The Open Directory Project provides an open source data feed free of charge to any interested party provided that the terms of use are honored. This liberal policy allows any website to use part or all of the DMOZ directory information, and the technology involved provides a means to keep all directory information up date ( usually, the lag time is less than five weeks ). Many website owners choose to utilize this information on their own websites to provide a topic-related directory of links that they feel would be useful to visitors. A listing in dmoz, then, can translate to dozens or even thousands of links on other websites.

As lucrative as this may seem at first, a dmoz listing is seldom directly responsible for any great increase in inbound traffic. However, these links can increase a website's link popularity with the major search engines, which can, under the right circumstances, result in an improvement in search engine ranking positions.

A listing with ODP greatly increases the chances of a website being indexed by google. Through the DMOZ-Teoma connection, a website can gain a listing with Ask Jeeves. Lycos and Hotbot listings may also be achieved without paid inclusion via a listing in the DMOZ directory.