How to Get Listed on DMOZ

How does one obtain listed on the dmoz or the Open Directory Project? The dmoz is an eventuated blessed directory that lists sites and links to explicit websites on the World Wide Web. This list, which is called dmoz to define its artistic field name, directory.mozilla.org, is owned by Netscape and is maintained by a set of editors who have volunteered their services. The dmoz ODP is and called the largest human-directory on the web.

A consubstantial list was launched by AT&T and was called the Anywho directory. The Anywho directory is a telephone directory that can be commence online and is linked with the Yellow Pages of the according to company. The Anywho directory is a searchable telephone build and superscription database past the dmoz is a current slanting of sites according to category. Both directories are searchable, but that is where the similarities end. Getting listed on both directories, the Anywho directory and the dmoz, requires overly mismatched guidelines and requirements now they are two fully contradistinctive directories.

Getting listed on the Anywho directory is as homely as having a telephone craft with AT&T. These telephone interject listings are intent from the company's records and are updated every three months on the online Anywho directory. While the counsel on the Anywho directory of AT&T lists phone numbers of registered individuals and businesses, practiced are options for humans who get not yearning their encircle to be shown in the Anywho Directory. Logging in on the Anywho directory station and organism asset of their privacy oblique process consign help those who yearning their phone incorporate to outlast hermetic get done related a status. There is and an choice on the Anywho directory for horde to headway to the brochure if they demand to by using the close privacy indirect commotion to conflicting the removal.

Getting listed on the OPD or the dmoz is a largely unrelated motion as compared to the slanted deed for the Anywho directory. Website owners conclusively have to submit their website details to the editors of the dmoz for try and inclusion to the list. While the Anywho directory gets the network from their burden database, the dmoz OPD gets its report for these residence listings from the whistle stop owners and contrastive sources. Publication and inclusion in the register is matter to the volunteer editors' perusal and approval. Often, suggesting a corner for inclusion in the inventory and acceptance known may produce a extended look-in depending on the conglomerate of your residence and the backlog that the set may have appurtenant to the unqualified introduce of suggestions.

The simple stirring for site submission for experiment to the list involves four steps. Initially, you have to have information whether a point should certainly be listed and is not today listed on the ODP. Next is great which combination prime describes or fits the website you are suggesting for inclusion. After these prime three steps, you will thus infatuation to fill out the author on the dmoz abode on the party you buy best describes the compass you are suggesting. Approval for inclusion in the record may depend on the editors' right with the power of final, also depend on the receiving of volunteer editors the spot currently has deal for them.

Link Exchange Q and A

Here are some of the most common questions webmasters have when the topic refers to incoming links and link exchanges: Q: How many links do I need to rank high in the search engines? A: This is a tricky question that cannot get a definite answer. If your website is dedicated to some deep ocean bacteria with a very long and strange name, chances are that you can rank first on Google with only a couple of links. On the other hand, if your website is dedicated to losing weight, chances are you will need thousands upon thousands of high quality links to even get a chance to rank high on such a competitive topic. Q: Which is better – manual or automated link exchange? A: Before automated link exchange directories started offering complete control over link exchange parameters and partners, manual exchanges were better. Today, however, there are websites offering unprecedented control and flexibility over how to conduct your link exchange campaign. Automated link exchanges are the top choice. A great resource to start linking to other websites is: o http://www.MyLinkMachine.com Q: How can I get even more links to my website? A: Design a visually appealing website and fill it with interesting and unique content – this will trigger a good response from fellow webmasters and they will be more open to link exchanges. Q: What’s all the hype about when it comes to getting high PageRank website links? A: PageRank (or PR) is the algorithm used by Google to rank websites. If your website receives a link from a high PR page, your website will also become more popular. Since Google is the leading search engine at the moment and all the other Search Engines are using relatively similar algorithms, PR is a good indication on how well a website is doing on all the major search engines. Q: What’s the difference between one-way links and reciprocal links? A: One way links are considered to be more valuable than reciprocal links, but they are also much harder to get. Search engines use both one way and reciprocal links to determine where your website will appear in a search, so it’s important to run link campaigns that aim for receiving both kinds of links. Q: I hear that link anchor text is important. Why? A: The anchor text is basically the series of words that will become hyperlinked when you insert an HTML link code into a webpage. Anchor text is important because it allows you to insert keywords and key phrases in the link anchor, thus increasing the popularity of the web page the link is pointing to. Q: Apart from link exchanges, what other things should I do to get more traffic? A: Link exchanges are just part of the online promotion strategy. You will also need unique content and you will have to keep your website updated. The site navigation should also be intuitive and the graphics should be visually pleasant but not too demanding and slow-loading. Press releases, article submissions, contributions to other websites – these are all things that will gradually help you increase traffic numbers. A great resource for article submissions is: o http://www.MyContentBuilder.com Article submission can be tedious, which is why you may want to consider an automatic article submitter. It will submit one article to over 30 directories in half an hour. To watch a video on how to accomplish this, go to: o http://1trac.com/dt/t/Article_Submitter_Video.php

