14 January 2010
Many people have searched for the answer, myself being one of them. After countless hours of researching, I’m sorry to say that there is no real answer which guarantees quick inclusion (unless you’re willing to use unethical methods that is)

Here are our top tips for getting your site indexed in DMOZ

Most articles will tell you to find the most suitable category that best fits your website, right down to region level to begin with. In my experience this isn’t the best advice to give. The reason being that dependant on what your website is about, there probably won’t be an active editor for your website therefore your chances of getting listed quickly will be extremely remote.

My advice is to search the listings looking for a category that has an editor listed on it. You do this by drilling into the chosen category, and at the bottom of the page if there is an active editor you will see the wording "Category editor: xxxxx". Obviously if there is an active editor you stand a better chance of your request being viewed.

The next thing I would check is the last updated section at the bottom of each category. If there is an active editor and the last edited date is recent, it may be that they won’t look again for a while or it may mean that they are editing often. Before submitting I would leave it a week and keep checking back. If they are active, I would say they would update at least once a week - in which case get submitting. If it doesn’t change then it’s up to you either look at another category or be a bit more patient.

I usually monitor three or four suitable categories in this way each time and generally one of them is updated in the given timescale. If the category doesn’t have an editor listed you can still use the last updated section in the same way as above.

So you have now found a category that either has an editor and is updated regularly or it has no fixed editor but still gets updated regularly. I’m not going to go into the submission guidelines as stated on the website but obviously follow these EXACTLY. Have a look at the other listings and try and make your ad similar in wording. By doing this you stand a better chance of your site getting listed as you are writing in the style preferred by the person editing.

After that sit back and wait. Sorry I can’t give anybody a miracle answer, but by following the above I would say you stand a much higher than average change of being listed than submitting blindly.

One last tip I will include though is don’t submit more than once (maybe twice if in different categories) but always make a note in a spreadsheet as to the date and category you have submitted to. They never let you know that you are listed so you need to remember where you submitted in order to check for your listing.

Good Luck and happy DMOZ submitting.