Mar 9th 2009 1:16PM
What Makes a Good Title and Description?
Editors often receive a high volume of site suggestions for their categories, so ensuring that suggested sites have clear, concise titles and descriptions can aid greatly in the review process. Editor lisagirl has provided an excellent tutorial in how to make titles and descriptions that stand out in the crowd.
Emily
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What makes a good title and description? If you ask me personally, all good things involve chocolate. I guess we're talking about other things here, but forgive me if you have uncontrollable chocolate cravings after reading this.
Here's some general help on writing good titles and descriptions. Also, before you suggest a site, look for the description link in that category. The descriptions often have additional information specific to that category. For more help, visit
http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Searching/Directories/Open_Directory_Project/Policies_and_Procedures/
TITLES:
If the site is about a business, it's simple! Titles are the business name, and nothing more.
If the site is topical in nature, the title should be the site's official name.
Titles shouldn't be a string of keywords, should be properly capitalized, and shouldn't have unnecessary punctuation marks or symbols.
Good (fictional) title examples:
- Lisagirl Chocoholics Bakery
- Theo Broma Transportation and Trucking
- Fudge Factor Accountants
- A Review of Chocolate Consumption in 2009
- Chocoholics Anonymous
Bad title examples:
- LISAGIRL CHOCOHOLICS BAKERY (all capital letters)
- Welcome to Theo Broma Trucking (uses phrases such as "Welcome to" or "Homepage of")
- The fudgiest numbers on the web, from Fudge Factor Accountants (uses advertising)
- ThEo bROmA TRaNsPoRtAtiOn aNd tRuCkInG (incorrect capitalization)
- Lisagirl Chocoholics Bakery, in Smallville (uses location or phone number)
- Chocolate Consumption, 2009, Why People Eat Chocolate, Review (a string of keywords)
- All About Chocoholics Anonymous (not the official site or organization name)
DESCRIPTIONS:
Describe the business or website, and describe the website's contents. Don't use hyperbole, advertising language, or a string of search engine keywords. Keep it simple!
Here, I've placed a good and bad (fictional) example together, for comparison. Each person's writing style is different, and descriptions may vary depending on the category. What you see here are only examples and are written in my style. If you really don't know what to write, look at listings in the category where you're suggesting the site for ideas.
***
Good:
Photo gallery displaying a personal collection of chocolate candy bar wrappers acquired between 1964 and 1979.
Bad:
These are my pics which are of the wrappers I got from eating choclit cand bars
***
Good:
Bakery and restaurant, both exclusively offering chocolate foods. Includes menus with photographs, and recipes of their most-ordered dishes.
Bad:
LisaGirl Chocholics is on 123 Main Street, Smallville, open 6am to 5 pm, and we only sell chocolate foods. This website has tantalizing meneues with mouth-watering photos, and recippes for the favoritest dishes.
***
Good:
Offers accounting services for small business owners and classes about creative financing. Includes profiles of the firm members, class details and schedules, and links to bail bond agents.
Bad:
The ultimate source for all accounting services. We have been in business since 2008. Free education! Learn all about Fudge Factor's people. Learn where to go when you need help.
***
Good:
Sales of Perugina Baci, a chocolate candy with hazelnuts, and shortbread cookies. Provides a map to the store and options for monthly shipment subscriptions.
Bad:
High quality merchandise, chocolate, candy, Perugina, Baci, and much more!
You may ask "Why should I bother writing good titles and descriptions anyway? Aren't the editors responsible for that? And besides, I don't even like chocolate". Ultimately, the editors must write decent titles/descriptions. However, the Open Directory Project editors are all volunteers, working on the project in their spare time. When you write a proper title/description, you allow us to work faster and more efficiently. By helping us, you're helping yourself. We look for good suggestions. In the sea of submissions, those with good titles/descriptions will stand out like a lighthouse beacon.
As for disliking chocolate, well, you look a little peaked...are you feverish? (I'm kidding of course! Some of my best friends prefer vanilla.)
Emily
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
What makes a good title and description? If you ask me personally, all good things involve chocolate. I guess we're talking about other things here, but forgive me if you have uncontrollable chocolate cravings after reading this.
Here's some general help on writing good titles and descriptions. Also, before you suggest a site, look for the description link in that category. The descriptions often have additional information specific to that category. For more help, visit
http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Searching/Directories/Open_Directory_Project/Policies_and_Procedures/
TITLES:
If the site is about a business, it's simple! Titles are the business name, and nothing more.
