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Yahoo!
Quick Reference Chart
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| URL |
http://www.yahoo.com/ |
| Must
submit EACH page? |
Just
one -- normally the Home Page. |
| How
long to index my page? |
Non-commercial
free submission - 2 to 8 weeks. If your site was not added
following an initial submission and you need to resubmit, please
wait two to three weeks between submissions. If you submit more
often than that, your submissions to Yahoo! run the risk of
being considered spam and could possibly be dropped from consideration.
Submission to commercial categories - $299 for a review
within 7 days; $600 for sites offering adult content and/or
services). If your site is accepted, these fees recur annually.
Some regional Yahoo! directories still allow
a free submission option. |
| Recognizes
and supports meta tags? |
NO |
| Are
searches case sensitive? |
NO |
| Does
a "spider" index the site? |
NO |
| Uses
data entered on submission form only? |
YES |
| Is
page popularity a factor? |
NO |
| Alphabetical
ranking used? |
YES
- Within Yahoo! Directory categories. |
| Keyword
"weight" plays a role? |
YES
- For keywords listed in their submission form. |
| Title
tag considered for relevancy? |
YES
- For the title listed in their submission form. |
| Prominence
of keywords in title tag important? |
YES
- For the title listed in their submission form. |
| Frequency
of keywords in title tag important? |
YES
- For the title listed in their submission form. |
| Comment
tags considered for relevancy? |
NO |
| Max.
length of title accepted |
40
characters - unless your company name is longer. |
| Max.
length of keyword meta tag |
N/A |
| Max.
length of description field you can submit |
200
characters; No more than 25 words total. Yahoo! editors modify
most descriptions that are submitted for review. |
| How
to check to see if you're listed |
Type
in full URL: http://www.yourcompany.com
or your
site title as you submitted it.
Yahoo! will accommodate bona fide long business names as best
as possible.
|
| How
to check your link popularity |
Yahoo!
has no spider, so no links are tracked. |
| E-mail
support - Directory Support Dept. |
url-support@yahoo-inc.com
|
| Change/Remove
URL |
Use the
online change form located at:
http://add.yahoo.com/fast/change
Indicate in the message field that you would like your listing
deleted. For security purposes, the original email address
used to submit the site must be utilized.
|
Add
URL to Business/Shopping Categories
Yahoo! Express |
The
current fee for Yahoo! Express is a nonrefundable, recurring
annual fee of $299 for each web site submitted.
If you are submitting a site offering adult content and/or services,
the fee for the Yahoo! Express service is a nonrefundable, recurring
annual fee of $600. The editorial staff uses a more complicated
review process for sites offering adult content and/or services,
which requires more time.
All fees are payable in U.S. dollars to Yahoo! and will be charged
to the credit card number provided during the submission process. |
Yahoo! Directory is one of the oldest and most popular human reviewed directories on the Web. This directory
is a database of Web sites divided into categories. This makes it easier, for example, for someone to
find a large selection of Web sites relating to scuba diving.
Years ago Yahoo! displayed the matches from its catalog
at the top of its search results. Today, they are no longer displayed by default. Instead, the
user must click a separate Directory link to browse or search the catalog.
The crawler or organic Yahoo Web Results are the results returned by default on Yahoo. These
results were once powered by Google, but are now supplied by Yahoo's own search engine.
Even though Yahoo Directory is not as visible as it onces was, since Yahoo is one of the most popular search engines, appearing in the Yahoo Directory
should be considered.
Why pay to be listed with Yahoo Directory if you can get
listed in Yahoo Web Results and other engines for free? For one, being listed in Yahoo! can make it
easier to get ranked higher in engines like Google. Google is thought to favor sites that appear
in the Yahoo Directory. A listing in Yahoo Directory can increase your site's link popularity. A good listing
in the directory can also bring you more than $299 of traffic per year. However, you should use your
Web Analytics tool to track your traffic and revenue from Yahoo Directory before making the decision to renew.
Yahoo! results come from four main sources::
- Inside
Yahoo!: Relevant products and services from within the Yahoo!
network.
- Directory
Category Matches: Human reviewed categories of Web sites in the Yahoo! Directory. These normally only show up when the user specifically requests to see the Directory listings.
- Sponsor
Matches: Paid listings from Overture that often appear at the top of the search results.
- Web Matches:
Search results from Yahoo's own crawler or organic search engine. These sites are ranked based on the content of the page and other factors.
