Get Listed On Yahoo!

The Best Way To Get Listed On Yahoo!

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 fulfil 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.

If you need help finding your important keywords and composing your title or descriptions, you may find an appropriate online marketing company to do that for you at (http://www.aboutwebmasters.com) or use a software package to guide you, such as PositionWeaver PRO, which also has links to keyword searching tools. 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!

Is A Yahoo Listing Still Worth The Cost?

In October 2002, the Yahoo! portal changed the way it delivers search results. The Google search engine now provides the primary search results on Yahoo - how does this change affect the value of a Yahoo listing?

In October 2002, the Yahoo! portal changed the way it delivers search results. In the past, the most prominent results were exclusively culled from websites listed in the Yahoo directory itself. Since October, sites listed in the Yahoo directory no longer enjoy this privileged status.

The Google search engine now drives the primary search results on Yahoo. While this is certainly an improvement for users of Yahoo search, it's a disaster for many businesses that counted on their Yahoo listing to deliver substantial traffic.

This change has also led many site owners to question the value of a listing in the Yahoo directory. In this article, I will outline the pros and cons of maintaining, or paying for, a Yahoo listing. In the process, I will delve into more details of the recent changes.

Argument #1: Yahoo Listings Mean Link Popularity

Pro:
Even if the Yahoo listing itself delivers little or no traffic, other search engines will rank your website higher if it's listed in Yahoo. Because Yahoo is so important, a link from Yahoo counts more than a regular link. Thanks to its higher "PageRank," Yahoo means even more to Google.

Con:
Yahoo listings do not deliver nearly as significant a contribution in this area as you might think. You can verify this by doing a "backward links" search on Google for any Yahoo-listed website. The most important links are listed first, and the Yahoo listing is rarely even on the first page of links for top ranked sites on Google.

Argument #2: Listed Sites Look Better In The Search Results

Pro:
Websites with a Yahoo listing show up in the combined Yahoo/Google results with their title, description, and category from the Yahoo directory. This may boost the response when the site appears in the search results. This applies when the URL listed in the results is the same as the URL in the Yahoo listing.

Con:
Results listed with Yahoo information include a link to the site's category, which may prompt surfers to pass over your listing and go to the category. Sites without Yahoo listings have the more inviting "search within this site" link, which leads to more results exclusively from your site.

So, Is A Yahoo Listing Worth It?

If you have a non-commercial site and can get listed for free, of course! If you're not one of the lucky few, though, you have to evaluate whether it's worth $299 a year for what amounts to a better than average incoming link. Everyone must make their own decision. If $299 is small compared to your total marketing budget, it may be easier to just continue paying. My own listing expires in March, and I don't intend to renew it.

How Can You Profit From The Changes At Yahoo?

The obvious answer is that you must take steps to improve your own position in Google's search results. Google's rankings are made up of many factors, but the dominant factor is "PageRank," which is based on the number and quality of incoming links from other websites.

Therefore, the first step in improving your position on the Google search engine (and now Yahoo) is to improve your site's link popularity. This takes time, and trying to take shortcuts can get you into real trouble - Google doesn't like "link farms," or any program designed to artificially boost your link popularity.

Finding Quality Link Partners Through Google

Since only links from quality sites will count for much with Google, let's take a quick look at how you can find these sites. Start by targeting the sites that link to existing top-ranked sites. You can do a backward links search for any site by typing "link:(http://www.domain.com)" in the Google search engine.

An even faster method is to use the Google toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com/), which requires Internet Explorer 5 or greater, running on Windows. With the toolbar's advanced features enabled, you can conduct a "backward links" search from the "Page Info" menu for any site you visit.

Since Google lists these results in descending order by "PageRank," you can quickly determine the best places to get links by doing backward links searches on the top 10-20 sites for your desired search terms, and seeking links from the top 10-20 places that link to them.

Links Are Not Enough: Optimizing For Google

While "PageRank" is the dominant factor in Google's algorithm, it's not the only factor, and you still need to optimize your web pages. This can be a complicated topic, but the most important factors are: Keywords in the title of the page Keywords in headings on the page (H1 or H2 tags), especially the first heading. Keywords in the body text of the page, particularly the first paragraph.

Don't Complain, Act!

By some estimates, Google now controls 2/3rds of the searches conducted on the Internet in a given day. Not only is Google.com extremely popular in its own right, but Google also controls the search results on popular portals like AOL and Iwon.com - not to mention Yahoo.

A lot of website owners are complaining bitterly about this change. All the more reason for you to take action now, while so many of your competitors are busy licking their wounds. With a little planning and effort, you could be in a dominant position on Google before they even get started.

How to flood your site with traffic in 48 hours

It official Yahoo has dropped Google and will be using Inktomi's results to power their directory.

Previously when you did a search at Yahoo the top sponsor ads are from Overture and the bulk "free listing" ads were supplied by Google.

A few months back Yahoo purchased Inktomi as well as Overture and the online community was just waiting for the day that Yahoo would power all it's results in house.

That day is here...

Inktomi is a paid inclusion service. What this means is that you pay for each page you want included in the search engines.

Currently Inktomi powers MSN, About.com, HotBot, numerous other search engines and now Yahoo.

The submission charges are $39US for the first page and $25US for each additional page. This price covers your pages for a full year. This is a huge savings over going direct to Yahoo for $199 to $399 with no guarantee of any type of inclusion in their directory.

Your pages are guaranteed to be refreshed every 48 hours and included in all the engines powered by Inktomi.

Please keep in mind that this does not guarantee a certain rank within the search engines. This is why you only submit your best optimized pages.

To take advantage of this golden opportunity do the
following:

1. Choose your best keyword optimized page or pages.

2. Go to (http://www.All-Paid-Inclusions.com) and set up your paid inclusion account.

3. Choose to submit to Inktomi and follow the step by step instructions.

4. Within the next 2 days log back into your paid inclusion account and verify that your pages are marked as "refreshed"

5. Check your rank in the various search engines for your optimized keywords

6. Tweak pages every 48 hours to get your desired results.

You now can cash in on the explosion of traffic from Yahoo within the next 48 hours.

No one knows how long this window of opportunity will last.

The opinion among search engine experts and those in the know is that Yahoo will raise the prices of Inktomi inclusions drastically and without warning.

If you use pay per clicks you may remember when Overture did this. At the time clicks were .05 minimum and they sent a notice stating effective immediately the minimum bid is .10 per click.

So don't wait around get your pages in now at the lower price. You can tweak them later.