A common question I get asked is “How can I get my site listed in the google directory?”.

The Google Directory is a directory of websites similar to many other directories – the Go Directory is an example. Adding your website to many directories is a good strategy for building up basic one way links to your website. Google directory uses the “Open Directory” for its database – therefore to get your website listed in the Google Directory you have to submit your URL into the open directory at www.dmoz.org.

The following is a quote from the Google Web Directory help pages and I think sums up the directory very nicely:

“The Google Web Directory integrates Google’s sophisticated search technology with Open Directory pages”

Why would you use the Google Directory and not search using the normal search engine? Actually the directory can be quite useful to search for websites especially those that relate to a specific niche. As each listing is carefully edited by real people, you are almost assured that every website is well designed and appropriate for your needs.

Google continue to add features above and beyond the functionality provided by the open directory project – they apply their tried and tested page rank to each link, ensuring you find the best quality sites first, and of course apply the world famous google user interface to the directory making it really easy to find what you want.

As a side note, you may notice a slight difference in page rank between the search engine and the directory – it is believed that Googles page rank calculation algorithm for the directory is slightly different to what you see in the search engine although that is not confirmed.

Other websites that use the open directory data are:

* AOL Directory
* The Netscape Directory
* Ask Jeeves
* Webcrawler

When I wrote this article, there were about 1.5 million websites in the directory which is only a very small percentage of the 30 billion plus pages that make up the normal search engine. Its quality – not quantity – of the websites that ensure the usefulness of the directory.

Also keep in mind that Google periodically re-load the ODP database and this process can take a little bif of time so you must be patient and check back every few weeks. In fact dmoz state the following about new submissions “If your site has been accepted into the Open Directory.

It may take anywhere from 2 weeks to several months for your site to be listed on partner sites which use the Open Directory data”. So keep that in mind.

Assuming your submission to Dmoz is successful – your website can take several months to appear on the Google Directory. To ensure your listing will be approved – take time to carefully construct your website title and description and follow the submissions guidelines carefully. Pick the most relevent category to your website too. When you fill out the submission form within dmoz – they clearly explain the guidelines for submitting new websites.

I hope you have enjoyed my information article about the Google Directory and I will try to make an update should any of the above mechanisms change.

Author Bio: Chris David is the owner of a successful free online web directory called http://www.godirectory.co.uk

Category: Internet
Keywords: directories,seo