BOTW And DMOZ - Are There SEO Issues

Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Saturday, 20 of September , 2008 at 9:04 am

The rumors are rife that Best Of The Web (BOTW) is considering purchasing DMOZ from AOL. If you can manage to get your site listed on DMOZ then you will have very important link pointed to your site. Since DMOZ is a free directory, all the link juice on offer is sent your pages/site.

BOTW also have a directory, one that costs around $250 for reviewing the site prior to lsiting. If the listing is denied you will still lose your $250. BOTW is similar to Yahoo! as they are both paid directories but have escaped Google’s link selling penalties.

If BOTW does buy DMOZ, what implications are there for SEO? There are two ways to look at this issue. The first is whether or not the buyer can speed up the review process.

The second problem could be the reverse. If BOTW decides to charge to have a site listed on DMOZ , will Google change they way they view the links - will they be considered paid links?

[source]It is unknown whether a sale would change Google’s use of Dmoz for its own directory or would prompt Google to reconsider how much weight it gives the sites linked within Dmoz. For those who don’t know, Google is still relatively cozy with Dmoz in that it maintains a Google Directory that is a duplicate copy of the dmoz.org content. Dmoz also is still considered a great place for your site to be listed to gain premium Google link power that helps your PageRank.

Something has to crack at DMOZ soon. The rate of approval is terribly slow - in excess of 6 months for some categories. If BOTW can speed up that process without compromising the quality of the link, then that can only be a bonus to SEO.

                      Category: SEO                      

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