Forum Moderators: open
Some SERPs have a category attached and stem from directory.google.com.
[directory.google.com...] is a copy of the Open Directory Project data ( [dmoz.org...] ), which Google obtained by downloading the RDF files made available for free at [dmoz.org...] . The ODP lists nearly 4 million web sites organised by category in a heirachical structure.
Google adds their PageRank technology to the directory listings, as well as well as showing the directory category a site is in, in the search result listings.
Also, can anyone explain to me why I had a site show up in the directory yesterday (yay!) and disappear today (boo!)?
If I submit my site to the ODP, can I still submit it to the Google directory
You cannot submit to the Google directory; the "add URL" link sends the submission to the ODP. So if you have already submitted to ODP, it will be reflected in the Google directory (eventually).
I resubmit all 4 sites every two weeks
Resubmitting will not accelerate the listing of your site. Try sending feedback to an editor listed in the category or one of its parent categories asking him/her to check the unreviewed queue in the category you are aiming for.
Also, can anyone explain to me why I had a site show up in the directory yesterday (yay!) and disappear today (boo!)?
Any number of reasons. The editor might have had second thoughts about the title or description s/he wrote. The url could have been published by an inexperienced editor in the wrong category, and been subsequently moved by a higher-level editor. It might have violated some other guideline for listing, in which case another editor might have deleted it entirely. It could have been dispersed to a different category pending a taxonomic reorganization of the directory node.
Bad idea.
>>Any number of reasons.
Abusive resubmissions could be one of those. Remember ODP editors are humans...
Here is better reading than this little line. :
[webmasterworld.com...]
and then :
[webmasterworld.com...]
;)
thanks for the heads up. I read through all the other information that you gave me. Again, I apologize.
Thanks again!
BTW, here's where I got my information:
Procedure After Your Site is Submitted
An ODP editor will review your submission to determine whether to include it in the directory. Depending on factors such as the volume of submissions to the particular category, it may take several weeks or more before your submission is reviewed. Please only submit a URL to the Open Directory once. Again, multiple submissions of the same or related sites may result in the exclusion and/or deletion of those and all affiliated sites. Disguising your submission and submitting the same URL more than once is not permitted. ***If a site you submitted has not been listed after three weeks, you may submit it again or you may send an e-mail to an editor of the category for which the site was submitted.***
[dmoz.org...]
(oops, I guess it was three weeks...hmmm...)
I guess I really shouldn't be complaining that someone has actually read the submittal instructions. There are still people out there that read the old How-to-spam-Altavista-out-of-existance instructions to submit every page every week or two: and they try to do the same thing to every search engine (including the OSEP).
Most of the time it really doesn't cause much harm -- duplicate submittals are just merged.
There is one situation where it becomes a royal pain. Suppose you're submitting your local widget shop to Business/Manufacturing/Widgets which happens to be closely edited by editor widgetman.
He sees your first submittal, and moves it to Regional/Norstria/Localities/P/Podunk/Business_and_Industry, where he doesn't edit, since he lives in New York City and thinks the world ends at the Hudson river. No problem. But editor mspodunk timed out a couple of months ago, and norstrianpatriot is busy building out the World/Norstrian categories.
Two weeks later, the next one shows up, and widgetman copies it to the Podunk category again, not remembering it ... yet.
Two weeks later, the next one shows up. widgetman deletes it.
Two weeks later, the next one shows up. widgetman deletes it.
Two weeks later, the next one shows up....
Six months later, new editor "podunkite" takes a look at the B&I category. Widgetman has deleted this site the last 20 times it appeared...he obviously knows what he's doing, so podunkite deletes both duplicates. (Yes, that's a mistake, and an alert, experienced editor should have caught it. But you know, after the first dozen submittals, an experienced editor isn't going to be really sympathetic.) widgetman goes on, getting more and more irritated by the spam, and deleting without any investigating -- this site has a _rep_ now, at least where it does the most damage. And he knows it's been handled on the other end.
Is this the most common scenario? No, quite often a site gets listed despite the misguided SEO efforts. But yes, it probably happens to 1-3 submittals in a thousand: and the submittal pattern is usually a contributing factor.