Google Page Rank Updates

Many webmasters are obsessed with the Google Page Rank. Articles and books have been written about Google PR (Page Rank). Forum postings cover the topic over and over again and about every 3 months tensions are rising when a possible Page Rank update is eventually happening. Page Rank updates are an interesting experience watching a small group of webmasters go a little crazy. It all starts with somebody noticing the PR update in progress. This event will find its way into forums and newsgroups fast. Within minutes and hours the Internet community becomes aware of a Page Rank update. As Google.com uses several different data centers for its search engine services and also updates them in different intervals webmasters all over the world will see different results when looking for Page Rank results. A Page Rank update will also not complete within an hour or a day. For several days results will fluctuate. With that in mind it is a funny event watching the hype surrounding a PR update. Webmasters get nervous if the PR of their website suddenly changes. A change can mean that the PR completely disappears or that the webmaster sees different (conflicting) results. As a high Page Rank can mean higher amounts of traffic and eventually higher income from a website this event often feels like a rollercoaster ride for the people who depend on having a successful website. Imagine the website you worked for so hard suddenly going up and down in Page Rank during a PR update. Now the same people start posting questions and comments in forums and newsgroups. The more experienced webmasters know the game and react professionally. They know that the publicly visible Page Rank is just a moment in time to display a snapshot of what is in Google's database. They know that PR actually updates daily or weekly internally, but that these more frequent updates do not show up as publicly visible PR updates. But no matter how often it is pointed out that the publicly visible PR is not important - the hype around this topic by a large group of webmasters does not quiet down. "How many links does it take to get a PR 5?" - "Why does my PR suddenly went down? I added x number of back links to my site." - "I hate Google for doing this." - These and many other comments or questions will show up. But in the end it all comes down to: Public PR is just a snapshot in time of what is in Google.com's database. PR changes much more often than what is showing up in the Google Toolbar. And so it comes as no surprise that about every 3 months the tensions go high up in newsgroups and online forums when it comes to discussing Google Page Rank. If you are on the hunt for a high Page Rank for you site - don't waste time looking for the publicly visible PR. Use the time the others need to discuss PR to actually work on the Page Rank for your site. Establish high quality back links to your site. Grow these numbers slowly. A large increase in a short amount of time is not natural. Back links grow slowly and that is what Google is looking for. Be smart - be in it for the long run and not some short-term PR gain that won't last.

SEO - General Guidelines

SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimizing and refers to a set of good practices that teach you how to improve your website so that it would be easily tracked, indexed and ranked by search engines. Getting your site indexed by Google and other major search engines will help you attract visitors and increase traffic. SEO is an exciting and ongoing process that involves not only an initial optimized website, but also permanent maintenance and evaluating search results on a regular basis. With the ever-changing Internet technology, SEO experts sometimes have contrasting opinions on what makes a good website. However, there are some general guidelines most of them agree on. Design & Content • You should build your web pages for human beings and not for search engines. A clean design and a strong content will ultimately drive search engine spiders to your site. • Make a clear hierarchy and provide text links to each page. • Don't put to many links on a single page (maximum 100). • You should include a site map to help users navigate easily through your website. • Make sure you have clear TITLE tags, no HTML errors and all the links work. • You should use text instead of images to display important elements, as search engine crawlers may not recognize a text inside an image. • While keeping your content useful and clear, do use keywords that you know users would type to get to your page. Technical Issues • Most search engine crawlers see your website similar to the way a text browser sees it. Consequently, you should use a text browser, such as Lynx, to check your website. If you can't see the whole page because of JavaScript, session IDs, DHTML or Flash features, search engine spiders will probably have trouble with crawling your website. • Check with your web host to see if the server supports the If-Modified-Since HTTP header. This header tells Google whether the website content has changed since its last visit. • While it is advised session IDs to track visitors' path through the website, you shouldn't do this for search bots. • The robots.txt file on your web server tells spiders which directories can be crawled and which cannot. Make sure it's updated and it doesn't somehow block search engine crawlers. Website Promotion • After you've built your website and put it online, try to get high PageRank sites link to it. • Submit your website to major search engines (Google, Yahoo/Altavista, MSN) to get it indexed, along with a site map that will tell them the site structure. • Submit your website to relevant directories, such as Yahoo and Open Directory Project. • Get involved in community based websites, blogs and forums and build a strong reputation. Whether you choose to implement these techniques yourself or go to a SEO expert, no one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google and other search engines. Search engines change their crawling algorithms often and competitor websites appear all the time. However, following these basic SEO guidelines will improve your chances of increasing your website traffic and is a better practice than looking for a way to cheat on search engines in order to get your pages indexed. Copyright © 2006 Andreas Obermueller

Good And Bad SEO Practices

Search Engine Optimizing is a set of practices developed to help you get a high traffic and PageRank, while simultaneously building a useful and functional website that will respond to the needs of your potential users. While some website owners are getting their site indexed by following and enhancing these guidelines, others are looking for a way to sneak in and crawl up search engines by developing various strategies to cheat spiders.

