Why We Need Search Engines AND Directories

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

DMOZ Editor Emily Kayser has a point. If you think DMOZ isn’t useful today then you don’t understand directories in general and DMOZ in particular. There are plenty of reasons to use DMOZ and other directories. Sure, it’s frustrating if you’re a webmaster trying to get your site listed and it’s taking a while. The service is run entirely by volunteers.

Unlike other top directories like BOTW and Yahoo!, DMOZ is free. That’s why it takes longer to get listed. But if you do manage to get through the editorial review process and get your site listed, there are enough people using DMOZ to find information that it will be worth your while.

Besides traffic, DMOZ is useful in other ways too. It provides links back to your site and at least one search engine uses DMOZ to craft SERP snippets. In other words, perform a Google search for any topic under the sun and you are likely to find at least one, probably a few, results that come up with a snippet taken directly from DMOZ. If you’re a site owner, that can prove to be a real off site optimization benefit.