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Yahoo!

Yahoo! Notes:

Yahoo! recently purchased Overture.  Overture owns AltaVista and AllTheWeb.  More info to come...

Yahoo! Results:

• Yahoo! displays the top three Overture listings under the heading of Sponsor Matches.

• Two more listings from Overture also appear toward the bottom of the page.

• Yahoo! Directory listings are supplied by Yahoo! editors and require a fee for commercial sites.

• Yahoo! search results are supplied by Google and the Yahoo! Directory.

Preparing For Yahoo! Directory:

• Yahoo! has begun rejecting submissions with domains over 54 characters.

• Yahoo! likes to see unique content that is not already available in the directory.

• Catalog pages with lots of links do better with Yahoo!.

• Do not include illegal content.

• Large, information sites are preferred but smaller sites can do well also.

• Your site should have recently been updated, if it hasn't been, now is the time to do it.

• Content should be informational, appealing and easy to read.

• Site must be professional and organized well.

• The link navigation should be easy to follow.

• All images should be optimized and of professional quality.

• Yahoo may list flash pages as long as the content is good and the function and design is not complicated.

• Don't include excessive flash or animation.

• Don't include sound.

• Load time must be quick.

• No broken links.  Yahoo! checks for dead links several times a month.  If your site is down during a routine check, it may be deleted from the directory.

• Include a company logo that includes your most important keyword phrases.

• Include contact information.

• Include a copyright notice with the current year.

• Include a privacy policy.

• Do not use excessive animations or flash features.

• Do not use redirects.

• Do not submit replicate sites with different URL's.

• Aside from the review method of ranking sites, Yahoo! is now using click through popularity as a part of their relevancy ranking system.

                    Titles:

• Your title should not contain more than 40 characters including spaces.

• It should begin with your company name which should include keyword phrases.

• Your title should contain your most important keywords.

• It is especially helpful that you company name include keywords.

• Do not use numbers or brand names in the title.

• If you use ASCII characters (ex. @home or $ave $) in your title, you may risk a delay in the indexing of your site.

                Descriptions:

• Your description should be no more than 200 characters including spaces.

• It should contain important keyword phrases found throughout your site.

• Use your keywords early and often throughout the description, but do not just simply list keywords.

• Your description should formally and effectively describe your web site.

• NEVER use any marketing hype when submitting to Yahoo!.

• Do not use all capital letters and do not capitalize the first letter of each word.

• Use proper grammar when formatting your description.

• Try to avoid small words like: and, the, of, etc. if you can to save space.

                Keywords:

• Yahoo! does place a value on how well your keywords are set up on your page and the information that surrounds your keywords, but they do not place any relevancy on your tags or keyword weight.

• You will indicate your keywords on your submission form.  The keywords that you list must be relevant to your site.

Yahoo! Does Not Consider:

• Yahoo! doesn't recognize or support META tags.

• Yahoo! does not consider comment or ALT tags.

Choosing A Category:

• Research the categories that are available.

• If you choose the wrong category, it is likely that your site will not get indexed.

• Submit regionally specific sites only to that particular regional category.   

• Do not submit to main categories.

• Find the lowest level of subcategories to submit to.

• If you have another page in your site that is comparable to your index page and offers quality information, you can submit to a different sub-category.

• You may choose up to one additional sub-category but no more than two.

• To choose a category, do a search on your own keywords and see what categories come up.  Consider the category that comes up first.  The first one is normally the one most people will choose first.

• Search your competitors to see what category they are listed in.

• Remember that you are more likely to get listed in a less popular category with fewer listings.

• Adult sites should be submitted to adult categories.

• If Yahoo! does not have a category that you feel they should have, suggest it.

• For more information on choosing the proper category, go to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/appropriate.html.

Submitting To Yahoo!

• You can submit only one page to Yahoo!. They occasionally list sub pages of a site if the content is unique and there aren't many listings.

• Select the category you wish to submit to.  Click on the "Suggest A Site" link at the bottom of the category page.  If your category includes commercial and non-commercial sites, you will see the option to submit through Business Express or Standard Free Submit.

• All commercial sites must be submitted through Business Express.  An explanation of this can be found at http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/

• To qualify for Business Express, the conditions on this page must be met --
   http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/busexpress.html

• Business Express submit requires a $299.00 non-refundable submission free.  If your site is accepted, you will be charged the $299 fee each year to keep your site in the index.

• Submitting through Business Express will not guarantee acceptance into the Yahoo! directory.

• After you have selected "Business Express" or "Standard Submit", read the Terms of Services carefully.

• If your site qualifies, click on the "Continue" link at the bottom of the page.

• Sign in with your Yahoo! ID.  If you don't already have one, you must register now.

• Enter your title, URL (it is always helpful if your URL contains keywords), description and other information on the submission form.

• Take special care in filling out this form.  The manner in which this form is submitted will make a difference in your final results.  Your title and description should be professional, grammatically correct with no marketing-hype or biased opinions.

• Note: Yahoo! can and sometimes will change your submission information to suit their directory standards.

