Amazing Yahoo!

They made some changes to my listing

[eljefe3]

Receieved this from Yahoo 8 days after getting into the index.

Dear Business Express Client,

This email is in response to your appeal regarding the URL submitted

<url:http://foo.com>

with Business Express Order #XXXXXXX. After reviewing your appeal,
we have made some changes. The changes should appear in
the database within the next 2 to 4 business days.

If you have further questions please check our FAQ area at
[yahoo.com...] For billing or general Business Express
questions please visit [help.yahoo.com...] To request
additional changes, please use the change form at
[add.yahoo.com...]

Thank you for using Yahoo!

-Yahoo! Business Express Team

Don't know if this is because I pointed out a grammar error, or if they will actually change my description that I'm hoping for. Should know in a day or two.

The change was made by the bizexpress editor that initally reviewed the site.

[dogboy]

nice... I'm always happy to see an edit.... about as rare as a rainbow:) congrats

[eljefe3]

Followup,

The change did take place two days after they gave me the 2-4 day range. Bad news is all they did was correct their grammatical error and did not change the description at all as suggested:(.

But hey, at least they actually responded.

[Blossoms]

Hold on please! Are you referring to a paid request for edit or unpaid request? Did you pay $199 for a grammatical error to be corrected? Inquiring minds want to know this distinction. We had a 17 year old submit our site last year without our knowledge. Now we're in there with a stupid title: our company name. This has to change. We submitted an unpaid request for correction but that will take 5 months won't it? So we feel we need to pay $199 to change the title into something more reasonable. Is that a good idea and will it work or are we stuck with what the kid submitted?

[toolman]

Just to add my two cents...

I don't beleive the current honeymoon with the $199.00 "my way or the highway" type business model will last for the search engines.

Somewhere along the line the customers who are paying a ridiculous price for something that is basically a crap shoot will seek other avenues.

It is a rather haughty attitude for any company to think that they can dictate conditions to the customer and not even offer a refund policy if the customer is not happy with the outcome of the process. It would make more sense to offer removal from the index and a refund if the customer isn't satisfied or doesn't make the cut.

The way it is now....you would never have seen a company think like that 20 years ago. It is sheer arrogance.

Arrogance breeds contempt and once a company becomes the target of public contempt it is difficult to recover from the slide.

One thing is certain...the internet facilitates change. Change on a scale and a speed never before seen in history.

It makes good business sense to stay on the favorable side of change. Favorable can be defined as "a good experience with a certain web site or company."

I've been known to be 10 feet tall and bulletproof. Reality however, always sets in "the morning after".

[skibum]

>>Now we're in there with a stupid title: our company name. <<

Directories list site with the company or site name as the title.

>>This has to change.<<

If I understand correctly, the site is listed as company name as the title, and then some description. Unless there is a glaring error, such a listing is very unlikely to change.

[Blossoms]

Now, that was a non-sequitur that missed the point. The answer seems to demonstrate the kind of thinking that the CEO of Yahoo needs to purge from its editors. If I paid $199 to get an answer like that, the answer would be reprinted in a press release publicly demanding the money back. Company names make foolish titles when the name has no keywords in it. For that matter, short titles are most often foolish. It was a CHILD who put the company name as our title while submitting without the permission of management. It could have been a competitor that submitted for us. Nobody even halfwitted ever uses a non-descriptive title when all the smart people call themselves by keyword rich names. If Yahoo wants to stand behind the foolish assumption that a company name suffices as a title, they would have to stipulate that everyone else is only allowed to use their officially registered company names (and hunt down any possible use of keyword rich aliases that someone hasn't officially registered with authorities). Then there might be a rush for companies around the world to change their official names to something that would look good in a directory title. (For that matter by the way, its insane and unfair for search engine bots to give URLs weight when the best listing for a given keyword may have a distinguished and reputable company using its own name as the URL). You see skibum, its not right and its not fair to let some people enter keyword rich titles and force others to hold bad titles, especially company names, that 17 year old interns first submitted without permission of management. But I don't need the aggravation of a flame war on what most people here recognize is a bad policy. Our competitors call themselves by keyword rich names in their titles. Please post ways to get around the nonsense. Can we have our entry deleted by one editor and then re-submit two days later (with probably a different editor) under one the same or one of our other domain names? Please post constructive answers on how to deal with this.

[eljefe3]

>>Hold on please! Are you referring to a paid request for edit or unpaid request?

I did pay the $199 for business express. I did ask them to change the description as they had an error in grammar, and while I was at it I asked them to change the description to reflect better what the site was about. They did correct their grammar, but did not make the change that I suggested/requested.

>>all the smart people call themselves by keyword rich names.

This is the only (almost) sure fire way that I have seen sites get the Titles that they wanted.

From what I understand, it's almost impossible to get yahoo to change anything regardless of whether it was a paid or free submission.

If I were in a similar situation as Blossoms, I might consider the keyword rich names option :).

[dwedeking]

I've made requests for changes both grammar and to have the site moved to a different category. I explained explicitly the logical reasoning behind why I wanted the change. Got an answer and the category change within a day or two. Concering se bots that give weight to the URL, it is common practice to have one site under the companyname.com and one under a keyword-rich.com for SEO purposes.

[JamesR]

>Please post ways to get around the nonsense.

1. Learn from your competition

-or-

2. Get yourself on a custom click program, some top SEO companies have the technology to help you.

>Can we have our entry deleted by one editor and then re-submit two days later (with probably a different editor) under one the same or one of our other domain names?

They keep track of a domain's entry. IMO, company name is not a bad thing for a title, think of the alternatives (*Get the best used cars here!!!). The phone book has succeeded for years on this approach. Yahoo tries to direct visitors to categories that match a particular search. The real problem lies in the description, not the title. The description is what is near worthless to users.

[zechariah]

I do agree with toolman & blossoms view about this major search engine stuff especially Yahoo which I think is following in the footsteps of Microsoft - but only time will tell how they fare in the near future.

[Blossoms]

I promised not to ever write anything on the Yahoo forum again, but I have to say that the attitude expressed above about Yahoo being right to put company names as titles isn't logical. Its just too easy to change your Whois company name to get around this but nobody should have to do that. Titles mean too much in a Yahoo search. Learning from the competition means, in the above case, changing the name of your company to something keyword rich.

[2_much]

Right on Blossoms. It's all about capitalizing upon opportunities as they present themselves. Yahoo has its flaws but when utilized wisely, it can be an amazing source of traffic and revenue. All you have to do is focus on finding the "loopholes" and then applying those to your own sites.

[Eric_Jarvis]

incidentally...has anyone got a method of getting a site that has changed character moved to the appropriate category?...I've tried the change form, but I simply can't explain the reason for the change in 200 characters or less.

[2_much]

Hi Eric,

If you initially submitted the site through BizEx, you could try emailing the editor that sent you the acceptance email. Sometimes that works.
I have to warn you though, it is VERY difficult to get Yahoo to switch a site to another category. You could still try and with perseverance it might work, but generally they don't change sites to different categories or titles.