Is A Yahoo Listing Still Worth It?

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In October 2002, the Yahoo! portal changed the way ...
search results. In the past, the most ...
were ... culled from websites listed in theYahoo ...
itself. Since Oc In October 2002, the Yahoo! portal changed the way itdelivers search results.
In the past, the most prominentresults were exclusively culled from websites listed in theYahoo directory itself. Since October, sites listed in theYahoo directory no longer enjoy this privileged status.
The Google search engine now drives the primary searchresults on Yahoo. While this is certainly an improvementfor users of Yahoo search, it's a disaster for manybusinesses that counted on their Yahoo listing to deliversubstantial traffic.This change has also led many site owners to question thevalue of a listing in the Yahoo directory.
In this article,I will outline the pros and cons of maintaining, or payingfor, a Yahoo listing. In the process, I will delve intomore details of the recent changes.Argument #1: Yahoo Listings Mean Link PopularityPro:Even if the Yahoo listing itself delivers little or notraffic, other search engines will rank your website higherif it's listed in Yahoo.
Because Yahoo is so important, alink from Yahoo counts more than a regular link. Thanks toits higher "PageRank," Yahoo means even more to Google.Con:Yahoo listings do not deliver nearly as significant acontribution in this area as you might think.
You canverify this by doing a "backward links" search on Googlefor any Yahoo-listed website. The most important links arelisted first, and the Yahoo listing is rarely even on thefirst page of links for top ranked sites on Google.Argument #2: Listed Sites Look Better In The Search ResultsPro:Websites with a Yahoo listing show up in the combinedYahoo/Google results with their title, description, andcategory from the Yahoo directory.
This may boost theresponse when the site appears in the search results. Thisapplies when the URL listed in the results is the same asthe URL in the Yahoo listing.
Con:Results listed with Yahoo information include a link tothe site's category, which may prompt surfers to pass overyour listing and go to the category. Sites without Yahoolistings have the more inviting "search within this site"link, which leads to more results exclusively from yoursite.So, Is A Yahoo Listing Worth It?If you have a non-commercial site and can get listed forfree, of course! If you're not one of the lucky few,though, you have to evaluate whether it's worth $299 a yearfor what amounts to a better than average incoming link.Everyone must make their own decision.
If $299 is smallcompared to your total marketing budget, it may be easierto just continue paying. My own listing expires in March,and I don't intend to renew it.How Can You Profit From The Changes At Yahoo?The obvious answer is that you must take steps to improveyour own position in Google's search results.
Google'srankings are made up of many factors, but the dominantfactor is "PageRank," which is based on the number andquality of incoming links from other websites.Therefore, the first step in improving your position onthe Google search engine (and now Yahoo) is to improve yoursite's link popularity. This takes time, and trying to takeshortcuts can get you into real trouble - Google doesn'tlike "link farms," or any program designed to artificiallyboost your link popularity.Finding Quality Link Partners Through GoogleSince only links from quality sites will count for muchwith Google, let's take a quick look at how you can findthese sites.
Start by targeting the sites that link toexisting top-ranked sites. You can do a backward linkssearch for any site by typing "link:http://www.domain.com"in the Google search engine.An even faster method is to use the Google toolbar(http:/ oolbar.google.com/), which requires InternetExplorer 5 or greater, running on Windows.
With thetoolbar's advanced features enabled, you can conduct a"backward links" search from the "Page Info" menu for anysite you visit.Since Google lists these results in descending order by"PageRank," you can quickly determine the best places toget links by doing backward links searches on the top 10-20sites for your desired search terms, and seeking links fromthe top 10-20 places that link to them.Links Are Not Enough: Optimizing For GoogleWhile "PageRank" is the dominant factor in Google'salgorithm, it's not the only factor, and you still need tooptimize your web pages. This can be a complicated topic,but the most important factors are:- Keywords in the title of the page- Keywords in headings on the page (H1 or H2 tags), especially the first heading.- Keywords in the body text of the page, particularly the first paragraph.Don't Complain, Act!By some estimates, Google now controls 2/3rds of thesearches conducted on the Internet in a given day.
Not onlyis Google.com extremely popular in its own right, butGoogle also controls the search results on popular portalslike AOL and Iwon.com - not to mention Yahoo.A lot of website owners are complaining bitterly aboutthis change. All the more reason for you to take actionnow, while so many of your competitors are busy lickingtheir wounds.
With a little planning and effort, you couldbe in a dominant position on Google before they even getstarted.I wish you success... Article Tags: Yahoo Listing, Search Results, Google Search Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com .