The Open Directory will soon send you an email asking you to send a confirmation. Simply reply to that email to confirm your application.

3) If you have followed above instructions, within 2 or 3 weeks (if you are lucky, it will be sooner), you should get an email saying that you have been accepted as an editor. Go to Open Directory and log in as an editor. Read Directory Guidelines thoroughly and familiarize yourself with them. Your objective from now on is to become an editor of category which is applicable for your site. When you apply to become an editor of this category, Open Directory will evaluate quality of your editing in category which you already edit, and will see whether your editing meets all guidelines. Hence, it is very important that you know guidelines thoroughly.

After this, check out whether there are any unreviewed sites (i.e. sites which have been submitted to category but which have not yet been reviewed by an editor) in category of which you are editor. If so, evaluate all unreviewed sites, and add sites which are applicable for category and delete remaining sites which are not applicable. When you are adding sites, make sure that these sites are really applicable for category. Also make sure that Title and Description that have been used are appropriate for Open Directory. If they are not, edit them so that they meet Open Directory guidelines. Sometimes, you may be at a loss to understand whether or not a particular site should be in category. If you are not feeling comfortable about adding a site, don't add it. There is no harm in not adding a site which is applicable. However, if you add a site which is not applicable, you will be at a disadvantage when you apply to become editor of category which is applicable for your site.

Also, browse through all sites which are already present in category. Edit Title and Description of any site if it does not meet Open Directory guidelines. If you feel that a particular site that is listed in category does not belong to category, post a message in Editor Forum and ask other editors of Open Directory as to whether site belongs to category. If they say that site does not belong to category, delete site.

4) Within 2 or 3 weeks from time that you are accepted as an editor, you should have cleaned up category. By this, I mean that your category should not have any unreviewed sites, and should not contain any site which does not belong to category. Also, Title and Description of all sites present in category should follow Open Directory guidelines.

Now, it is time to apply to category which is applicable for your site. Click on "Bookmarks" link in main Editor page, scroll down and click on "[Add @link]" link. In "Category to link to:" text box, type in complete path to category which is applicable for your site. For instance, for Computers: Consultants: Business Systems category, I would type in "Computers/Consultants/Business Systems". In "Link name:" text box, type in a word or phrase which describes this category.

The Open Directory will now display a link to category in your Bookmarks section. It will also display number of sites which are present in category and number of new (unreviewed) sites. Note down figure for number of unreviewed sites. If category does not contain any unreviewed sites, Open Directory will only display number of sites present in category.

Now, go to category which you want to apply to and browse through all sites. Generally, there will be some sites for which Title and/or Description does not meet Open Directory guidelines. Make a note of these sites. Also note whether that category already has an editor.

Once you have gone through all sites, scroll down to bottom of category and click on "edit" link. When you are asked to explain why you want to apply to category, mention number of unreviewed sites which are present in category (assuming that category does have some unreviewed sites). Also, mention fact that Title and Description for some of sites are inappropriate for Open Directory. Give examples of a few such sites. If that category does not already have an editor, mention that fact too.

Use same methods discussed earlier to fill up remaining fields and click on Submit button.

5) After applying to new category, log in as an editor every day or so, until you find that you are listed as an editor of that category. Then, add your site to this category, or, if your site is already listed but does not have an optimum description, change description.

Wrapping things up:

Remember that other editors who edit higher level categories will be looking at your category from time to time and may change your site's description if it is not found to be appropriate. Hence, while you should try to give your site an optimum description, you should not violate any of Open Directory guidelines.

Also, Open Directory allows editors to cool certain sites if they feel that these sites are best in that category. If a site is cooled, it is listed at top of category, even though its alphabetical placement may have been a lot lower. Avoid temptation to cool your own site. Because so many editors try to cool their own sites, Open Directory keeps a sharp look-out for this practice. Cooling your own site will simply draw attention towards you.

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Article by Sumantra Roy. Sumantra is one of most respected and recognized search engine positioning specialists on Internet. For more articles on search engine placement, visit 1st Search Ranking .com by going to: http://www.the-easy-way.com/main.html

Sumantra is one of the most respected and recognized search engine positioning specialists on the Internet. For more articles on search engine placement, subscribe to his 1st Search Ranking Newsletter by going to: http://www.the-easy-way.com/newsletter.html

Header Tags- Header tag should be considered important. Make headers uniform on your site. I like using them on top of my page just before first paragraph.

ALT Tags- These tags are great for adding keywords to images, so take advantage of them. I also use mouse over text with linked text.

Links- Any links you have on your site should have key terms in them. Never use “Click Here” or other unrelated words when creating links.

Bonus tip: When exchanging text links, use key phrases as actual links. This will certainly help you out.

For Example:

Affordable Search Engine Optimization