Yahoo! Submission And Listing Optimization Guide.
|
||
Working At Home Business | Internet Business In 4 Simple Steps | eBooks | Free Articles |
|
Working At Home
How to Create A Fortune on the Internet in just 4 Simple Steps?Tested and proven
FreeToSell
eBooks
|
|
When you write the description, your aim is to make the Yahoo editor's job as easy as possible. You should not make the editor feel that she needs to edit your description in any way. Once the editor starts to edit your description, you risk having your important keywords removed from description or worse, having it changed in a way which does not reflect the content of your site.
Your description should be a single sentence which conveys what your site is all about and contains the most important keywords as close as possible to the beginning of the description.
However, your description should not just be a list of keywords. It should be a proper sentence and grammatically correct. It should also be attractive to your visitors so that they will actually click on it.
Here are the rules that you should remember when writing the description:
1) Make sure that the description can tell a visitor what your site is all about. Things like "Welcome to my site" does not tell a visitor what your site does.
2) Avoid hype of any sort. Avoid using exclamation marks. Phrases like "The best", "The cheapest" will be immediately removed - at the best. The editor may just ignore your submission if she smells any hypes.
3) Don't capitalize any word in your description - not even the first word. For some reason, Yahoo prefers that the first word of your description is not capitalized. If you look at the sites in any Yahoo category, you will find that almost none of them have the first word capitalized. Of course, if some of the words in the description are proper nouns, then you should capitalize them.
4) Write the description in the third person. Don't say "We offer...", just say "offers ...".
5) Keep it short, 12 words at the most. Longer the description, higher the probability that the editor will want to edit it. Your aim is to have the editor accept the exact description in order to ensure that your keywords are not removed from it.
6) Check for typos and grammatical mistakes.
Proper category to submit
First of all, you need to determine whether your site is regionally specific. If yes, then you should submit your site to the appropriate Regional Category in Yahoo.
If your site is commercial in nature and is not regionally specific, it belongs somewhere under the Business and Economy > Shopping and Services or Business and Economy > Business to Business categories. If your site is targeting at individual consumers, then your site needs to be under the Shopping and Services category. If your site is targeting at other businesses, it needs to be in the Business to Business category.
In most cases, you need to dig deeper to find the exact, proper category to submit. Simply search for the most important keywords you are targeting at. Go through all the categories which the top ranking sites belong to. Note down the categories which contain sites which are very similar to yours.
In many cases, there will only be one category which contains sites similar to yours and this is the category to which you should submit your site. If you find that there is more than one category which contains sites similar to yours, and if you are convinced that all these categories are applicable for your site, select the two categories which contain the least number of sites as your primary and secondary categories.
Submission
Create a text file in which you can record the details of your submission. Note down the date of submission, the URL of your web site, the Title and Description of your site, and the URLs of the 2 categories which are applicable for your site.
Now go to the primary category for your site, click on the Suggest a Site link at the bottom of the page and follow the instructions. If that category does not have a Suggest a Site link, it means that it is a very general category to which new sites cannot be added. You need to click further then.
Follow the instructions and fill out the questions required - copy and paste from your text file. Double check everything in the text file first to ensure that there are no mistakes and that all the URLs are working correctly. It is very difficult to change your site's listing in Yahoo once you get listed. Make sure to do everything correctly the first time.
Yahoo asks you whether there is any other category in which your site should be listed apart from the category to which you are submitting. If you have located more than one category, mention the URL of the secondary category in this field.
Yahoo also asks you for some comments regarding your submission. If you have a unique product or service that not many other web sites listed in Yahoo are offering, mention this here. Tell Yahoo how your site will be valuable and helpful to their visitors. The comments should be less than 200 characters.
Also note that Yahoo asks for your physical address, phone number, fax number, email address etc. These should be the same as the particulars listed in your site.
Business Express Submission
If yours is a commercial site and is not regionally specific, you have no choice but to pay them $299 for the Business Express submission option.
Paying them $299 does not guarantee listing in Yahoo directory and your site is not given any preference in its rankings. Using the Business Express option merely guarantees that your site will be reviewed within 7 days and that, in case it is not accepted, you will be told why your site was not accepted. You also have a chance of appealing a rejection within 30 days.
Free submission
If your site does not belong to the two commercial categories, you can either submit for free, or use the Business Express submission option. However, your site may or may not be reviewed with free submission and you don't even know it.
Unless you are very lucky, if you use the free submission, your site may not be accepted in your first try. Resubmit a month later if nothing has happened.
If your site is still not accepted 1 month after the second submission, try write to a special Yahoo! address:
Introduce yourself, tell them that you have been trying to submit your site to Yahoo and have failed. Give them the details of your last submission. If you have a unique product or service that not many other web sites listed in Yahoo! are offering, mention it. Request them, very politely, to review your site and add it to Yahoo if they find your site appropriate.
If you still can't get listed after 1 month, don't send any more emails. Yahoo provides a phone number for listing support: 408-731-3333. Call this number and leave a message mentioning your URL and the date when you last submitted and requesting (again, very politely) that your site be listed.
If the phone call does not get you listed, consider writing to Yahoo! at
Yahoo! Corporation
3420 Central Expressway,
2nd floor Santa Clara, CA 95051, USA
If you still can't get your site listed, and you are convinced that your site deserves to get into Yahoo and that you have followed all the rules, you should then use the Business Express submission option.
What if your Business Express submission is rejected
A common reason for Yahoo rejecting a site is lack of original content. If your site is full of affiliate links and nothing else, don't hope to get listed. Consider adding a few articles and tips related to your site. Then, send a polite reply to Yahoo thanking them for their feedback. Point out the fact that after receiving the feedback, you have added some articles and tips. Be specific, tell them the exact URLs which contains these articles. Then request them to review your site again and add it if they find it appropriate.
Another common reason for rejection is that in Yahoo's opinion, the site is still under construction. If you are convinced that your site does not contain missing graphics, bad links, "Under construction" pages, then a common reason is that the site cannot be properly viewed by Netscape. Yahoo editors generally use Netscape. You need to ensure that your site can be viewed properly in Netscape 3.0 and above.
Your site is listed
Once you have got your site into Yahoo, it will be added to Yahoo's What's New section. Furthermore, your site will be marked as new and will be placed at the top of the categories for 1 week. This placement at the top can bring in quite a few visitors to your site every day. After the first week, the position of your site in the categories will be according to the alphabetical ranking of your Title.
More Internet business marketing articles
Working At Home Business |
Internet Business In 4 Simple Steps |
eBooks |
Free Articles |