• Proceed to the next step where you will enter your contact and payment information.
  
                  Providing Contact Information:
   

• When providing your contact information on the submission form, it is important that you supply the same information as your site and InterNIC.

• Your title and logo must match the company name that appears in the InterNIC registration.  If you need to make any changes in the future, you will need the e-mail address you supplied on the submission form.

• Make sure to make note of the date you are submitting, the category you are submitting to and all of the contact information you are supplying.

Acceptance To The Yahoo! Directory:

• If your site is accepted to Yahoo! you will receive an e-mail telling you that your site has been added to Yahoo!.

• If you are submitting through the pay inclusion program, you will find out if your site was indexed within seven days. 

• Your site should appear after the next update, normally within a few days.  Once the directory has been updated, you will find your listing in the “Whats New” listings or by doing a keyword search.

• If you find that your site is only listed in a regional category and feel that it should be listed in an additional category, it might work to send a short, polite note to the editors requesting an additional category.
  
  If Your Site Is Rejected:
   

• Normally Yahoo! does not send out formal rejection letters unless you have submitted through Business Express.

• If your site is simply not listed, it could be because the editor did not have time to review it.

• Check your server logs to be sure the site was reviewed.

• If it was reviewed and you have not heard anything, you have probably been rejected.

• Don’t give up.

• Continue improving your site and resubmitting it after several weeks.

• The next time you submit, consider an alternate category.

What Next?

• Only 10-30% of submissions ever get listed.

• Yahoo! is under no obligation to list your site.

• If you have not been listed within two weeks, see what you can do to improve the information on the submission form or on your site and try submitting again.

• If you do not get indexed the first time always submit again several weeks apart.

• If another two weeks pass and your site still has not been reviewed, send an e-mail to
  url-support@yahoo-inc.com.  Be sure to include the exact URL and your e-mail address. You do not need to include the actual date you submitted on or the categories you submitted to.

• Do not submit several times in a short period of time or you will be banned for spamming.

• If your site has been accepted through Business Express, you have only thirty days to request any changes in the title, description or category for your site. 

• If you need to change the URL, title, description or e-mail address, associated with your listing in Yahoo! or if you would like to suggest additional or different categories for your site, you can do so by filling out the form at http://add.yahoo.com/fast/change

• Be sure to note the exact date of your request. You may need this at a later date.

• The change request form can not be used as a means of improving your ranking.

• The changes must be legitimate and only affect Yahoo! and customers--NOT you.

• Yahoo! will not change any information that is already accurate.

• If they do not see a reason to change your title or description, they probably wont.

• If you have submitted changes through the change form at http://add.yahoo.com/fast/change and have not seen your changes take affect after ten days, send an email to the same address.
  url-support@yahoo-inc.com.  Include the URL, the exact date of the change request, and the desired categories.

• Web marketers who submit multiple sites are asked to use the e-mail address for no more than five URLs per week.

Getting More Than One Domain
Listed In Yahoo:

• If you are trying to list a second site for the same company to Yahoo! it is best to keep both sites completely separate from your first site until they are both listed.

• It is important that they are both completely different and unique from one another.

• Once both sites are listed, then you can link them together.

• The second site must have a different domain name and hosting service.

• All of your contact information, including your name must also be different.

• If you use the Business Express option, use a different credit card and billing address than you used for your previous submission.

• Your site must also fit into a different category than your previous submission.

• When submitting your second site, be sure to clear your cookies.txt file from your browser and use a different dial up account with a different IP address when you submit.

• It may be possible to get multiple domains listed in Yahoo! in an attempt to gain multiple listings for various keyword phrases.  Keep in mind that this should be done with caution as it can be considered spam.

Removing A Page From Yahoo!

• To remove a page from Yahoo!, write to their e-mail support address and request the URL be removed from the directory.  url-support@yahoo-inc.com

More Yahoo! Features:

            Bold Listings:

• When you see a bold listing in Yahoo! it means that there are additional sub listings for that particular site. When you click on a bold listing, you will be taken to a special page for that company or site that contains links related to the site.  Bold listings are provided by Yahoo! and can not be requested.

Other Options That May Help You Get Listed:

Buy A Banner Ad:

If you have tried several attempts to get your site listed through Yahoo! and your site still has not been indexed, consider buying a banner ad from Yahoo!  In doing so, mention that you have tried on several occasions to get your site listed and it still does not appear in the directory.  Some people have found success with this method and others have not.

Sponsored Listings:

With Yahoo’s paid listing program, your listing could appear at the top of the category pages (Not the search results) in a listing called, “Sponsored”.  Sponsored listings appear in the most popular area at the top of the category results page in a gold outlined box.  This could increase your traffic. The monthly fee is between $25 and $300.  The fee will depend on the popularity of the category you are wishing to sponsor.  Only five sponsored listings are allowed per category and are rotated on a regular basis.  It may be easier to get your change requests recognized with a sponsored listing.  It is said to be easier to achieve a sponsored listing if you have a keyword in your URL.

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