Get Listed in Yahoo Becomes Easy

By King Lui
Posted Friday, October 22, 2004

Get listed in Yahoo directory is very important in web site promotion because traffic of Yahoo directory is ranked as No.1. If your site is listed in Yahoo, you are likely to get decent traffic from it. Many webmasters found that it is extremely difficult to get listed in Yahoo. Granted! It is not impossible but really quite difficult. You need to spend effort on Yahoo submission, let me share the following tips with you:

Pricing

If your site is a business site, prepare to pay Yahoo US$199 (Business Express Service). It is officially announced that there is no free lunch for business sites anymore. The price guarantees that your web site will be reviewed within 7 days. As Yahoo needs to maintain a high quality directory, it cannot promise that your site will be included after a review. For non-business site, you can still submit to Yahoo for zero cost. However, Yahoo does not guarantee to review your site.

For adult site, you need to pay US$600 before Yahoo¡¦s editors will visit your site.

In general, submit to Yahoo requires money. To avoid wasting your money, you need to well prepare your site before submission.

Preparation

In your web site,

1. Your official business name should be clearly visible. Yahoo is likely to take it as your site title.

2. There are no broken links and no under construction areas exist.

3. Your site must be available 24 hours a day and seven days a week. If your web host is unreliable, it means you must switch your web hosting company.

4. If you are selling products, you must ensure that you can accept credit card payment on-line in a secure channel. More favorably, you accept multiple payment methods.

5. Ensure that your business address is available at your web site. Preferably, it should be found somewhere at your homepage. At least, you should add a page called about us or contact us and provide your business address in this page.

6. Ensure that your web site functions properly in different browsers, at least, the latest version of Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.

7. Your site should be loaded fast. Of course, the meaning of ¡§fast¡¨is subjective. If your site can be completely loaded within 6 ¡V 8 seconds, it should be no problem.

8. Ensure your site does not have obvious grammatical and spelling mistakes. It undermines the credibility of your web site, and thus, the chance of being accepted in Yahoo.

9. Your site must have sufficient original content. Your site at least consists of 5-6 pages.

10. The navigation system is easy to follow and clear.

Yahoo Submission

1. You need to suggest 1-2 categories, title, and description to Yahoo.

2. You need to spend time in selecting the most suitable category. If you cannot select the correct category, I'm sure that you cannot get listed. A guideline I can give you is that you should find out your competitors and see which category(ies) they are being placed. Then, follow it. If your site is a business site, you must place it under one of the sub-categories of ¡§Business and Economy ¡§.

3. Use your official business name as site title. Title should not compose of more than 5 words.

4. The description should be written within 25 keywords. It is much better to write it within 10-18 words, stuffed with relevant keywords. If it is written too long, Yahoo's editor may completely change your description. Even though you can get listed then, you cannot get any significant traffic because the description has no relevant keywords.

5. Do not submit too frequently to Yahoo or else your site will be regarded as spamming. You may never get listed then. You can re-submit your site only if you get no response from Yahoo 6 weeks after your first submission. If you submit your site 2 times without response, send a follow-up email to url-support@yahoo-inc.com. You may get some response, but there is no guarantee.

6. If you have paid US$199, and your site has been rejected. You have a chance to appeal within 30 days. Don't appeal too early. Check your site thoroughly before you make an appeal because you have only one chance.

7. If your site is accepted, you will receive a notification from Yahoo. Bingo!

To be honest, we don¡¦t want to pay the US$199 submission fee. However, unique visitors number of Yahoo is No.1 in the world, it is deserved to spend effort and money for getting listed. So, consider the fee is an advertising expense.

About the Author
King Lui
Abc Internet Marketing TV Helps Internet business owners promote their web sites effectively!
Visit the site at (http://www.abc-internetmarketing.com/)