Dmoz is one of the most successful link list sites in the world — in my opinion, the best. I haven’t seen a real competitor to this day. It’s so influential that when I registered my other site senininternetin.com, I’d written “Bayram, Burak” as the site title at Dmoz. The Yandex search engine then literally used Dmoz’s title and indexed me as “Bayram, Burak.” They’ve fixed it since, but it stayed that way for a long time.
Why do you need a Dmoz listing? Number one: to show that your site is high quality. It also makes it easier to get ads on sites like r10. Dmoz is essentially a site-quality benchmark. They accepted SNTHD after about 2 years. I applied 6 times across different categories. Eventually I got added under the Personal pages category as Bayram, Burak.
So how do you submit to Dmoz? Here’s the answer. The single most important thing after you visit dmoz.com is picking the right category — but before picking the category, take a hard look at your own site. If you were the Dmoz editor, would you accept this site? To learn what kinds of sites get accepted, head into the category you’d want to be in and study the listings. Quick tip: the site should have original content, some history, be well-organized, not spammy, not drowning in ads. In short — get the site into proper shape and then go knocking on Dmoz’s door. Otherwise you’ll get sent away from the door many times.
1) Let me walk you through adding a site to Dmoz with an example. Burakbayram.com hasn’t been accepted yet. I applied for it just once because I couldn’t dedicate enough time to it. Let’s go again together. First, visit Dmoz.com. From the home, under the World category, pick the Turkish (Türkçe) option. Since our category is a Turkish-content site, our link belongs in this section.
2) Once you’re in the Turkish section, start researching the most fitting category for your site. Example: what do I share on this site? That’s the first question. It’s my personal site where I also share my training sets, comment on films I’ve watched and music I’ve heard, and post my own opinions and helpful guides. Considering all that, I pick a main category. Since mine is personal and daily-sharing oriented, I’ll look under “Web Diaries.” I search the search bar for “Web Günlüğü.”
3) After the search, find the Web Diary category that fits. There are many subcategories — Computing, Recipes, Cinema, Film, Culture and Art, and so on. I pick World: Türkçe: Bilgisayar: İnternet: Web: Web Günlükleri: Web Tasarımı ve Geliştirme, since most of my work is graphic & design and coding. Other content fits too but I decided to try this one. If there’s no response for a long time I might try another. Once inside Web Design and Development, click the “Suggest a Site” link in the top right.
4) On the next page you’ll fill out the form. First it asks for your site’s URL.
5) After the URL it asks for the site title. Write it as clean and short as possible.
6) Next comes the description. To help yourself, look at descriptions on existing entries. Shouldn’t be too long, shouldn’t be 1–2 words either. Aim for a clear, well-trimmed sentence carrying only what’s needed.
7) Finish the form, enter your email, complete the CAPTCHA properly, and hit submit.
That’s it. After hitting submit, all you can do is wait. After this, wait about a month, because the editors are unpredictable. Some categories may not even have an editor. Even if there is one, they may not pay much attention. So wait around 30 days. If it’s your first application, don’t get your hopes up too high — heads up. That’s it from me. Stay well. Peace be with you!