Most search engines have their specific rules on which SEO practices are legitimate and which are not. While they disagree on some borderline issues, they do have a set of basic principles in common.


Good SEO Practices

• creating logically-structured pages
• logical paragraph use
• including a site map
• providing clear links to each page
• using descriptive and not too long meta-tags
• validating you code
• providing information-rich content that visitors would find useful
• creating your website content based on the users' needs as if search engines didn't exist
• using spell-check
• avoiding duplicate content


Bad SEO Practices

• using invisible text and links to create false keyword density
• using non-compliant HTML to manipulate relevancy (e.g.: a title that doesn't have anything to do with the page content)
• using CSS to manipulate relevancy (e.g.: using hidden elements by executing code to reveal them)
• sending automated requests to search engines
• using doorway pages created just for search engines
• using machine generated code to produce keyword-rich content
• cloaking - presenting a different content to users than to search engine spiders
• linking to spammers and other bad websites
• participating in linking schemes to increase PageRank
• creating pages that install viruses and other badware
• using unauthorized software to submit pages, check ranking etc.
• re-submitting the website without any reason


Borderline Issues

• inserting comments in the HTML code
• using invisible form elements to hold keyword values
• using HTML elements for keyword stacking (e.g.: image alts)
• using machine generated code for usability reasons (e.g.: in order to check for browser versions)

These borderline issues are controverted and ambiguous techniques. Most of the time it is very difficult to say whether these techniques were used to trick the spiders or only for usability purposes. The search engine is the one who has to make the ultimate decision.

Major search engines are constantly fighting against illicit techniques to get your website indexed and increase your PageRank and developing new and improved automated solutions to detect them. They even encourage users to report any website that is trying to abuse SEO guidelines. Thus using illegitimate ways to crawl up search engines may result in your website being banned. Once it's been removed from the search engine index, it will no longer appear in search results.

Google, as well as other search engines, are trying to develop a pro-active attitude among website owners and convince them it's more efficient to make use of legitimate SEO practices. One thing you should always ask yourself when building new features and writing content is whether you would be doing it even if search engines weren't there at all. This is the best way to drive traffic to your website and get better ranking.

Copyright © 2006 Andreas Obermueller

Optimizing with Firefox

One piece of software any optimizer should love is Firefox. Now some may say "Why Firefox, it's only a browser?" Yes, it's a browser, but one that supports a big variety of plugins, some of them very useful for search engine optimization. So let's see what those plugins are:

1. SEOpen ( https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/570/ ): this is one of the best and most used Firefox seo plugins, and has many tools that make it a favorite of mine. So let's see what it can do:

* in Google it can check for: backlinks, indexed pages, related pages, cache and PageRank.
* in Yahoo and MSN: backlinks and indexed pages.
* for Alexa: overview, traffic details, backlinks and related sites.
* keyword density of the most used words on the page.
* DMOZ checker: see if the site is included in the directory.
* check for robots.txt.
* validator to check your page for errors (it uses the validator from www.w3.org).

There are other things, but these are the most important.

2. SEO Links ( http://www.webmasterbrain.com/seo-tools/firefox-extensions/seo-links/ ) is another extension I use everyday. When the extension si active and you hover over a link a tooltip will appear that will show you Yahoo, MSN, and Google link popularity and ranking data for the URL and anchor text pair. When you're simply browsing this can be annoying, but you can simply deactivate it with a right-click!

This could be very easily used to check your search engine rankings for a certain page, and here is how: write up a list with all the keywords and keyphrases that you want to rank for, and then link those words or phrases to the web pages associated with them!

Now every time you want to check your ranks activate the SEO Links extension and hover over the links -- you will see where your pages are in Google, Yahoo and MSN.

3. Don't waste anymore of your precious screen real estate just to find out what your PageRank and AlexaRank is! SearchStatus ( https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/321/ ) can sit anywhere you want (I keep it in the status bar) and you'll receive the precious info at a glance. But this little tool can do a lot more than that:

* it shows what metatags a site has
* checks for backlinks and indexed pages in Google, Yahoo and MSN
* it shows the robots.txt file
* keyword density report function
* and best of all: the highlight "nofollow" links will show you what links will be followed by search engine spiders -- very useful when you want to submit your site to a directory and don't know if it will matter from a seo perspective.

