5 replies to this topic

[balz]

Checking out my Google rankings for the website I am working on and I noticed some companies have additional information underneath them:

Description: ( I first thought this was coming from the meta tag, but it isn't)
Catagory: Business> Arts and Entertainment (as an example)

The above appears to be information you would see in a directory. Is there additional ways to submit site information to Google?

If not, why do only some sites have this attached information?

Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

b.

[Scottie]

That info is coming from the Google Directory, which is powered by DMOZ.

Submit your site to The Open Directory Project AKA the ODP AKA DMOZ to get a directory listing.

[balz]

Thanks for the info, really apprecaite it, I just found that out in my own investigation before I came cruising back here to place a chagrin/qualifier to my post.

We have just recently been listed in the DMOZ and I hope, because we are so new to the listing, that is why we don't have those extra descriptions.

The owner also submitted this before we got into the SEO thang, so our description is not reflecting the keywords we want to concentrate upon. I suppose I can re-submit our URL and
be allowed to make that change.

Thanks again for your reply.

b.

[Jill]

Yep, it takes quite awhile for Google to pick up the latest DMOZ listings. Could be weeks, could be months. Just forget about it, and eventually it will show up in your Google description.

As to trying to change your DMOZ description, if what you have is accurate and reflects your business, it could be difficult to change it. Where you just got in, you might be able to do something if you act fact, but make sure don't mention anything about keywords to the editors. Simply that your current listing doesn't accurately depict what your site is all about. If they listed you the way you originally submitted it, you're going to have some real difficulties trying to convince them.

Good luck!

Jill

[Randy]

Too true Jill. Getting a description (or anything really) changed at DMOZ after it's set is next to impossible in my experience.

I know of one site in particular which has a DMOZ description saying something like "Hundreds of free widgets". The the fact is that nothing on the site has been "free" in almost two years. But DMOZ won't change it for some reason even though they've been notified several times.

It's frustrating.

Randy

[mopacfan]

I know of one site in particular which has a DMOZ description saying something like "Hundreds of free widgets".  The the fact is that nothing on the site has been "free" in almost two years.  But DMOZ won't change it for some reason even though they've been notified several times.

Randy,

I was just accepted as an editor for a small category in DMOZ and I was disapointed to find several submissions dated as far back as Feb '02. I was not surprised since it took nearly a year to get my own site listed a few years ago. I quickly deleted the new requests for which the web sites were no longer existant and then culled the published entries to remove sites that were no longer available or had changed content significantly away from the category listing. I made only one change to a site's description, imho, it was not well written and did not accurately describe the site and it's content.

My guess is that there just aren't enough editors involoved to keep up with the backlog. I will be checking in at least once a month since the category does not get a lot of requests, but I want to make sure those that do come in get taken care of in a timely fashion.