Does it really take that long at OPD?

[johncesta]

>Sorry, there's been no change in status: it's still awaiting review. If you don't see it listed sometime in the next six months, please feel free to return for a status update on or after 2 January.

This is a response I see at the OPD forum from a post. The guy submitted his site in Feb 2004. It's now July and the answer is to wait 6 months or return in January?

Don't we depend on our sites being listed in OPD in order to be listed in other SE?

John Cesta

[robwatts]

No John we do not depend on the ODP to be listed in other SE's.

ODP isn't the be all and end of all SEM, in fact its far from it, and there are a myriad of other directories where people can get their sites listed.

Sure, there are some who believe that getting in the odp, or being listed there, may well count in terms of the google algo but this is very much an opinion and by no means fact.

At the end of the piece, the odp is run by volunteers.

My view is submit and move on.

They say it may take up to 2 years to get listed.

Not great maybe, but its how it is, and no amount of criticism is going to change it. :)

Just my 2 c's

[johncesta]

Not great maybe, but its how it is, and no amount of criticism is going to change it. :)

Just my 2 c's

Oh. Thanks. So...who's criticising? Just asking.

John

[robwatts]

Sorry John, maybe I read more into your post. :)

Just seemed to me that you were suggesting that the ODP takes forever to list domains, and by virtue of this statement were in some way criticisng this position.

I do agree, that compared to other organisations they do take a long time to validate domains in some sectors of their Dir. But in their defence, they get bombarded with 1000's of new submissions daily, and their editors are unpaid.

[Terry Plank]

Like robwatts, I don't depend on them to help considerably with SE's. I don't depend on anything I don't pay for! It's part of the mix and might help more at Google than anywhere else. There is discussion about whether Google Directory listing based on ODP contribution is a major help to Google ranking. Quality sites valueing and therefore linking to a site is certainly much more of a Google ranking influence.

[David Wallace]

I have seen sites I submit to ODP get listed in as short as a month and others have been waiting for over three years. It depends on the editor - some are active and others are just not there.

Like the others said, I submit and move on. A listing in ODP is icing on the cake. Icing is nice but if the cake is good in and of itself, who needs icing?

[Patrick Berry]

Don't we depend on our sites being listed in OPD in order to be listed in other SE?

I believe the answer is no.

The below paragraph is not guarenteed but is what I believe

In fact in my humble opinion ODP was useful with Google until about a year ago. I believe that was the last time that Google updated there data bases from the ODP listings. How can I tell. Well I used to massage google descriptions by placing crafted descritpions in ODP. And wait a while until Google misteriously gained my crafted descritption as there own generated one !

If anybody has other first hand experience I would gladly hear it.

[pleeker]

there are some who believe that getting in the odp, or being listed there, may well count in terms of the google algo but this is very much an opinion and by no means fact.

An ODP listing is a factor in the Google algo only to the degree that it's a "vote" from a site that Google spiders regularly. In and of itself, it's no better than any other inbound link to your site.

We all have different experiences with ODP and Google. Here's one of mine: Launched a new site. Submitted to ODP. Had no inbound links until the ODP submission was approved about 3-4 weeks after submission. Google crawled the entire site (a small one, admittedly) within 2 days after the link was added in ODP.

[eitemiller]

According to the latest SE chart by Bruce Clay (http://www.bruceclay.com), you would THINK you need ODP to get into some of the other SE's. I can for a fact confirm this is wrong. My site eatstayplay (http://www.eatstayplay.com) is on askjeeves, teoma, aol, google, netscape, iwon, lycos, looksmart, yahoo, msn, overture, alltheweb, altavista, and a bunch of littler known SE's. I am still not on ODP - in fact, it is the only one I am lacking. According to Bruce's chart, I thought I would have to get into odp so that I could get into Teoma, which supllies it's information to AskJeeves (which saves me money - hehe). But as of last week, I got into Teoma, and AskJeeves at the same time. Thought for sure I would be in odp, but I ain't.

Just throwing my two cents in - but I am sure we all have very different experiences with the SE's.

[hiero]

Over the past 4 years I have submitted my site to ODP about 5 times. I have followed their posting rules and have read their forums for submission hints. To date no submission has ever been approved.

I've written ODP off as a joke.