Interesting discussion going on right now in Webmaster World about whether or not the DMOZ Open Directory should add NoFollow attributes to outgoing links in the same manner as Wikipedia, and whtner soing so would make DMOZ more of a trusted resource.
Tamar Weinberg of Search Engine Roundtable pointed this out yesterday and says “But even so, why would DMOZ, which purports to be a quality directory, ever want to go the “we don’t trust you” route of nofollow?”
I looked at DMOZ last week and suggested different changes that the directory should make to update itself and offer more value, but adding NoFollow tags, in my opinion, would cripple its value, at least Google value, as doing so would show signs of the directory not trusting the sites it lists, nor its editors.
What do you think? Shoud the DMOZ add NoFollow attributes?
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10 responses so far ↓
David on Oct 4, 2007 at 4:34 pm
I don’t see why they would, the listings are of good quality and have been humanly reviewed. I suppose you might find an few ‘bait and switch’ sites though.
Dave on Oct 4, 2007 at 5:54 pm
No, I don’t think it would make any sense for them to do that.
ToddW on Oct 4, 2007 at 5:59 pm
It would make no sense. And for people listed it wouldn’t help them make dollars :P
greg on Oct 4, 2007 at 6:09 pm
The human review and nofollow tag seem contradictory - at least how I interpret the use of the nofollow tag.
Why would an editor manually ensure the accuracy of a site for relevant categorization only to have a tag applied that says “I’m not vouching for the accuracy or quality of this site”.
Wouldn’t logic dictate they be used mutually exclusive?
Thomas on Oct 4, 2007 at 10:41 pm
If Dmoz follows nofollow then I doubt if anyone would ever bother submitting their site to dmoz. I mean, dmoz is simply too bad when it comes to giving traffic. The only possible advantage of having a link on dmoz is the trust factor (which google the great weighs heavily). But with nofollow the trust factor advantage will be gone.
So I really doubt if dmoz would be stupid enough to even consider that idea.
Here are a few suggestions:
- Make the process faster dude. In this era everything happens lightening fast. Do you still expect people to submit sites and wait for months together to get it approved or declined?
- If an editor is declining a website he should give valid reasons to the website owner. This will ensure that good sites are not declined by poor editors. For instance there could be really silly reasons like ‘wrong category’ for a site to get rejected. In this case, can’t the editor mention a line to the webmaster stating which category he should be submitting the site to?
- Have a public voting system for the links so good links are moved to the top and bad links are thrown below
Pozycjonowanie on Oct 5, 2007 at 5:16 am
Nofollow on DMOZ is the most stupid idea I read in this month!
Michael Temple on Oct 5, 2007 at 10:20 am
There is a flip side to this discussion that Thomas touched on above, which is the links have high trust factors and do have value getting those links but it can be a HUGE challenge getting them in there.
Because they depend on volunteer editors you have both bad editors who decline good sites or editors that simply don’t log in and review any sites. The end result is that some people get lucky with a link and hence the corresponding rankings and traffic it brings and some peole with good sites can literally wait forever.
Thomas touched on it very well by saying if they had a process that all sites went through in a certain time frame and valid reasons were given why a site was turned down then certainly any type of no follow tags would be stupid. But if someone gets lucky and gets in and someone else equally qualified can’t get a listing because of bad editors then it creates an unfair advantage that the best SEO consultant can’t overcome.
mark on Oct 5, 2007 at 4:33 pm
No way! If your site is good enough to get in there, it should get pr juice :)
Case Stevens on Jan 8, 2008 at 6:15 pm
I agree with Greg.
These aren’t paid links.
Instead they’re reviewed and checked for their quality in order to get listed.
SEO Web Design on Jan 20, 2008 at 2:28 am
If the editors manually reviewed each listing, then i do not see a point why they should use nofollow.
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