What should you do if you can’t get a link from DMOZ?
The answer: don’t panic.
Fin.
Just kidding. A series of coincidences made me write this post.
I was having a discussion with a client of ours earlier in the week. He runs outdoor adventure activities down Sydney way. You know the ones, kayaking, mountain-biking, bush-walking, and everything in between. Something tells me his job is a lot more fun than mine.
Anyhow, we were talking about Search Engine Optimisation and, in particular, link-building. Out of the blue, he asked about links from DMOZ.org. He said he had tried on multiple occassions but had never succeeded in obtain a listing (and therefore, a link). He sounded a little annoyed about it. It sounded important to him.
I was taken aback.
Why? Because when you’re link-building, you will get rejected at times. You may write the nicest of emails, arrange the best exchange of complimentary content or whatever, and still get knocked back. What happens then? You move on to the next target.
So, I went on to explain that yes, not all links are created equal, but a link from DMOZ was no different to a link from a source of suitable Page Rank or ‘weight’ with Google. DMOZ is not the holy site from which great links spring from.
What is DMOZ for those of you un-familiar? DMOZ is the Open Directory Project. Essentially, a massive user-maintened directory of websites and resources on the internet. Owned and launched by Netscape in 1998. And it has not changed much since then. A bit of a dinosaur. It’s Alexa Rank has fallen to 541 as of August 2011.
I thought nothing of it of until Matt Cutts tweeted about a new Webmaster Video where he was posed the same question. And answered it a lot better than I ever could. Take it away, Matt Cutts!