Google and DMOZ

A Dmoz editor was on my site for 15 minutes

[javascripter]

I'm not sure what this person was doing on the site but it was exciting to track where he was going. I watched him go from my home page to the contact page and then to the shopping cart. He spent over 15 minutes viewing my shopping cart.

How soon will I be listed in DMOZ assuming this person liked what he or she saw? Is there a long process the editor needs to go through before the decision is final?

And will a listing in DMOZ ensure me a good spot in Google? People talk a lot about how Google PR's jump through the roof if you're listed on DMOZ. Hopefully this will be the case. :)

Thanks,

Javascripter

[NickCoons]

javascripter,

Once you are listed in DMOZ, I'd like to know how much time there was between the two events :-).

DMOZ has a good PR, and having any good PR site linked to you is going to increase your PR. I've heard that having a listing in DMOZ is given even more weight, but I don't know that for sure.

[cornwall]

He spent over 15 minutes viewing my shopping cart

There can be a number of explanations. Firstly the editor might just have wandered off for a cup of coffee (mundane, but often happens)

Secondly the editor may have been checking as to whether you were a "genuine unique content site" or an affiliate site.

It is never possible to say how long till listed, as the editor could list (or delete the submission) there and then, or it could be put back into unreviewed for further review

[rfgdxm1]

If the editor listed you, then you should show up on the public side in a day or 2. If you can't find your site listed after a couple days, this might mean bad news.

>DMOZ has a good PR, and having any good PR site linked to you is going to increase your PR. I've heard that having a listing in DMOZ is given even more weight, but I don't know that for sure.

Depends on the cat. I've seen ODP cats with a PR as low as 2, and also had a lot of links on that page. What counts is not the PR of the ODP home page, but instead the PR of the page your cat is listed on. I've seen a lot of home pages of teenagers with higher PR, and would be more valuable to get a link from, than ODP cats.

[kctipton]

>>I watched him go from my home page to the contact page and then to the shopping cart.<<

It's kind of spooky to hear you stalking an ODP editor this way.

[rcjordan]

>stalking

Oh, it's a tag-n-release program, KC! No harm done.

[creative craig]

Can take a while to have a good look around your site before he or she decides to let you in the directory.

Or could have gone for coffee as cornwall said :)

Craig

[piskie]

As ODP editors are volunteers mainly working from home, how did you identify him/her?

I'm just curious!

[WindSun]

"..DMOZ has a good PR, and having any good PR site linked to you is going to increase your PR..."

Not necessarily.

If you look through the directory, you can find a LOT of pages with low or even zero PR. About the only way you would get high PR is to be listed on a main directory page, which is not likely.

"As ODP editors are volunteers mainly working from home, how did you identify him/her?.."

Because editor checking is done via ODP, so that is what you see.

[cornwall]

Because editor checking is done via ODP, so that is what you see.

And as has been pointed out before, this is not necessarily so. If the editor has a second browser window open, then the ODP connection will not show up.

In other words just because logs files do not show a visit from ODP, does not necessarily mean that an ODP editor has not looked at the site

[Laisha]

And as has been pointed out before, this is not necessarily so.

I believe he was answering how he knew that his specific visit was an ODP editor, not how one can tell if an ODP editor was there.

[John_Caius]

And btw, the now generally accepted view is that Google doesn't give the ODP any PR boost over any other page with similar PR. However, you also get a PR boost eventually by the same link showing up in the Google directory and all the other (small) users of the ODP database.

[rfgdxm1]

>And as has been pointed out before, this is not necessarily so. If the editor has a second browser window open, then the ODP connection will not show up.

>In other words just because logs files do not show a visit from ODP, does not necessarily mean that an ODP editor has not looked at the site

Correct. I am an ODP editor. On many occasions when going through unrevieweds I have just cut and pasted the URL into another open browser window. If I do that, how the heck from logs can anyone know an ODP editor was looking at the site? This depends on how the ODP editor goes about reviewing sites.

[cornwall]

Bottom line is that because DMOZ editors are volunteers, then there is no proscribed company way of viewing sites for review, as there would be at, say, Yahoo.

A Dmoz editor can choose which sites to review, how long to spend vetting them, is not arriving from a company site, etc

You have no real idea if they have been to a submitted site, and even if they have, you have no idea whether they have added it, rejected it, or kept it for further review.

Examining goats entrails probably gives you a better idea as to what is happening to you submission.

[Dynamoo]

Shopping carts are important, but even affiliate sites can have shopping carts.

Typically, if you have a commerce site the editor will be able to spot affiliate content a mile off - don't forget that the editor you'll most likely get will be an expert in that type of site having visited hundreds of them.

The bottom line is usually this, if the site is actually eligible for a listing (and to be honest, most webmasters that hang around HERE will know if it is or isn't) then it would most likely get listed. If you're somehow trying to pull a fast one (theoretically, I'm not saying you are) then the editor will most likely spot it and really just rummage around for enough evidence to reject it with.