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Insider tips for your Yahoo search
engine rankings
"Yahoo_Mike" is the nickname of a Yahoo employee
who is very helpful in responding to questions of webmasters
in the forums at WebmasterWorld.com.
During the last few weeks, Yahoo_Mike gave many tips that
may help you to improve the ranking of your web site on the
new Yahoo search engine.
- About getting non-profit sites listed in Site
Match
The Yahoo employee said that the first step is to send
an email with your site information to psm@yahoo-inc.com
to see if it qualifies for the program. Someone would follow
up with you if additional information was required.
- About being listed in Yahoo after the Inktomi
program has run out
The Yahoo employee said that web sites that participated
in the Inktomi paid inclusion program that were already
crawled by Yahoo would remain in Yahoo search after the
end of the Inktomi program on 15th April.
- About not paying the pay per click (PPC) costs
The Yahoo employee said that your Site Match URLs would
no longer be available until you added funds to your account
when your PPC budget ran out. If your URL had been previously
crawled, then the URL would continue to appear because it
remained in the Yahoo crawler index.
- About the speed of Site Match
The Yahoo employee said that it could take up to 4 business
days for new Site Match URLs to be reviewed and added to
the Yahoo search results.
- About Yahoo showing free crawled web sites
The Yahoo employee said that Yahoo search results had begun
showing free crawled sites when it had launched in February
and that the crawler continued to add new sites and pages
every day. According to Yahoo_Mike, it can take several
weeks for a web site to be visited or recrawled if you submit
it via the Add URL program.
- About being listed in the Yahoo directory and
the effect on Site Match
The Yahoo employee said that if your web site was listed
in the Yahoo directory it would also be crawled. That crawl
would happen on the same frequency as other web sites on
the web. Web sites in the Yahoo directory should be crawled
within 7 weeks.
- About being listed in the Yahoo directory but
not in the search engine
According to the Yahoo employee, it can also happen that
a web site that is listed in the Yahoo directory is not
listed in the Yahoo search engine results. The Yahoo directory
is reviewed by editors only. Sites from Yahoo's Add URL
feature, Site Match service or crawler are reviewed both
algorithmically and by editors.
The Yahoo employee said that there are some techniques,
such as hidden text, that a human editor would not detect.
However, the algorithmic evaluation would catch these problems.
The site would be accepted into the directory but not into
the Yahoo! Search results.
For the Yahoo directory, this would be alright because
the directory listings are not ranked by relevance and so
they are not influenced by hidden text. Hidden text is in
violation of Yahoo's editorial guidelines because it is
an attempt to influence the relevance of the search results.
This means that the inclusion in the directory does not
guarantee inclusion in the normal search results although
it makes the inclusion easier.
(Editor's note: We've always warned
webmasters about the risks of using shady search engine
optimization methods such as hidden text or doorway pages.
Search engines don't like them at all. If you want to achieve
good results, you should focus on ethical
search engine optimization).
Yahoo_Mike also said that another reason for being listed
in the Yahoo directory but not in Yahoo Search is that your
web site cannot be crawled because the web page uses Flash
technology. If you want to find out if your web site is
optimized
for a high ranking on Yahoo, try IBP's Top 10 Optimizer.
Source: Yahoo_Mike's quotes are taken from the WebmasterWorld
forum. A subscription is required to read all postings in
that forum. This Search Engine Facts newsletter will keep
you informed about the latest trends in search engine rankings
and is free.
If you want to know more about Yahoo's Site Match program
and if you want to find out whether it works for your web
site, read this Yahoo
Site Match article.
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