So in case you're not using Firefox, go get it! It could be your best friend when it comes to search engine optimization!

Florin Costache writes on a daily seo blog for Romanian webmasters, called Optimizare pentru motoarele de cautare (a.k.a. search engine optimization for those who don't speak Romanian).

Web Site Ranking-How to be Number 1

The success of a website is largely determined by its ranking in the search engines. But how are these rankings achieved? How are they determined by the search engine? What should be done when ranking falls? Understanding the workings of the search engines is important for any website owner to remain competitive. Finding a search engine optimization company can be a valuable resource to understand and improve search engine ranking.

Search engines have a set of algorithms in place to index or inspect all types of websites. The search engines send bots to sites to index them according to the algorithms and then all the information is stored in a data center. The algorithms consist of a number of specifications including things like keyword density, meta tags, number of pages, content, and much, much more. The bots visit the site frequently to monitor the site for updates and changes.

There are a number of techniques that make up search engine optimization, the method used be website developers to help improve ranking. Depending on the saturation of a particular keyword in a market, a site can rank high or way down the list. Choosing the right keywords to target can make or break your ranking. Keyword placement within the site is also a great contributor to ranking.

Other factors that can affect ranking are updating the site and placing relevant content on the site. The more quality content a site has the better. Relevant content helps the search engines to pick up keywords and keyword phrases. Search engines are also partial to frequently updated content which could range from articles, links, or any other related content.

When ranking falls, it can be contributed to a number of factors. It does not mean that the site is gone forever. Search engines used different data centers to provide results on any given day. Check back in a few hours or a day or so, and the results can be different. Search engines also update their algorithms from time to time. Sometimes these updates can be minor, and in other cases they are major. There may be a new competitor in your market. Visit their site and see why they have the advantage.

Achieving top search engine rankings is competitive. Position in the search engine results can make or break a website. A search engine optimization company is an excellent way to make your site search engine compatible. With exclusive search marketing services you can get your site to number one.

Google gives more importance to scientific articles

The Google Page Rank algorithm, also known as PR, seems to give more importance to the impact of a scientific article rather than to it’s quoting number.

For the ones that don’t know, traditionally, to measure an article’s importance there the method is to have “citing number”, meaning all the times that that article has been quoted by somebody else. The idea is that if many different people quote an article, this means that this article is worth while and important. Well, apparently Google isn’t looking only to this, but also to the content of the article.

Researchers have found out that the Google algorithm, when measuring a web site’s importance , offers a systematic method to find important articles . The google index proved better that the traditional method to find the really good scientific articles, that were’t that much quoted by others but which were proven to be of a very high value.

Sidney Redner and Pu Chen from the University of Boston and Huafeng Xie and Sergei Maslov from the National Laboratory of Brookhaven found out that certain articles that proved to be very influential . Like the article of Wigner and Seitz, from 1933 "On the Constitution of Metallic Sodium" , which is now University book regular content. Another example is the article of Gauber from 1963 about "Photon Correlations", which receive the Nobel Prize last year. These articles weren’t known using the regular quoting algorithm, but shower up very high in google and were given a very high PR.

The way google does it is by allowing his spiders to dig deep into the quoting web and see how many times the article that quoted the first article was quoted, and so on, meaning that if the article that quoted your article is of great value, also your article increases in value.

Google PR Explained

PR is a measure of how ‘important’ a page is (according to Google). For the purpose of this article, I will only discuss PR in the SEO context – what it means and how to use it.

First things first: PR is not the cause or the result of high rankings.

PR depends mainly on 2 things: Incoming links and traffic. Some SEOs make the mistake of assuming high rankings come as a result of high PR, when in fact high PR is one natural outcome of high rankings.

Better SEO = higher rankings = more traffic = Higher PR

However, the concept behind Google’s PR is crucial when working with External Links (i.e.: incoming) and Internal Links (i.e.: the website’s structure). Every link from A to B is considered as a ‘vote of confidence/credibility’ from A to B. We can use PR as a physical measurement of how this credibility travels from one URL to the next.

The role of SEO in this case is…

1. Off-site: to maximise incoming PR by increasing the number of incoming links and the quality of incoming links.
2. On-site: to harness incoming PR so that none of it is wasted (on broken links) and that most of it is channelled to the most important pages of the website (i.e.: the homepage, main category pages)

To sum up, PR isn’t a factor in SEO, neither is it a direct result of SEO. But the makings of a high-PR website are very similar to those of a high-ranking website. And because of that, the concept of PR can be used to...

• properly apply linking techniques
• measure the effectiveness of these techniques