Googleguy on the DMOZ PageRank Boost

I was very interested to see Googleguy comment today on the hypothesis that I’ve seen many times that a listing in the DMOZ gets you a special boost at Google. Here’s Googleguy’s statement.

“When we updated once per month, we’d make sure that we downloaded the newest RDF dump of DMOZ before indexing started. I don’t know when the next update will be. As far as the weight, a link from DMOZ is the same as a link from any other page on the web. DMOZ pages typically have more PageRank, so it helps in that respect, but there’s no extra boost just because the link comes from the Open Directory.”

I hope that sets to rest the theory that you absolutely need a DMOZ listing. Not that I devalue it at all, I try to get all of my sites in. Heck, it’s free advertising. Where I object is when people complain how difficult it is to get listed. It’s not at all difficult. You submit the site, it takes about two minutes. Then, you either get in, or you don’t. The time people spend whining, and submitting over and over again, would be much better spent working on an overall marketing plan for your site. Submit it and forget it (my motto with the DMOZ listings).