The Best Way To Get Listed On Yahoo!

By David Gikandi
Posted Thursday, July 1, 2004

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!

About the Author
David Gikandi (support@positionweaver.com) is CEO at SearchPositioning.com (http://www.aboutwebmasters.com). AboutWebmasters.com is a large interactive webmasters portal featuring everything an e-commerce professional needs.