9 replies to this topic

[Bnizzz]

I had a great experience with the resource zone site for finding out the status of submitted sites to the Open Directory project. They answered my questions quickly and completely.

My question comes with one of their recommendations to me. The site I asked about was in a general category that had thousands of sites waiting to get listed so the editor recommended 2 other parts of the directory for submission. The problem was those other 2 places had 0 PageRank, so the value of that link from DMOZ would be diminished(please correct me if I am wrong on that).

The recommended spots in the directory were more regional in nature but the company deals with national clients. So they could be listed in either my original pick for a category or the suggested ones with no problem.

So is it ok for me to respond to an ODP editor with the PageRank issue? Do they frown on that?

[qwerty]

I don't want to speak for the ODP, but I think any issue outside of just being listed in the right place would be frowned on. I doubt very much they're interested in the SEO aspect of a directory listing. That would include the PR of the category page, the anchor text and the description text for your listing. Unless it's just wrong, they probably wouldn't be willing to change it just to make a site owner happier.

That being said, it doesn't make sense to me to limit yourself to a regional category if you're not a regional company. I'd certainly accept the regional listing in addition to the more general one, but your site ought to be listed in the most relevant category, not the one that's easiest to get into.

[OldWelshGuy]

Your dead right Bob, an ODP editor has only one loyalty and that is to the integrity of the directory, nothing else matters with regard editing.

I am not an editor, although I have a friend who is, and he is maniacal about the integrity of the directory.

Finally i just wish people would stop getting so damn hung up on PR and submitting to the ODP 'purely' to gain the blessing of Google.

The ODP supplies thousands, maybe 10s of thousands of small directories with their data, and this brings what we all want TRAFFIC, PR is just an indicator of a move to getting more traffic, it is a currency, not a product GOD i will be happy when people start talking about traffic rather than PR

Well i dont give a damn what PR a site has, Al i care about is where it lands in the SERPs, how many visitors it is getting, and that those visitors are doing what is expected of them.

<rant over> lol

[SearchRank]

Well said, OWG. I used to be a ODP editor and you are right. All that they care about is the integrity of the directory. This is true of any search service. They care about listing or producing a set of quality results. They do not care about PR and they don't care about SEO.

If people submit their sites to the wrong category just because it has a high PR, then most likely, it will be deleted. Google could save all of us alot of trouble if they just killed that PR bar!

[xixtas]

Mentioning page rank in a post at the resource zone is not a good idea. ODP editors are strongly (very, very strongly) discouraged from taking such things into consideration when they edit. And with good reason, we are building a directory, not a seed-bed for search engines.

Me personally, I care about pagerank in a kind of academic way. But I get pretty irritated whenever someone asks us to change something in the directory because of anything to do with their search-engine rankings.

So they could be listed in either my original pick for a category or the suggested ones with no problem.

For most types of businesses a listing in regional would not preclude a listing in topical, and might even have the effect of aiding that submission in topical. Not in any direct way, but in a low-hanging fruit kind of way. Submissions that another editor has already checked for suitable content might attract attention from an editor sooner than one that hasn't.

[Debra]

The problem was those other 2 places had 0 PageRank, so the value of that link from DMOZ would be diminished(please correct me if I am wrong on that).

I'm not clear on what you're saying in the quote above, who has the PR0? I can't find a single page in the DMOZ that has a PRO. Are the other two sites at PR0 that are listed in the category you want to go into? In that case, this will have no bearing on your site.

A link from the ODP is a link just like any other. No extra brownie points given for being listed.

However, a link in the ODP is a great thing to have since they supply results to a number of the search engines and tons of secondary niche directories.

If people submit their sites to the wrong category just because it has a high PR, then most likely, it will be deleted

As Editors for the ODP, we don't delete sites because people submit them to the wrong category; we send them on their way to the correct category. Page Rank has NOTHING to do with it.

[xixtas]

I found some categories with a PR0, but I'm pretty sure the ones I found were recently reorganized cats. In "Houston: Real Estate" in case anyone's curious.

[Alan Perkins]

The fact that the toolbar reports no PageRank does not mean that a page has no PageRank!

Mentioning page rank in a post at the resource zone is not a good idea.

Beautifully understated!

[powerofeyes]

I can't find a single page in the DMOZ that has a PR0.

Many PR0 pages are there in Dmoz couple of them,

http://www.dmoz.com/...tes/California/

http://www.dmoz.com/.../Massachusetts/

http://www.dmoz.com/...News_and_Media/

[Bnizzz]

Thanks for the responses and I am not usually a slave to P***R***

Here are the lessons learned from this episode of "HighRankings Forum":

- Don't ever ever even think of the term P***R***
- and if you do for heavens sake don't type it into a forum
- ODP editors sequence of importance: ODP directory, breathing, eating
- Work on making your avatar seasonal

Thanks again!