The
very prominent position given to Sponsor Matches indicates that
having a top listing on Overture for your chosen keyword(s) would
be very beneficial in terms of gaining additional visibility on
Yahoo!.
Yahoo! Interview:
This submission guide features an interview with an actual
Yahoo! executive who told us the specifics on what Yahoo! looks
for in adding new Web sites. No other guide includes the following
interview conducted by Fredrick Markini, CEO of iProspect, and edited
by Brent Winters, President of FirstPlace Software.
I
had the distinct pleasure of interviewing a Yahoo! "Surfing Manager"
for my research on getting listed in Yahoo!. We'll call her "Rose"
as she asked me not to list her real name for fear that she'd get
thousands of calls. Much of this instruction comes as a direct result
of that interview. It was quite an honor to have a Yahoo! senior
staffer share this rather sensitive information. I am very honored
to have such a great source at such an important search service.
Yahoo!
Listing Support: (408) 349-3333. This is a very interesting
service. In the past, when you dialed this number you used to reach
any of six staffers who answer this line who would answer specific
questions. Now you get an informational voice-mail message only.
At the end of the messages, you will hear recorded instructions
on how to leave a message concerning any problem you have had getting
listed with Yahoo!'s main page only. This can be helpful to anyone
struggling to get a site listed in Yahoo!.
"Rose"
suggested waiting a couple of weeks before contacting anyone at
this number and to search on your submitted title and URL to confirm
that you've not been listed yet before calling this number.
WARNING
#1: Yahoo! does not normally allow you to submit multiple pages. This is because
Yahoo Directory is not really a true search engine, but a catalog. Yahoo!'s Directory results are populated entirely
by user submissions, each one reviewed by a professional editor.
Every
submission to Yahoo! Directory is reviewed by a human being. A real
person visits your site and determines how it should be indexed.
Yahoo! Directory does not use spiders to index your site. Therefore, meta
tags are not necessary on the site submitted to Yahoo! Directory, nor will
they help you. The result of this policy is a smaller, but "cleaner"
index of Web sites and businesses on the Net.
WARNING
#2: Be careful to not play games with Yahoo!.
They could keep your submission fee and refuse to list your site.
Instructions
for Getting Indexed With Yahoo!
First,
Check to see if you're already listed in Yahoo!
Go
to the Yahoo Directory and search for your domain name. Click the Directory tab at the top to switch to Directory search.
If you are not listed,
browse the categories in the Directory that you would list yourself under. If you are confident that you're not
already listed, proceed to step 1.
How
to pay for a guaranteed seven-day review and possible listing of
your Web site in Yahoo!:
The
current fee for Yahoo! Express is a nonrefundable, recurring annual
fee of $299 for each web site submitted.
If you are submitting a site offering adult content and/or services,
the fee for the Yahoo! Express service is a nonrefundable, recurring
annual fee of $600. The Yahoo! editorial staff uses a more complicated
review process for sites offering adult content and/or services,
which requires more time.
All such fees
are payable in U.S. dollars to Yahoo! and will be charged to the
credit card number provided during the submission process. Your
credit card will be charged as soon as you click on the "Accept"
button at the end of the submission form.
http://www.Yahoo.com/info/suggest/busexpress.html
For
more information regarding "How to Suggest a Business Express" site
see:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/suggest.html
Step-By-Step
Instructions for getting listed in Yahoo! without paying (applies
only to non-commercial and non-profit sites):
Step
1: Make sure your Web site looks good.
Yahoo!
editors have no obligation to list your Web site. They include a
lot of disclaimer language on their submission pages telling you
they reserve the right not to list your site. Believe them!
Do not submit your site to Yahoo! until it is ready. Do not
submit any site that has an "under-construction" graphic on it.
Step
2: Submit to Yahoo! manually. Do not use submitting software,
submitting service or any other automated tool.
Sure,
some may work and get you listed, but Yahoo! is so important that
you will want to take the time and do it by hand. Besides, some
submission services and tools won't put you in the right category,
as Yahoo! categories change constantly. Most of the best tools
do not attempt to automatically submit to Yahoo! at all.
"Submissions
from the submitting software tools and even the submitting services
are often gibberish. We much prefer it if you do your submissions
manually. That way you can read our rules and do it properly. It
makes our job easier" -- Rose, Surfing Manager at Yahoo!