If the site is topical in nature, the title should be the site's official name.
Titles shouldn't be a string of keywords, should be properly capitalized, and shouldn't have unnecessary punctuation marks or symbols.
Good (fictional) title examples:
- Lisagirl Chocoholics Bakery
- Theo Broma Transportation and Trucking
- Fudge Factor Accountants
- A Review of Chocolate Consumption in 2009
- Chocoholics Anonymous
Bad title examples:
- LISAGIRL CHOCOHOLICS BAKERY (all capital letters)
- Welcome to Theo Broma Trucking (uses phrases such as "Welcome to" or "Homepage of")
- The fudgiest numbers on the web, from Fudge Factor Accountants (uses advertising)
- ThEo bROmA TRaNsPoRtAtiOn aNd tRuCkInG (incorrect capitalization)
- Lisagirl Chocoholics Bakery, in Smallville (uses location or phone number)
- Chocolate Consumption, 2009, Why People Eat Chocolate, Review (a string of keywords)
- All About Chocoholics Anonymous (not the official site or organization name)
DESCRIPTIONS:
Describe the business or website, and describe the website's contents. Don't use hyperbole, advertising language, or a string of search engine keywords. Keep it simple!
Here, I've placed a good and bad (fictional) example together, for comparison. Each person's writing style is different, and descriptions may vary depending on the category. What you see here are only examples and are written in my style. If you really don't know what to write, look at listings in the category where you're suggesting the site for ideas.
***
Good:
Photo gallery displaying a personal collection of chocolate candy bar wrappers acquired between 1964 and 1979.
Bad:
These are my pics which are of the wrappers I got from eating choclit cand bars
***
Good:
Bakery and restaurant, both exclusively offering chocolate foods. Includes menus with photographs, and recipes of their most-ordered dishes.
Bad:
LisaGirl Chocholics is on 123 Main Street, Smallville, open 6am to 5 pm, and we only sell chocolate foods. This website has tantalizing meneues with mouth-watering photos, and recippes for the favoritest dishes.
***
Good:
Offers accounting services for small business owners and classes about creative financing. Includes profiles of the firm members, class details and schedules, and links to bail bond agents.
Bad:
The ultimate source for all accounting services. We have been in business since 2008. Free education! Learn all about Fudge Factor's people. Learn where to go when you need help.
***
Good:
Sales of Perugina Baci, a chocolate candy with hazelnuts, and shortbread cookies. Provides a map to the store and options for monthly shipment subscriptions.
Bad:
High quality merchandise, chocolate, candy, Perugina, Baci, and much more!
You may ask "Why should I bother writing good titles and descriptions anyway? Aren't the editors responsible for that? And besides, I don't even like chocolate". Ultimately, the editors must write decent titles/descriptions. However, the Open Directory Project editors are all volunteers, working on the project in their spare time. When you write a proper title/description, you allow us to work faster and more efficiently. By helping us, you're helping yourself. We look for good suggestions. In the sea of submissions, those with good titles/descriptions will stand out like a lighthouse beacon.
As for disliking chocolate, well, you look a little peaked...are you feverish? (I'm kidding of course! Some of my best friends prefer vanilla.)
1. Nice article, very helpful to web designers who want to improve their sites coding.
A good description can also affect your google performance so be sure your description is keyword rich, however you can be penalised for over spamming your description. It can be balancing act!
Posted at 6:43AM on Mar 11th 2009 by Rory Martin
2. The article is so helpful for me in preparing the site like that I want to suggest in the directory. The way the article presented is straightforward that makes me opt to use it as my guide. The additional examples that the article provided in writing a good title and description are very helpful too.
Posted at 6:53AM on Mar 11th 2009 by Karen Lumayaga
3. very good thank you
it is very useful for my site
Posted at 9:37AM on Mar 11th 2009 by toolee
4. Very helpful and a nice guide to improve your sites.
Thanks,
Bryan
Posted at 12:57PM on Mar 13th 2009 by Bryan
5. very good thank you
it is very useful for my site
Posted at 2:10PM on Mar 14th 2009 by F齥ra
6. What makes a good title and description? Why bother telling us when you ignore submissions anyway? I have been helping my multiple clients submit their very legitimate sites to DMOZ for 7 YEARS. Never once, did I EVER receive any response back. Zippo. Zilch. Googling the problem, I found that everyone else never heard back either. I realized that with this disdain for your very own contributors, you would quickly become irrelevant. And indeed you have. Stumpled in here when seeing a news article "DMOZ is dead!" Wanted to see if it was true... I seriously thought you would be dead by now, but then again, even the most diseased of limbs can still lift a cigarette.
