A WebmasterWorld thread has a Webmaster saying that a site of his recently was removed from the ODP. He said, soon after he noticed his rankings drop in Google. He wants to know if it can be related to the DMOZ listing removal or something else.
So can a ODP removal hurt your search engine rankings?
Most folks in the WebmasterWorld thread say probably not, but some aren't so convinced. WebmasterWorld moderator, pageonresults adds:
Google and others use the dmoz data. When your listing goes AWOL from dmoz, it will have an impact somewhere down the line. But, it shouldn't have that much of an impact to drag you down too far in the SERPs. Maybe one or two spots but nothing dramatic. I'm going to say there are exceptions to the rule too. If you had multiple dmoz listings and they were removed, that might have a negative impact.
Overall, I doubt it should have a major impact, like pageonresults said.
Some SEOs are a bit obsessed with getting in the DMOZ directory. But you should know the Pros and Cons of DMOZ and understand it can take a really long time to be listed in DMOZ. Also note that some of those cons no longer apply since Google, Yahoo and Microsoft all support the NOODP tag, a tag you can use to tell the search engine not to display your ODP title in the search results.
Let's poll our audience: Do you think the removal of a DMOZ listing could have a "major" impact on a site's rankings in Google?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
