s good sense still to try to list it there however it’s not the biggest thing ever, there are other places you can get listed, generate credibility and have the same (if not) even more effect than get listed on DMOZ.
Posted by Lucio ribeiro | July 7, 2009, 3:02 amLucio … I like the way you explain that certain keywords are useful at different points in the sales cycle. This sort of thinking helps us understand how we may want to structure our keywords across the site as a way of accelerating a sales funnel.
.-= Gavin Heaton´s last blog ..Last Minute Call to Men =-.
Posted by Gavin Heaton | July 22, 2009, 1:49 amI agree to lucio I submitted a site on DMOZ and I still wait for a long time but my site still not included. I don’t see any problems with that submission and a lot of SEO said that it is really hard to list on DMOZ while yahoo directories is more important and valuable even though it is paid I get a lot of backlinks on yahoo
Posted by Andre Colt | October 10, 2009, 4:56 amThere you go,
Seriously there are more important things than DMOZ
Too much for nothing
Posted by Lucio Dias Ribeiro | October 10, 2009, 10:18 pmI struggled to get in DMOZ and was expecting great things when I finally managed it, but I can’t really think there’s been any benefit.
Will try the Yahoo Directory and BOTW though!
Posted by Becky Wombell | October 28, 2009, 3:43 pmI hear you about DMOZ. I cannot get anything listed there. I even offered to be a volunteer editor and haven’t heard anything back. Seems to be a “black hole” there!
Posted by Martin E | December 4, 2011, 4:03 am