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About Yahoo
Yahoo
is the Internet's oldest Human Edited directory, a place where human
editors organize web sites into categories. However, in October 2002,
Yahoo made a giant shift to crawler-based listings for its main results.
These came from Google until February 2004. Now, Yahoo uses its own search
technology. The Yahoo Directory still survives. You'll notice "category"
links below some of the sites lists in response to a keyword search. When
offered, these will take you to a list of web sites that have been
reviewed and approved by a human editor. it's also possible to do a pure
search of just the human compiled Data of Yahoo Directory, To do this,
search from the Yahoo Directory home page, as opposed to the regular
www.Yahoo.com home page. Then you'll get both directory category links and
"Directory Results," which are the top web site matches drawn from all
categories of the Yahoo Directory. Sites pay a fee to be included in the
Yahoo Directory's commercial listings, though they must meet editor
approval before being accepted. Non-commercial content is accepted for
free. Yahoo's content acquisition program also offers paid inclusion,
where sites can also pay to be included in Yahoo's crawler-based results.
This doesn't guarantee ranking, Yahoo promises. The CAP program also bring
in content from non-profit organizations for free. Like Google, Yahoo
sells paid placement advertising links that appear on its own site and
which are distributed to others. These are sold through Overture. Yahoo
purchased Overture in a company Yahoo purchased in October 2003.
Getting Listed:
These days, there are two ways you can submit to Yahoo. The first one is
free, but it is not available to all sites and has other drawbacks as
well. The second, Yahoo Express, can be used by (almost) everyone and is
fast, but also costs a pretty penny. Here, we'll cover both and hopefully
help you determine which of the two suits your situation better.
Free submission
free submission option offered by Yahoo has several limitations. First of
all, it is not available in the "commercial directory". The "commercial
directory" consists mostly of the "Business and Economy" category and its
subcategories, which are where most commercial sites should be placed.
International Yahoos (for example Yahoo UK & Ireland and Yahoo Australia &
NZ) are exceptions to this rule, because they still allow free submissions
to the categories under "Business and Economy". Thus, if you have a
commercial site that is targeted at a non-US audience, submitting to the
appropriate international Yahoo might be a cost-effective solution. The
second limitation is that the free submission is reserved for
non-commercial sites. Hence, even if you have a commercial site that
belongs outside the "Business and Economy" category, the only way you'll
be able to get in is through Yahoo Express. So, what makes one site
commercial and another non-commercial in the eyes of Yahoo? If you're
selling a product or a service, you're commercial. On the other hand, if
your site provides a lot of high quality content for free and does not
have any banner ads or affiliate programs, you're non-commercial. Between
these two extremes lies a large grey area. The worst thing about Yahoo's
free submission is that it is a very slow and unreliable way to get into
the directory. Usually it takes several attempts and several months before
you'll be able to get your site listed, so if you're in a hurry, the free
submission is not for you.
Yahoo Express
For those who own a commercial site or lack in patience, Yahoo offers
"Yahoo Express", a paid submission service. In exchange for promising to
review your English-language site within a week, Yahoo wants you to pay a
$299 non-refundable fee. This fee includes one free appeal within 30 days,
so if you happen to get rejected, you can fix the problems pointed out to
you by Yahoo and try again without having to pay any additional fees.
Remember, this is a review fee and it does not guarantee that your site
will be accepted into the directory. The only thing it guarantees is that
someone will look at your site within 7 days and decide whether or not it
will be added to Yahoo. So, before submitting your site via "Yahoo
Express", make sure that it complies with all of Yahoo's guidelines.
Unfortunately, simply paying the initial review fee isn't enough. If you
use "Yahoo Express" and are accepted into Yahoo, your site will also be
re-reviewed each year on the anniversary date of your site's inclusion in
the directory. This means that you'll have to pay the $299/$600 review fee
once every year, and if you don't, your site will be removed from the
directory.
Additionally, should your site change within the year in a way that makes
it ineligible for a Yahoo listing (for example, a lot of broken images
and/or links appear), it seems possible that you'll lose your listing even
if you pay the yearly fee. Naturally, a recurring annual fee would make
things very difficult for non-commercial sites that wish to speed up their
listing process with Yahoo Express. Paying a one-time review fee might not
be out of the question, but having to pay the same fee year after year is
usually impossible. However, the annual fee only applies to sites
submitted to the "commercial directory", which consists mostly of
categories under "Business and Economy". Sites submitted to non-commercial
categories do not have to pay the yearly review fee, even if they are
submitted using Yahoo Express. |
