BrianR
Jun 26th, 2007

Remove DMOZ Descriptions from MSN Search

We have some clients that somehow back in the day were able to get their website listed with DMOZ.org. DMOZ has grown to be one of the most inactive and inaccurate directories that some of the engines still seem to crawl and use for their default directory listings and to show as the abstract on the SERPs. DMOZ is also known as the Open Directory Project or ODP.

MSN Search is now recognizing a new meta tag that allows you to request to opt out of showing the DMOZ description field as your search abstract listing. Why would you want to change this? DMOZ editors have been notorious in writing non-sexy decriptions for websites which will hurt your click through rate on your natural search placements.

Since most search engines aren’t even crawling or given any keyword relevancy to the meta description tags, it is in your best interest to focus the messaging on your meta description tag to be more marketing friendly to your product or brand offering.

Here is the “Say NO to DMOZ” meta tag:

<META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOODP”>
or
<META NAME=”msnbot” CONTENT=”NOODP”>

The first meta tag is for all crawlers and the second one is for the MSN Bot specifically. The change should take place once the crawler has re-crawled the page which usually from about one to four weeks.

When will someone just put a bullet in the ODP project please?

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6 Responses to “Remove DMOZ Descriptions from MSN Search”

  1. # Dizzleon 29 Jun 2007 at 2:30 pm

    Come on B! “Non-Sexy” descriptions?

    Lets get off the Paris Hilton band wagon jargon for a second and let me ask a question which will add to the usefulness of the post.

    Can you give us a list of free directories you would recommend all SEO professionals submit their sites to?

    My apologize in advance for requiring answers of more than 2 words.

  2. # BrianRon 29 Jun 2007 at 5:19 pm

    Well Dizzle,

    With the recent de-emphasis on directory link backs your best bet is to make sure that the sources that you are getting links from aren’t just 2-way link trade directories but trusted sources to Google and the other engines. I suggest getting your site listed with sites in the social space like Yelp.com, Local.com, JudysBook.com, a listing on Google and Yahoo local.

    -Brian

  3. # Dizzleon 09 Jul 2007 at 3:25 pm

    Not so much weight so to speak on directory link backs but it sounds like they still carry a little something. Social Media networking is like crack in the 80’s for SEO professionals. So any link back efforts should be thwarted in this direction but we still have the issue of the “quality” of the link. Sounds like there is no simple or silver bullet as I’d hoped.

    The wisdom and insight is greatly appreciated.

  4. # BrianRon 12 Jul 2007 at 3:35 pm

    No D, There is no silver bullet. I have been doing some interesting testing with the blog review websites that I’ll post here next week. Have you checked out some of these social media sites:

    http://www.rollaname.com
    http://www.ziki.com

    You can create a free business profile with out going links and no “nofollow” tags = could be useful for building free link backs.

    -Brian

  5. # Dizzleon 06 Aug 2007 at 6:31 pm

    Just a recommendation, it would be sweet if a user can opt in to get emailed if a message was replied to! This is some awesome info and i discover it almost a month later. This is somewhat of an extension from the Top 20 SEO post as these could fall into the “linked in” type Social Media site.

  6. # adminon 08 Aug 2007 at 6:39 pm

    Dizzle. We have an RSS feed if you would like to subscribe. It can be found here:

    http://www.internetadpulse.com/feed/

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