Yahoo!
http://www.yahoo.com/
has an immense reach. They receive,
directly, more traffic than any other search engine or
directory. Being listed on Yahoo! and DMOZ.org gives you a great
boost on your Google.com rankings as well. So if you are not
listed on Yahoo! and DMOZ, your pages on Google may never rank
as highly as they should. You simply must be in Yahoo!
Fortunately, you can now guarantee that you will be reviewed and
possibly added within 7 days by paying a fee of $199 to Yahoo!
The free submission service has no guarantees and most sites
never do end up getting listed through free submission. The $199
fee guarantees that you will get reviewed. But to be definitely
added to Yahoo!, especially in a way that gets you the most
traffic, you must fulfill certain things:
Yahoo! rankings depend very much on the keywords in your title
and description, and the keywords in the category name you are
listed under. Select your category very wisely. The best way to
find a category for you is to search on Yahoo! for your major
competitors. See which category they are listed under and get
listed there as well. That way you will be sure you are at a
spot where your potential visitors are used to going to.
The title you get listed on Yahoo! with is usually your business
name. Yahoo! Is quite strict on this, insisting on listing sites
by their business name (company name) and not their site name.
Remember, the title is very influential when it comes to how
high you will come up on Yahoo! Searches. Because the traffic
from Yahoo! is so heavy, we suggest that you get a DBA (doing
business as) business name that has the keywords in it. Example:
if your primary keyword is 'wedding gowns' but your company is
called Tippy Fashions, Inc., register a business name under your
company name that has your keyword. If you specialize in a
certain geographic region, include that as well. For example, if
your business is in Miami, then register the name Wedding Gowns
of Miami. Then have your title tag on your web site read Wedding
Gowns of Miami - and that's all, nothing more in the title tag.
Then, on your home page, place Wedding Gowns of Miami
prominently at the top of the page, so that it looks as though
this is what the site is called. All your logos and graphics
should be changed to reflect the new name, Wedding Gowns of
Miami - remember, this is only temporary for 7 days while Yahoo!
reviews your site for inclusion. You may change everything back
to normal once Yahoo! indexes you. In your About page or company
info page, have Wedding Gowns of Miami as the listed business
name (you can add that Wedding Gowns of Miami is a Tippy
Fashions, Inc., business). Yahoo! also looks at the Whois
database to see what company name is listed as the owner of your
domain. You should also edit that Whois info at
NetworkSolutions.com to include your new DBA name. While we are
on the topic of domain names, it is a good idea to register a
domain name that reflects the new business name you have for
Yahoo!, such as weddinggownsofmiami.com for our example here.
When you submit your site to Yahoo!, in the company field, place
Wedding Gowns of Miami as the business name. Once you are listed
by Yahoo! in 7 days, you may change back your home and about
pages to be how they were before. This may sound like a lot of
hassle just for one listing, but it is very important to have
your primary keyword in the title that Yahoo! lists you under if
you want to get massive traffic. And the only way to do that is
to have those keywords in your legal business name. Remember,
have your title and new business name (DBA) start with your most
important keyword - the position matters very much when it comes
to search rankings on Yahoo!
The description you submit to Yahoo! is also something that
should have your most important keyword. It should not read like
an advert - it should be descriptive. Try to make it in a way
that it sounds interesting and informative to a potential
client, without sounding like a blatant advert, otherwise Yahoo!
will re-write it. Start your description with your most
important keyword - the position matters very much when it comes
to search rankings on Yahoo! For best results, make the
description just one sentence long that is readable and
descriptive. Yahoo! Has the habit of cutting down descriptions
longer than one sentence long.
Before you submit, make sure all your links are working - Yahoo!
tests your page HTML before it includes you. Generally, have a
good look at your site and remove everything that would make
Yahoo! not list your site - or list it in a way that isn't as
you would want it to be. Yahoo! gives a lot of information on
how they review a site - see their submission help pages at
http://add.yahoo.com/fast/add and
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/faq.html.
Follow them to the
letter and follow the above instructions to the letter. Once
your site is listed at Yahoo! it is next to impossible to have
the way the listing is worded changed. So make sure you get it
right the first time around.
To submit to Yahoo!, simply go to the category where you wish to
have your site listed on Yahoo! and click on the Suggest link at
the bottom of that page.
Once you get listed, you should also sign up to have your site
become a sponsored site within Yahoo! It costs $25 to $300 or
more a month at the time of this writing, depending on the
category. Sponsored sites appear in a separate, clearly
demarcated listing box, located on appropriate category pages in
the directory at the top - which means that you will get a lot
more traffic - significantly higher than the non-sponsored
listings. To sponsor your site, simply go to the directory page
on Yahoo! where it is listed, then click on the Sponsor link and
follow the directions.
We keep mentioning 'most important keyword' all along. What is
this keyword or keyword phrase? This is the keyword or phrase
that most people use to find your site. Try to use a two-word
phrase. A one-word keyword is usually too general and will
result in a lot of traffic that is not very interested in your
site. So you will end up having a lot of people who just get
back out of your site. It is better to use a two-word keyword
because that makes sure you get people who are ready to spend
time and money on your site. The easiest way to illustrate this
is to use the adult industry. If you have an adult site that
specializes in live video, you may be tempted to use 'sex' as
the keyword that is most popular with searches in your industry.
Indeed it is, but you will get people looking for free pictures,
looking for medical advice, and more. A better phrase would be
one that contains the words 'live video' and 'sex' in it. That
is the kind of keyword phrase you should enter here. Tools such
as Word Tracker and the Goto inventory window will help you see
what are the most common keyword searches in your industry.
Generally, even if you do get someone
to write your title and description for you, make sure you
review it carefully before you submit it - after all, it is your
site and you only get one shot at this when it comes to Yahoo!