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I usually hang out in the Google forum, and hate Yahoo. However, I think I can make a decent profit even at $300 that it might be worth a shot. I have a few questions:
1) RANKING
Obviously I want a high rank. I have the feeling that Yahoo is quite different from Google as far as ranking is concerned. I read:
[webmasterworld.com...]
and am under the impression that category, title, and description are the most important. Is this generally accepted as true? I assume this is not the Title in HTML, but the Yahoo title and same with description? What other factors are important? Do metatags matter at all?
2) YAHOO PICKINESS
The site is going to be fairly simple, with ~ 12 pages of unique content. No java. But there will be tables. How far down do I need to go. Is netscape 4.7 enough? I use opera, netscape, and a WebTV emulator - is that good enough - or do I need to break out a copy of mosaic :)
The pages are all unique 300 - 1000 words of original content, but 7 of them are reviews of websites that I am promoting on an affiliate basis. IS this a problem?
3) REJECTIONS
Nothing would tick me off more than being rejected. I do not handle rejection well :) What are the main reasons Yahoo rejects sites? Any idea on how many they accept vs. reject? Will they give you an idea what to fix and to what degree?
I have read and reviewed:
[docs.yahoo.com...]
Any others I should read?
My site will be www.keywordIwant.biz or www.keywordIwant.info. Do you see any problem with this?
Also can I use style sheets for explorer using SSI and no stylesheets for netscape - or will that tick them off?
Yahoo
Keyword(s) research:
- Search your selected KW(s) and pay close attention to the categories the "SERPS" are selected from. I know of many searches that the "SERPS" return the top #3 sites from a category that does not contain the KW(s) of the search. The KW(s) are in the domain name(title) and description.
Pickiness:
I had a site that had a .css problem in NS4.7, this was pointed out to me by the editor via email. The problem was corrected and accepted within 3 days. NS4.7 is a must, opera or any other browser I do not know about.
I very recently got a blatantly commercial site into a non commercial category using "paid submit". The reason for selecting the cat was the KW in the cat. This KW just happened to be in my domain name. The description that was submitted had the same KW edited out of the description(Oh well it was worth a try). I believe that if the cat did not have the KW, the description would not have been edited.
Use a domain that has 3 KWs.
Rejection:
Yahoo is cash hungry, give them content and you are in.
Reguarding your yahoo submission.
Take down ALL of your affiliate links before you submit to yahoo. They hate affiliate links, and will probally reject your listing...saying...."not unique content" and make you pay again.
Good luck!
You could put up the links a few weeks after.
1. KW in category, domain, title and description are the ideal. Also, keep in mind KW proximity and percentage. Yahoo gives more weght to the first word that appears in the areas mentioned above, so try to have your KW there. If you're using a KW phrase, try to keep it together wherever you use it.
Just for bonus, optimize your page like you'd optimize for google.
2. What startup said. Just check with netscape 4.7 to see if it works, and definitely IE. Also, it's rumored many editors are on Macs.
- Like webguybri said, don't mention the affiliates in the site you submit to Yahoo, they don't like affiliates and watch for them. "Disguise" your content a bit and you can then include the reviews once your site has been accepted.
3. No problem with the TLD.
If you give them a decent site with some informative content, and the site works in the browsers mentioned above, you shouldn't have any problems. If you are rejected, they give you a chance to appeal. I've had a 90% success ratio on the appeal, and a very high ratio of sites admitted the first time around.
Good luck!
With regard to Yahoo ranking, the most important thing is that you get a description that will do you some good. I assume that you know that for commercial sites, the title is limited to the company name. My thoughts about targeting a Yahoo description in the following thread:
[webmasterworld.com...]
Study Yahoo descriptions in your desired category carefully before submitting. Yahoo doesn't like any sort of hype in its descriptions. Be careful about trying to get too many target words into what you submit... they don't like lists of keywords.
Also, I feel it's important that before you submit you make sure that the content of your site reflects the wording of your description. The home page, in particular, should have your target terms on the page in fairly prominent spots.
I got out my excel spreadsheet and started typing in stuff and have just started, but I did notice two things that caught my eye:
1) On the a very competitive phrase (which is not the same one I am after, but I know it is competitive) I noticed an EXTREMELY high correlation between PageRank and ranking FOR THE SAME CATEGORY. I found this odd - and had actually included PR as an afterthought as I was curious based on some of the comments I had seen on here before.
2) I noticed a string of 17 straight alphabetized listings. I think this is way more than chance would dictate.
Now none of this is conclusive, as it is just for one group of listings so far, but it does lead me to wonder (and research farther):
#1 - Is there really a correlation, or does it just work out that way, because people that are better at optimizing for Yahoo are better for optimizing for Google?
#2 - The string of alpahebetical listings is uncanny. Most of those sites in that string seem to be of the same quality (in fact most seem to be written by the same person). Do you think the Yahoo scoring system does not have a huge amount of resolution - and therefore breaks ties in alphabetical order?
I did note that this same trend did not appear at the few other listings I had a chance to glance over - at least not to that extent.
I actually did not know the Title was limited to the company name, but this shouldn't be a problem - as I will make the company name the url and title (with maybe an extra word here or there). If necessary I will change the NIC info to that as well.
I know this may appear overly optimistic, but it appears that listings within the same category - are ordered in a somewhat logical fashion - much more logical than I would have guessed (based basically on the suggestions made right here).
I did notice what I think that startup was saying about the categories - the don't apeear as logical and some seem to be worth much more than others. I will of course try for the most relevant one that comes up top for the KWs I target.
>>Study Yahoo descriptions in your desired category carefully before submitting. Yahoo doesn't like any sort of hype in its descriptions. Be careful about trying to get too many target words into what you submit... they don't like lists of keywords. <<
That seems like very good advice. I will make mine appear linguistically the same as the other listings. I do the same for DMOZ - and go so far as to emulate punctuation and capatilization. Of course, I have had horrible luck with some dmoz listings. Hope I do better here. I only usually target one site a phrase. So no keyword1-2-3-4-5.com for me...
Thanks for the help - I may hang out here some more :)