Posted at 10:40AM on Mar 16th 2009 by Lisa
7. Very good information.. for basic folks regarding tag info
Posted at 6:17PM on Mar 19th 2009 by prasad
8. Not sure where to turn. I got this message when I finished "trying" to suggest my site and now I'm not sure if it's done right. Can someone help??? Please verify the text in the image
The text in the image and the text you submit in the input field must match.
If you cannot read the text, refresh the submission form.
Please go back in your browser if you need to resubmit the form.
Again, what does this mean. I went back twice and retyped the word in the box but kept getting this same message. I'm afraid to be resubmitting each time I try so how do I know if the submission went in???
Posted at 8:36PM on Mar 22nd 2009 by Carmen
9. @Lisa: They're suggestions rather than submissions, and are available for use by editors who've volunteered to help build a particular category. Our focus is on building a useful directory for users. While site suggestions are often a useful source of new sites to add, there's much more to building and maintaining a directory than just processing those suggestions.
@Carmen: If you get the "text in the image and the text you submit in the input field must match" message, it means that the system thinks you haven't entered the text for the CAPTCHA correctly. You site hasn't been suggested, and you'll need to try again.
Posted at 5:50AM on Mar 23rd 2009 by chaos127
10. @chaos127, could you please clarify what you mean by "useful directory for users"? I don't know what sites Lisa suggested but if she is a web-designer then I assume that at least some of her web-sites are useful for users and not just some stupid crappy sites. But if for SEVEN (sic!) years non of her sites were added then I suspect that something wrong with how DMOZ determine "usefulness". Reviewer personal preferences may be? "Oh! It's my competitor! I will not add this site!"
For a couple of years I'm monitoring a category I wanted to add my site to. There wasn't any changes to that category for the last two years! I'm 100% sure that over that period a lot of people suggested sites to that category. At least I did it 2 years ago. I know that volunteers are busy, you do not need to remind me that, but two years is quite a long period.
I suggested it once in this blog and I will do it again: if DMOZ can create some king of feedback for submitters then most people will just calm down. Because what is really annoying people is DMOZ silence. Emily Kayser is writing articles in that blog but they are totally useles and from my point of view are just mocking.
Let me explain that. I suggested my site two years ago. I've got nothing. Now Emily posted an article about descriptions. Now I may consider of re-suggesting my site with better and proper (from DMOZ p.o.v) description. But I cannot. Because multiple suggestions for the same site is a SPAM from DMOZ p.o.v. So I cannot re-submit. Now I'm over the board. I don't know the status of my suggestion because there is no feedback from DMOZ. I cannot use your articles because re-suggesting (even with improved description or category) is against the policy. So what can I do in this case? What should I do? Wait for a few years more and try again? Could you please answer that?
Posted at 9:00PM on Mar 24th 2009 by acanom
11. good !
Posted at 6:31AM on Apr 2nd 2009 by ivan
12. great article! i have submitted my blog considering all the points you have mentioned, Now lets see how much good i was :)
Posted at 1:33AM on Apr 7th 2009 by harry
13. Thanks for a little insight into the process and the SEO tips.I have always wanted to get definitive parameters that would help with submissions, past and present. Kudos Emily.
Posted at 11:28AM on Apr 8th 2009 by dwananni
14. great tutorial! I usually make my title short like no more than five words.though sometimes it hard to be descriptive within 5 words but usually i come up with something that makes sense.
Posted at 1:04AM on Apr 13th 2009 by harry
15. Titles are very important as they play the major role in attracting a person's interest
and the description also has to be attractive related to the title and the topic
that makes a good article
this article is very helpful in letting me know about this
Posted at 9:32AM on Apr 13th 2009 by Custom Application Hosting
16. in my opinion,I am greatly happly that we can accept the dmoz blog resouce!
Posted at 2:43AM on Apr 15th 2009 by romantingmr
17. how i can be a excellent editor!
Posted at 2:43AM on Apr 15th 2009 by 活在当下的王子