Step
3: Choose two categories where you would like your Web
site listed.
To
do this, you should make a list of your top three keywords and search
on them. Yahoo! will only allow you to be listed in up to two categories.
You should make an effort to pick the best ones. After you
do a search, notice the categories that appear first. Keep
in mind your prospects are going to be doing searches on similar
keywords. Therefore, if you could make a case for
listing your site in Category A or Category B, but Category B is
buried toward the bottom of the page, then suggest Category A if
it's applicable! Your listing will attract far more visitors
that way. Ultimately the decision of where to place your site
will rest with the Yahoo! editor as Rose comments below:
"You
will likely be put in the category with other Web sites or businesses
like yours. For instance, though you might really want to be in
the 'teachers category' because you sell to teachers, you will end
up in the text books category if that's what you make." --
Rose
Step
4: Select the category and then look for the "Suggest a
Site" link at the bottom of the section's page.
You
will be presented with a series of questions about your site, specifically
the site's URL, what you would like the site to be titled and a
site description. You will also be asked to suggest another category
where your Web site should be listed. Input your second choice in
that field.
Step
5: Carefully construct a site title making sure to include important
keywords near the beginning of the title, preferably as the first
word or two.
"As
a Yahoo! category editor, I will do everything I can to find the
legitimate name of the business. We prefer it if you go by the name
you gave your business as a site title." -- Rose
The
site title should not exceed 40 characters. Yahoo! ranks sites alphabetically,
so try to choose a site title that is alphabetically superior. Don't
be overt and name the site "A+ techniques to selling paint" or something
that obvious. You will get caught, and Yahoo! will likely
add you with your actual business name. See the discussion below
about the ASCII hierarchy and which letters and symbols rank higher
than others.
"If
you're a commercial site, you won't get added [by using a title
that describes the site content and not the company name]. Don't
use marketing lingo like, 'We're the best.' If I have a choice between
a site title like, 'a really good book' or 'The Cambridge Paperback
Encyclopedia,' I will spend more time on the one using the correct
title." -- Rose
You
may wish to consider alphabetical superiority if you have control
over your company name, naming your company with a "d.b.a. (doing
business as) company name" for the purposes of your
Web site to be first in a category can result in a tremendous volume
of traffic. This is no different than what people have been doing
in the phone book for years:
AAA
Auto Service
ACME Vacuum Cleaner Repair
There's value in being first, but only you can determine if this
would be ethical or appropriate given the type of business or organization
you lead. If you are about to build a Web site to sell a product,
and you haven't really established a company or product name yet,
consider a name that is alphabetically advantageous. If you are
"Zebra Systems" and well-known in the marketplace as such, you're
out of luck. Renaming your company or product for the purposes of
your Web site will mean that people who know your company and are
simply trying to check for your business hours won't find you.
Step
6: Carefully construct a site description, repeating one or
two of the important keywords in the first couple of words that
make up your site description. This field can be only 200 characters,
including spaces, or 25 words. Use the description wisely to make
it keyword rich. Try to avoid any stop words, like "the" or "and"
and so on. Its best not to waste keywords when you don't have to.
"If
using keywords early in your site description is done appropriately
and it really describes the Web site, it will go through.
Otherwise we'll change it, but you can try it!" -- Rose
Step
7: If your site was not added following an initial submission
and you need to resubmit, please wait two to three weeks between
submissions. If you submit more often than that, your submissions
to Yahoo! run the risk of being considered spam and could possibly
be dropped from consideration. To avoid this, please pick one category
to submit to and submit your site every two to three weeks. Or,
call Yahoo!S's listing service line at (408) 349-3333 and leave
a message asking why you weren't listed.
Yahoo!
Notes:
Yahoo!
indexes characters, not just whole words.
Yahoo!,
like most engines, indexes words, phrases AND characters. This means
if you're searching for "travel," you will also find "traveling"
and "travels."
Examine
your keywords and try to use the longest variation of your important
keywords. In our "travel" keyword example, the word "travel" is
also present in the words "travels" and "traveling."
With Yahoo!, by using the word "traveling" you are assured hits
when people search on "travel" OR "traveling." You are, in effect,
including two keywords for the price of one!
Regional
Yahoo! Directories:
For current
submission information and pricing for each regional version of
Yahoo! see:
More Information:
How
to Change Your Yahoo! Listing
Learning
to Alphabetize - The ASCII Hierarchy
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