The Best Way to Get Listed On Yahoo!

This week’s tip was provided by David Gikandi (support@positionweaver.com) who is the CEO at SearchPositioning.com, which helps web masters achieve rankings on some of the web’s top search engines.

Yahoo! has an immense reach. They receive more traffic than any other search engine or directory. 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 is only currently available for non-commercial sites. 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’s search 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.

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