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Yahoo Search Engine and Directory Submission Information

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The secret to Yahoo's success is human beings, and the fact that it is the largest human-compiled directory guide to the web. Although the Yahoo company executives will not say how many editors they employ, they have said on average, they employ “a building full”.

Yahoo Directory and Search Engine Service

Yahoo is both a human-edited directory, and a spider-based index. Google used to provide the spider-based index, but in April 2004, Yahoo stopped working with Google to use their newly developed Yahoo search program.

Today, Yahoo has over 1 million sites listed, and it supplies organic search results for many search engines, including AltaVista, AllTheWeb, MSN and HotBot. Yahoo's sponsored results still come from Overture.

Yahoo Web Search Submission

Yahoo does offer a free submission to their web search, but it doesn't guarantee when your site will be listed, what your earch engine placement and ranking will be, or even that your site will be indexed at all.

Yahoo Directory Submission

If you decide to submit your website to the Yahoo Directory Service, remember it is a “directory”, not a “search engine”. Your page should be properly finished and optimized before submission, and what you write for a description should explain the entire site, not just the web page being submitted. A Yahoo Directory editor will then examine your entire site, and determine whether it should be placed in the Directory or not, and if so where it should be placed.

In order to get into Yahoo's directory, you should use their Express Submission. It costs $299 annually, guarantees review within 7 days or less, but it does not guarantee your website will get into the Yahoo directory or where it will be placed. The official (and last-minute) fine print is available for reading here.

Questions regarding Express Submission.

What Yahoo Looks For in a Website Submission

Familiarize yourself with the kind of site Yahoo wants to include in their directory.

Websites have been declined by Yahoo because there wasn't enough sufficiently unique content on the pages submitted. One more page pushing the same product is not reason enough to be in Yahoo. The page submitted must contain an abundance of unique content, as determined by the editor, and clearly define the purpose, products, or service being offered.

Minimum Requirements for Successful Yahoo Submission…

• Site must not already be in the Yahoo directory, so check.
• Must be a commercial business within the United States, with the official business name plainly visible to anyone visiting the site.
• Include business name and contact information at the bottom of every page.
• Must not contain any “under construction zones”, and all links must link to relevant content and be functional.
• Keep your domain name under 55 characters, not including the (.com).
• Must support multiple browsers and capabilities.

• Provide alternatives to things that require high-end systems or plug-ins (like flash), avoid slow loading pages, and be sure to test your site using Netscape.
• Be sure to check your HTML code with a web page validator and make sure all your links and images works. Yahoo will check them about every 4 months.
• Yahoo supports frames and image maps, but you'll want to use the <noframes> tag anyways so you're supported by other search engines, and if you use image links be sure to include text links as well.
• Use Verisign or Thawte server certificates services and display their logos.
• Use a SSL (secure socket layer) web server for credit card forms and/or shopping cart… if you process orders online.
• If possible, register with the Public Eye – www.thepubliceye.com, The Better Business Bureau – www.bbb.com, and Truste – www.truste.org. Display their logos and links prominently on your site.
• Include links to your company's privacy policies, return policies, warranties, and guarantees where the Yahoo reviewers can easily find them.
• Be sure to include a comprehensive “contact us” page as the Yahoo editors spend as much or more time there than anywhere else on the page, and if appropriate, include a picture of the business location (building).

Yahoo and Affiliate Websites...

Yahoo generally will not list affiliate sites, particularly if the products are already in their directory, and they check the whois directory for the company name that is listed as the owner. They like to use it as the title of your submission, regardless of what you have provided them with. So if you can, make sure the whois registry, lists as the owner, whatever you want your title to be.

Yahoo and Over Optimization

Yahoo is known to reject half the sites suggested for inclusion, mostly due to over optimization. Overly optimized pages don't catalogue well.

• Avoid hype at all costs. If Yahoo feels as though you are trying to commercialize their index, you will be rejected, simple as that. Keep it straight forward, with no tricks.
• Only submit upper-level domains. Sub-domains of ISP's and Web Hosting Companies are almost always rejected.
• Yahoo only indexes the title, description, and URL… not content. Keywords within the content are not important here, and Yahoo all but demands that your title be your company name.

• Reduce the number of non-keywords in title, description, and URL.
• Separate keywords with a hyphen in the URL.
• List the most important keywords first.
• Keywords located in a category list will always carry more weight.
• A human editor will be reviewing your page. So make sure it reads well and your sentence structure makes sense.

Identify the Catagory within Yahoo Directory Service...

Figure out Which Category You Want to Submit To… Find the categories you wish to be listed, before submitting your site, and then submit each page to just one category. You'll want to put some serious thought into this one…

Think, “Comedy/Sitcoms/Frasier.” Then ask, “What am I doing here? Just because people eat broccoli while on vacation does not warrant the National Broccoli Institute having an entry in Travel.”

Before submitting to Yahoo, search the Yahoo Directory and find an appropriate category for your website. When filling out the form, make sure the title and description contains keyword phrases relevant to your site.

List of Important Pointers in Determining a Category...

From time to time, your website listing will appear in Yahoo without you being notified, so before you get too upset, check to see if you're listed.

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