You Want to Be on Google? Start with DMOZ.org

Many folks don't (have time to) know that Google derives many of its results from a non-profit organization's database called DMOZ. It's not neccessary to be in DMOZ to be seen in Google, but more often than not, when you see websites ranking for competitive keywords, you will find their website on DMOZ.

The easiest way to check is to just go to DMOZ.org and search for your website. If it's there - great. If not, here's how to be listed:

1) Browse for the category that best suits your business. A shorter way to do this is to search for the website URL of your closest competitors. That's probably your category as well.

2) Look at the upper corner for "Suggest a Link" tab. Clickey here..

3) This is the part where it can get kind of tricky. The one page application seems simple enough, but it's being edited by a (very jaded, overworked, non-paid) human being, so do:

- not use all caps

- use sensational or salesly language

- use ! <>> or other suchness

- do not click the submit button or register more than once.

* You get one shot at this before it's seen as spam by the aforementioned jaded-person. So keep it as info-neutral as possible.

** If you know what your valuable keywords are that you are engaging in a pay-per-click campaign for, it's ok to add some keywords in your description, just do it early in the company description or website title (which hopefully matches your website homepage title tag) and again, keep it non-salesly, non-spammy.