Since I edit several popular categories I get hundreds of submissions per month. That’s a lot to go through. Since so many of the submissions are from spammers, affiliate sites, lead-gen sites, content cloakers, and morons, it takes quite a while to sift through the submissions to find the sites that are of real value. Here’s a list of the steps I take to review EACH submission to my categories:

• Check to make sure the URL doesn’t redirect by reading the server response codes.
• Check for content cloaking.
• Check all the links on the site to ensure that they function and send the user to the expected location.
• Check the content of the site to make sure it is themed to match the category where they submitted. If not, I find the appropriate category and send the listing there.
• Check for a valid cert if the site collects personal information.
• I try to be sure the site isn’t just an adsense advertiser, a lead generation site, or an affiliate site. The site has to actually offer the services they say they offer.
• Most times I have to edit the title and description of the submitted site because the submitters very rarely adhere to the submission guidelines for a category.

I try really hard to dedicate an hour a day to editing DMOZ submissions.  Checking each site for the items above takes anywhere from 1-5 minutes so you can understand why it takes a while to get your site listed in DMOZ.  If you’re having problems getting listed, check out my Webmaster’s Guide to DMOZ Inclusion.

IP delivery still works
I was doing some link evaluation the other day and came across a site with some interesting links. To protect my finding I can’t mention much here, but here’s what I found: I found that in a link: search some strange sites were showing up that I thought surely wouldn’t link to the site. I looked at the live site and didn’t see the links to the other site. I checked the source code… nothing. I came with a Google useragent… nothing. I checked Google’s cache and there it was. They show up in Google’s cache but nowhere else. Also, they are hiding some links in a negative div tag. After all the strong statements and chest pounding from Google, not only does this tactic still work, it works well. I could “out” these sites, but the linkers would be the punished ones, not the linkee. I’ll figure out something else to do with this info, I’m sure.

The subject came to the forefront of my mind recently when I recommended my friend Mark Jackson to a company who is seeking to partner with an SEO firm for services. Unfortunately, my docket is full right now and my two staff members are still too green to be self-sufficient so I can’t take on the business. Anyway, Mark commented on how amazed he was that the web design company had their whole site in flash and their sitemap in flash inside an iFrame! Ha! Another great example of a problem that seems to saturate design firms. Good for us SEOs, bad for their customers. There are so many good resources about “SEO Best Practices” but none of them seem to be reading them. The only thing inside this design firm’s noscript tag is a link to download flash. Awesome. Sites like those make me look SO smart when it’s meeting time!

I’m also surprised by how many SEO firms have important pieces of their site in java, flash, or images. For example, there are many sites that have their main nav in one of those formats. Amazing. And these are people seeking links from my SEO Consultants categories?! Wow…

Is implementation of SEO practices a requirement for listing in DMOZ? No. Should I exclude SEO companies for their lack of implementation of SEO practices on their own site? No and I usually don’t unless it’s a pretty horrible mistake. Should I exclude them after visiting their client sites and noticing major omissions? Probably not because sometimes sites are limited by CMS and/or cranky clients. Any one factor will make me hesitate and examine their practices a little closer. If I find a pattern of stupidity then they’ll be denied a listing. I was selected to edit the SEO categories that I have based on my expertise and I’ll use it to filter out inept companies as best as I can.

After many years of wanting to become an editor for The Open Directory Project (DMOZ) my application has been accepted! I’m so excited! My favorite part is that I am editing a category that I have a lot of expertise in; the Internet Marketing Consulting category! I’m pretty excited that I was selected for this category and it’s quite an honor. Now to try to explain this honor to my non-nerd friends and family haha.