Getting Listed in Yahoo

by Ken Evoy

PennyGold -- Powerful Penny Mining Stock Software

Your major problem with Yahoo! will be frustration. It can be very hard to get a listing. It¹s hard to even get an answer as to why you don¹t have a listing!

As a matter of fact, I realized why they called it Yahoo! when they finally notified me that my site would be listed in a few days ... "Yahoo!" is exactly what I said!

That being said, allow me to say this in their defence...

Yahoo! is a directory, not a spider-generated search engine. The people at Yahoo! value their good reputation as providers of high-quality, relevant Web sites. That's their business.

Real, live people at Yahoo! evaluate every submission. The key to getting listed is GOOD CONTENT. Yahoo! does not want to degrade their product by including poor Web sites.   If you are not getting listed, examine your site. If you feel that it is an effective, professional, productive web site, and especially if you are generating traffic and have lots of happy customers, appeal directly to Yahoo! on this basis.

Here¹s the address and phone number:

Yahoo! Corporation 

3400 Central Expressway Suite 201

Santa Clara, CA. 95051 USA

(408) 731-3300 -- 8:30AM to 5:00PM PST.

Now, here¹s how to get listed:

Only about one fourth of all sites submitted to Yahoo! ever make it in. So you've got to be better than 75% of the submissions!

Let's start...

First, make sure your page is ready. It must be clean, fast loading, with good grammar, spelling, layout and navigation. It must be ³finished.²

Second, have your own domain -- you will submit the root URL.

Third, submit ONLY the root URL and ONLY ask for two locations. So choose the locations well.

Fourth, before you submit, prepare the following information in a separate text document. You will copy and paste this data into the Yahoo submission form in a moment. Make sure that all the submission data is exactly the way you want it -- if you get listed, it¹s almost impossible to change anything later -- I have  learned this the hard way. :-(

Here's what you need to prepare:

a) TITLE -- if you have an especially important KEYWORD, make sure it appear in the title. Ideally, the info you enter here should be the same title as the title of your Home Page.

b) URL -- submit the root URL (i.e., http://www.you.com/index.html).

Yahoo! feels that if you took the time and expense to register your own domain, your effort is more serious and likely to last.  If you do not have your own domain, your chances go down.

c) DESCRIPTION -- use your KEYWORD at least twice in the 25 word description that you are allowed. DO NOT EXCEED 25 WORDS. DO NOT

MAKE YOUR DESCRIPTION OVERLY PROMOTIONAL.

NOTE: When a Yahoo! user does a search instead of drilling down, the Yahoo! search engine will use the presence of the KEYWORD in the title and description, but not in the META tags, to determine order of ranking. So make sure that your most important KEYWORD is sufficiently represented. But no need to go crazy -- you are not competing against thousands of others, as in the spider-driven SEs.

d) CATEGORY -- Follow their rules regarding permitted categories, depending on the type of site you have. If you have a company or product to sell, submit ONLY to the "Business and Economy/Companies" or "Business and Economy/Products and Services" category.

Take your time exploring the Yahoo! directory. Find the two best locations where your site belongs. If there are similar sites to yours in the category, you¹re in the right spot. If you don't see any sites similar to yours, you¹re probably not.

If there already are a LOT of similar companies in your chosen category, your chances drop. Unless yours is clearly the best of the lost and there is just no other appropriate category, try to find a different category that still fits well. Then justify that selection in the FINAL COMMENTS field.

Copy the URLs of the two locations and paste into a document for now -- you'll copy one into your submission later.

e) GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION -- if you have posted to the Regional directory (see more info on Regional just below), make sure the info that you enter here corresponds to the country selected.

f) FINAL COMMENTS -- add a short blurb about the value of your site -- content, traffic, satisfied customers, etc.

Fifth, submit. Paste in the better of the two URLs into the Location field of your browser and hit Enter on your keyboard.

Once you are there, click on the ³Add URL² button at the top of  the page. That will send you to the submission form with that URL already noted by Yahoo!.

Before you do anything, click on all their "how to" links.

Just follow the instructions from here on in. Follow the instructions carefully! I am sure that many people are left out because they violate Yahoo!¹s rules (like not using all caps).

Simply copy and paste all the data that you prepared in the  previous step. Fill in the other fields, as appropriate for your  individual case. Do not delete the text document. You may need it again if you have to re-submit.

Sixth, if you are not listed within 2 weeks, re-submit.

Seventh, if you are not listed within 6 weeds of the original submission, phone or write and make your case. I suggest that you write, because who the heck snail-mails anything to Yahoo!?

Eighth, if you are still not listed, post to the regional directory. Yahoo! often lists you locally within a few days, then in the main directory within 2 more weeks. When you submit regionally, you still must make sure that your chosen location is appropriate. If you have a business that truly is regional (such as real estate or car dealership), this is where you belong -- don¹t post globally.

NOTE: The following is straight from the Yahoo! site:

"Yahoo! distinguishes between regional and non-regional sites. Ask yourself, "Is my site specific to a particular place? Am I a local business? Is this a local history? Are we a local sports club?" If your suggested site is of particular interest or  relevance to a specific geographic region, then place it in the Regional hierarchy.

Regional sites and categories in Yahoo! are often cross-referenced  to appropriate areas (under other main subject headings) in the directory. For example a genealogy conference in Denver appears in the Denver:Events category and is also linked to the category for Genealogy conferences, located elsewhere in Yahoo! Again, this is cross-referencing done by Yahoo! Surfers, but there is a place on the Add URL form for you to suggest other suitable categories.

If your site is both regionally specific and commercial, then place it in the appropriate Business and Economy category. In other words, let us know that it is a commercial site; we'll take care of the regional placement."

Ninth, if you are still not listed, keep resubmitting every two weeks, and keep phoning or writing to make your case regarding content and how your site deserves to be in their excellent directory.

The traffic you will get from Yahoo!, especially if you are a small company only selling one product, is worth the effort. If you are a large company selling many different products across several product lines, Excite becomes more important. Not only is it neck and neck with InfoSeek as the heaviest used SE, but it far outstrips any other SE when you consider that AOL NetFind uses the Excite engine as well.

Finally .... Tenth, if all else fails, make a post about Yahoo to this mailing   list. Who knows? Maybe someone from Yahoo will see this post,  take pity on me and give my listing a description (yes, I have a  listing but no description). And maybe even give me the second  category that I have been requesting for months... ;-)