The Open Directory Project (ODP), also known as Dmoz (from directory.mozilla.org, its original domain name), is a multilingual open content directory of World Wide Web links. It is owned by Netscape but it is constructed and maintained by a community of volunteer editors.

ODP uses a hierarchical ontology scheme for organizing site listings. Listings on a similar topic are grouped into categories which can then include smaller categories. It's the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web.

Instead of fighting the explosive growth of the Internet, the Open Directory provides the means for the Internet to organize itself. As the Internet grows, so do the number of net-citizens. These citizens can each organize a small portion of the web and present it back to the rest of the population, culling out the bad and useless and keeping only the best content.

The Open Directory follows in the footsteps of some of the most important editor/contributor projects of the 20th century. Just as the Oxford English Dictionary became the definitive word on words through the efforts of volunteers, the Open Directory follows in its footsteps to become the definitive catalog of the Web.

The Open Directory was founded in the spirit of the Open Source movement, and is the only major directory that is 100% free. There is not, nor will there ever be, a cost to submit a site to the directory, and/or to use the directory's data. The Open Directory data is made available for free to anyone who agrees to comply with our free use license.

DMOZ is still extremely relevant directory to SEO best practices. The trick is like with  anything that is profitable is getting into a category that is not saturated. When you get in on the ground floor of a growing category you are in business. Getting your website listed in a  DMOZ category with hundreds of others will probably not help much. Get into a fresh new category like mobile phone software or something like that. It works the same as content. Google likes "fresh" and "original".

DMOZ has automatic checker to check when website is unavailable, so if it detects that website is gone, it will remove it. Also it's not much fun being a reviewer on DMOZ, it's pretty boring really. Probably only 1 in 5 websites can get approved. It really is up to the reviewer. If you want to get approved on DMOZ just remember that reviewer is probably not a dummy and may be just as savvy in SEO as you are and knows all the tricks and perhaps have seen more tricks that you know. Sometimes you may get lucky and get approved simply because reviewer may be overwhelmed with submissions and just literally spends 5 seconds to look at your site. 

How to Title your Site and Submit to the Correct Category:

Sites in this area should be titled using the name of the freelancer, followed by the title the site: "Last Name, First Name - Title"
If the title of the site is the person''s name use just "Last Name, First Name".

Place sites in categories according to the first letter in the title you have given the site (last name, or site title depending on the above).

How to Write your Description:

Only submit sites that are in English. Non-English sites should be submitted to the appropriate country under World.
Do not type in capitals, nor capitalize all nouns.
Do not include a list of keywords.
Do not include your products.
Do not write a sales pitch.

The description should describe, or list, the services you offer.

    Do NOT include superlatives ("We''re the best, "The greatest website...", "We''re #1..., etc.).
    The description should be in English, in coherent sentence form, and free from mistakes.
    Do not use unnecessary capitalization, or include HTML tags.
    Submit to only ONE category.
    Submit to the one best category possible.

You should take a few moments to understand these policies and the steps to submit a site before you begin.  Failure to understand and follow these instructions generally will result in the rejection of a submission.

An editor will review your submission for inclusion in the directory. Once your site has been accepted into the Open Directory, it may take anywhere from 2 weeks to several months for your site to be listed on partner sites which use the Open Directory data, such as AOL Search, AltaVista, HotBot, Google, Lycos, Netscape Search, etc.

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