Enter up to 100 URLs (Each URL must be on separate line)
The single most important directory to get a website listed on is the Open Directory Project popularly known as DMOZ. But first you must find out if your website exists on DMOZ and for this you need to use a DMOZ listing checker.
DMOZ listings are used by Google and other search engines in ranking a website. If you want your site to appear in the top ranks of Google and other search engines you must get your site listed in DMOZ. There are other internet groups that rank and list websites, but they are not as important as DMOZ. It is so important that inclusion in its listing almost guarantees a top ranking in Google and other search engines.
DMOZ was conceived and setup in 1998 in the United States and was named Gnuhoo. It was maintained by a community of voluntary editors. It was owned by AOL and its name went through changes from Gnuhoo to Newhoo to Open Directory Project to its current name DMOZ. DMOZ was closed in March 2017.
In the beginning search engines were useless and the results returned were frustrating for users searching for particular information. These were the days when all the ‘black hat’ tactics were born like; keyword stuffing, Meta tags running amok, white letters on white backgrounds. At that time if you wanted to find a website your best bet was to dial into AOL or Prodigy with a modem. Most internet users had not heard of search engines then. Google was created around the same time in the late 1990s and started by picking up websites listed in DMOZ and Yahoo.
DMOZ was an entirely voluntary group of human editors and an editor examined each website for its suitability. If the editor deemed that the website contained quality and relevant content it was placed in DMOZ listing.
DMOZ consists of categories and sub categories and sub-sub categories and submitting your website for examination and getting listed was not an easy task. First, you had to make sure that you were submitting your website to the right category. The website had to be complete and you could not submit a website with ‘pages under construction’ to it. The time taken to submit and get a feedback from DMOZ on your website could vary between a week and an agonizing six months. While you were waiting to get a feedback from DMOZ you continued to update and maintain your website. Any editor examining and evaluating the item submitted would examine the current status of the website also.
To complete the submission process to DMOZ you were required to write a short description about your website. It had to be brief, well written and containing all the major features of your website. DMOZ hated flowery descriptions like ‘the best’, ‘the greatest’, etc. they just wanted to know what was the goal your website was aimed to achieve.
To gain a top ranking in Google and other search engines it was imperative to get your website listed in DMOZ. That was the importance DMOZ had over search engines ranking. Human examination can never be replaced by machines. That’s why so much importance is given to DMOZ by SEOs, webmasters and website owners as well as search engines. Listing on DMOZ simply meant that the site is good, contains relevant and top quality content on the subject the website is categorized in.
Getting a DMOZ listing was not an easy task and SEOs who yearned to get it would go all out to ensure that the website met the standards that DMOZ expected.
DMOZ came under criticism and various allegations were made against it. Of course the main allegation was that editors would favor certain sites over others.
DMOZ has as of 17th March 2017 becoming a single page landing site which says ‘Sorry we’re Closed’.
Because of the popularity of DMOZ there are SEOs, webmasters and web owners who are interested in seeing whether their websites are listed on DMOZ. If you want to check this, go to smallseotoolz.net from the navigation bar of your search browser.
Once you are on the site scroll down the list of SEO tools icons and click ‘Browse More Tools’. Here you will find the DMOZ Listing Checker tool. Click on it and you will have the option of entering up to 100 URLs to check their DMOZ listing. Enter the URL or URLs that you want to check and click ‘Submit’.
It will return with the results which will display the domain names and their status. The status will show ‘Listed’ or ‘Not Listed’.
After the announcement of the closure of DMOZ a question being asked on the internet in various forums is that ‘are there any alternatives to DMOZ’? As yet there’s no single site that can be mentioned as being an alternative to DMOZ. Yes, there are several other sites that are trying to fill the gap created by the closure of DMOZ. But as yet there’s no clear winner that has replaced DMOZ.
Some SEOs are using mozrank checker to check their website’s ranking. Whereas some are questioning what is mozrank and others are searching as to how to increase domain authority. DMOZ was the leading directory and getting listed on it was a huge milestone to achieve in the internet world.
Whether a new body is formed that will have the respect and authority which DMOZ had is yet to be seen. Right now website owners will just have to hope that Google and other search engines rank the websites based on the domain authority, relevance and popularity.
As DMOZ has become history now there would be no point in checking DMOZ listing or trying to submit websites to DMOZ for listing. DMOZ ruled the internet listing world for almost twenty years and will be remembered by all who knew about it. Getting a website listed on DMOZ was like winning an Olympic medal in the internet world.
