Does a DMOZ Listing Affect my Google Search Engine Ranking?

Adam Taylor
Published on September 6, 2011

DMOZ (Open Directory Project), founded in 1998, is one of the oldest and most famous directories of website content. Sites submitted to DMOZ are reviewed by volunteer human editors before being included in the directory. At one time, having your website listed in DMOZ was considered crucial for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SERP (Search Engine Result Page) because many search engines used to get data from the DMOZ database. The Internet has now grown so large that it typically takes months and even years for a site to appear in DMOZ after it is submitted, if at all. Some website owners are frustrated by this because they worry that their search engine ranking will be lower if they are not listed in DMOZ.

Google says DMOZ loses importance.

In a recent Webmaster Help video, Google associate Matt Cutts explains that a DMOZ listing no longer has the importance it once had for Search Engine Optimization. Except for in a few Asian countries, Google has turned off its own version of the Open Directory in which DMOZ listings were rated by PageRank. Google occasionally uses “snippets” such as editor comments from DMOZ to learn about a website when a robots.txt file prevents it from accessing pages of the site directly, but Google is currently considering whether to discontinue this practice.

How to increase PageRank without DMOZ.

Otherwise, the main benefit of a DMOZ listing is that DMOZ itself has a high PageRank (meaning that its web pages have higher importance). Your PageRank increases when other websites with high PageRanks, such as DMOZ, link to your site. However, you can get a similar benefit when any website with a high PageRank links to your site. For example, if a Chicago Tribune article links to your site, your PageRank will jump up.