By Jerry West
Getting listed in Yahoo! seems to be the constant talk when the topic of registering sites with the search engines comes up. And why not, Yahoo! currently holds about 50% of the search engine market -- everybody wants in.
The problem? Yahoo! rejects about 90% of all sites requesting to be placed in their directory. Which is close to my percentage of date rejections in high school.
Others complain of being listed, but being buried in the wrong category and Yahoo! ignoring their request for a correct placement.
One point to clarify: Yahoo! is a directory, it is NOT a search engine as it is commonly referred to. Actual human reviewers look at each submission and decide if it is worthy to be placed in their directory.
Nearly every client I speak with always asks, "Can you get me into Yahoo!?" They always want to hear "yes" and while we have never failed in getting a client into Yahoo!, sometimes the process is very painful -- and slow.
To clear up some major confusion, let's cut to the chase: There are two ways to get into Yahoo! and one does not get you into the other, you must do both if you want maximum coverage. Let me explain what I mean.
Yahoo! is a directory. Meaning, it is broken down by category, region, specialty, etc. So, if I was going to look for a real estate agent in my home town of San Jose, California, and I chose Yahoo! as my point of search, this is what would occur.
I would first choose "Regional" from the main screen. Then "U.S. States", then I then pick "California" and since I San Jose, I choose "Cities" and "S" for the alphabetical listings and then "San Jose". I still have a ways to go from here, believe it or not.
I now choose "Real Estate", "Agencies" and I can now choose between "Commercial" or "Residential" and finally, what I am after - "Agents". Whew! That is a lot of work just to find a real estate agent in San Jose - a total of ten clicks. The above example shows why the directory structure of Yahoo! is weak when it comes to finding specific information. The Internet is about finding information fast...not going through what seems like an endless array of choices. Personally, I hate that.
So, why is Yahoo! so popular then? Well, they also have a Search function. Typing in "real estate agent san jose" instantly pops up the list that would have taken me ten clicks to get to through the directory structure. Thank you.
Which process would you choose next time? Exactly. Use the search instead. Many do. So, what should you do to get listed fast?
You've heard about the "Business Express Service" where you pay $199 for a guaranteed review -- but Yahoo! doesn't guarantee you will be listed. Often it is a wasted $199. You could manually submit your listing, but unless it is perfect, you will get rejected. And even if it is perfect, we have seen some sites get rejected. Let us share with you a method to get listed in Yahoo!'s search results while you wait for your submission into their directory to be accepted.
Yahoo!'s search is not it's own engine, but it uses a search database called Inktomi (pronounced Ink-2-me). Inktomi powers not only Yahoo! but HotBot, Snap.com and many others. How they differ in their results is by the criteria each company chooses to pull from the database -- hence differing results from the same database. If a site is listed in Inktomi, it is available to the others, regardless of how it got in.
I'm sure you have made the connection already. You can sneak through the backdoor, get into the Inktomi database, and presto!, your site is accessible to Yahoo! users. Let us clarify, however, that Yahoo! uses the Inktomi listings as a secondary source - as they will ALWAYS list their directory listings first in their search results, so it is still vital to get in their directory.
How to Get listed in Inktomi
We suggest adding your site to HotBot, and allow HotBot to index your site and dump you into Inktomi. Another good option is to add your site to Canada.com or Anzwers.com. In our testing, both are faster at indexing your site than HotBot and they also use Inktomi. Now when someone searches in Yahoo! you will be amongst those sites listed.
Yahoo! Tips and Suggestions
Here are some helpful hints to get your site accepted by the Yahoo! editors -- who are inconsistent themselves.
1. Your pages should be professionally designed. Yahoo! likes attractive pages that are visually appealing.
2. Do not make up a name just to get to the top of their directory (i.e. A1 Hobby Shop). Yahoo! will look at this as an attempt to thwart their guidelines.
3. Leave "Hype" out. Yahoo! editors "love it" when they run across a site with "hype" everywhere, as they can reject it immediately and go onto the next submission. While you want to incorporate keywords in your Company Name and Description when you submit to Yahoo! you don't want it coming across as "hype".
4. Yahoo! doesn't really care how good your site is, they will only accept it if it will improve their index. Look at your submission from their point-of-view. They are out to build the best index on the web. If your site does not improve their index, why would they accept it? So, if your site is good, but it is basically the same as other sites already in Yahoo!'s directory, it will likely be rejected. If your industry is well represented in their directory, look at another category, or better yet, a regional category.
5. Contact Information. You should have complete contact information on every page. Contact information should include: Company Name, Complete Street Address, Phone Number, Fax Number and E-mail contact. Now, here is the rough part, the contact information must match the contact information with Network Solutions (InterNIC) and the contact information included with the submission. If it doesn't, your site may be rejected. We also suggest having a phone number for "Customer Care" - Yahoo! loves that buzzword.
6. You must have your Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, Return Policy, Warranty, Guarantee, Shipping Information, linked clearly on your main page.
7. All images should load. Test your site to verify that there are no "broken" images anywhere on your site.
8. Links: Verify all of your links. Any bad links can get your site disqualified from submission into Yahoo!
9. If your site sells ANYTHING, make sure it is placed in the Business and Economy section. Any other and it may be rejected.
10. Remember that Yahoo! does not read Meta Tags or crawl pages, but it's search database Inktomi does.
11. It takes Yahoo! from 1-8 weeks to review your site. After Submiting your site, if you aren't listed after two weeks submit again. If after two weeks you still aren't listed, send an e-mail and after two more weeks without a listing you can call (408) 731-3300. Remember, Yahoo! keeps a log of every e-mail and every phone call, so you CANNOT jump ahead in the process.
12. Provide a copyright notice at the bottom of at least your main page - preferably on every page. Make sure it has "2000" as the year - and you may also consider putting a "Last Updated on . . . " so Yahoo! knows your site gives fresh content.
13. Regional submissions have the best acceptance ratio. So if your site fits into a region, submit it there. The reason you have a better shot is that regional submissions go to specific editors for that region and their workload is generally lighter than the categories. Also, your site tends to be reviewed much quicker.
14. The relevancy score for Yahoo! is based on the Category, Title, Description and URL.
15. Yahoo! seems to like Link Pages (i.e. a page which consists of links to other web sites of similar interest to yours).
16. The use of links to sites like Public Eye, The Better Business Bureau and Truste have helped many companies get listed in Yahoo!
17. If you're trying to get a second domain listed for the same company, make sure you use different contact information and present it in a new and unique way in a different category. Don't link back and forth between the first domain and the second. Keep them totally separate. Once they're indexed, then you can go back and link them together with no problem.
From Yahoo!: DO'S AND DON'TS:
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