Constantly. All the time. Every single day. Nonstop.
That’s how often it feels like I’m asked about DMOZ (ODP) and Yahoo! Directory for SEO.
DMOZ & Yahoo Directory DO NOT Matter for SEO
See, “back in the day” DMOZ and Yahoo’s Directory were seen as two major influences on the SEO of your site. Most SEO tool sites will allow you to check whether your site is included in one or both of these directories.
The problem is, somewhere along the way DMOZ stopped updating. The official DMOZ blog hasn’t been updated in well over a year. Most categories haven’t been updated in almost 2 years.
Google is smart. Google knows that we know that DMOZ and Yahoo Directory were both great for our SEO. Obviously DMOZ was a good signal at one point. Google is smart enough to realize DMOZ no longer should have any effect on the SEO of a site. Ask yourself this: if Google changes 50+ things in search every month, wouldn’t they change the strength of the DMOZ boost sometime in the last 2-3 years?
Let’s look at an example:
DMOZ has a Pinterest category for Pinterest related sites but for a long time did not have Pinterest.com listed in the directory. The site is now listed as of 3 months ago but Pinterest has been gaining widespread acceptance long before then. The lag in DMOZ acceptance has created a situation where Google cannot rely on DMOZ to determine a site’s relevancy.
Do Any Directories Matter?
In volume, bad directory listings will hurt you. Good ones can help your site’s SEO. The best directory that likely still helps your SEO was BOTW. However, since Google’s Penguin algorithm updates, paid directories are most definitely on the downtrend.
We do not recommend getting paid directory listings or free directory listings on sites that have no relevance in Google. A Google search for “website directory” doesn’t turn up DMOZ until page 2. Think hard. How influential is DMOZ if it’s on page 2 for it’s own main SEO terms?
So feel free to add your site to directories – especially page 1 directories. When we say DMOZ doesn’t matter, what we mean is “it’s just a directory now.” Don’t think DMOZ and Y!D are some magic SEO bullet that will save your site’s SERP rankings.
Does DMOZ matter? Does Yahoo Directory matter? No, they don’t. DMOZ doesn’t matter for SEO. Yahoo Directory doesn’t matter for SEO. We can stop talking about them now.
