© 2002 By Vishal Rao. All Rights Reserved.

With the new Yahoo! "Pay-For-Review" model it might be relatively easier for sites to get into the directory but getting traffic from your listing is altogether a different story. And now with it's new annual recurring payment policy you have to be extra careful while submitting your site for a review.

Here are 8 things to keep in mind while submitting your site to Yahoo!

1) Selecting your domain name is the most vital step in getting a top ranking in Yahoo! and also other directories like Dmoz and Looksmart.

Make sure your domain name is "Keyword Rich". You can make your domain keyword rich by simply inserting hyphens to separate words in your domain name. Yahoo! gives more relevance to sites with keywords in their domain name.

Take our domain name for example:
http://www.home-based-business-opportunities.com/

It is made up of 4 different high-in-demand keywords: "Home Based Business", "Home Business", "Home Business Opportunities", "Home Based Business Opportunities".

While crafting your domain name, even you should try to keep your domain name such that it is made up of one, 2-4 words, main or "parent" keyword; which in turn is made up of 2-4 high-in-demand "child" keywords.

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In our domain name, the "parent" or main keyword is "Home Based Business Opportunities" and the "child" keywords are "Home Based Business", "Home Business", "Home Business Opportunities" and "Business Opportunities" - which are all nested within the main keyword.
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You may or may not get a top ranking for all your targeted keywords but you can be sure of getting one for your main or "parent" keyword (If you do everything else right).

Even if you have to get a separate domain name for this purpose, GET IT! It is absolutely crucial for your ranking.

2) Sites which are placed higher in directory structure are given more relevance than sites which are placed lower or deeper.

For example a site listed in category - B2B/Business_Opportunities will be given more relevance than a site listed in category - B2B/Business_Opportunities/Directories

Here's a great tip to select the most trafficked category for your website...

Once you have short-listed 2 or 3 category to place your site in to, check out the cost of Sponsor Listings of those categories.

It's really simple. Visit the following URL: https://ecom.yahoo.com/fast/sponsor

Enter the URL of any website that is listed in your desired category (The URL should be same as it appears in Yahoo! and the category should be a commercial category).

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Please note that Yahoo! accepts Sponsor Listings for only certain commercial categories and so this tip may or may not work for your category.
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You'll be asked for your Yahoo! ID. Once you submit the information, you'll be provided with the Sponsorship charges for that certain category. Repeat the process for your remaining short-listed categories.

Now compare the prices of all your short-listed categories. Naturally the one with a higher price is the most trafficked one!

3) Yahoo! considers keywords in the directory structure while ranking.

For example, if someone is searching for "Business Opportunities Directories", a web site listed in category - B2B/Business_Opportunities/Directories will be given more relevance than a web site listed in category - B2B/Business_Opportunities

4) Yahoo! DOES NOT spider websites to determine ranking. It ranks web sites based on keywords in domain name, title and description. So having META tags does not make any difference to your listing.

5) DO NOT try to stuff as much keywords as possible in to the description. Yahoo! editors are notorious for cutting down the description if they sense even slightest hype. Try to avoid words such as - no.1, proven, turnkey, exciting etc.

Also, make sure that the heading of your home page is same as the description you provided for your site. There should be no confusion in the mind of the editor reviewing your site.

6) Make sure your domain name and business name is the same since Yahoo! is known to use the business name as the title for your listing.

7) Make sure your website is "Content Rich". This is very critical for two reasons:

a) to get your site accepted by Yahoo!
b) to maintain and get a higher listing.

Yahoo! now seems to determine the popularity of a website by the amount of time a visitor spends on your website and other complex algorithms.

Our guess is that it uses a technology similar to that used by Direct Hit to measure the popularity of sites.

Since you can't be sure as to what algorithms they use, one way to make sure your site stays on top is to develop a "Content Rich" site, so visitors spend more time on your website.

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Once a site gets accepted into the directory, Yahoo! ranks it based on the keyword popularity in domain name, title and description. But as time progresses, it determines the ranking based on the popularity of the website itself.

We ignored this and our listing came down drastically within few days of getting accepted!
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8) Before submitting your website, thoroughly research websites that rank higher for keywords you are targeting (Especially the "Most Popular" sites in the directory section). This will give you a rough idea of what to and what not to include in your website.