Submitting to Yahoo

Submitting to Yahoo
Yahoo is by far the best in the directories domain even if it has such competition as DMOZ and Looksmart. It's not as easy to submit to Yahoo as it once was because the company has grown very much, and the prices have grown as well. All the trouble to be listed by Yahoo is worth it because a Yahoo listing will boost your link popularity and Google PageRank, but will also bring large traffic to it.

What's Yahoo?
Yahoo is a directory and a search engine. The sites listed in Yahoo are grouped in several directories. Editors take care of the site, they review the submissions they take care of the directories, the display of the sites and so on.

There are some country/region-specific Yahoo's and the sites listed in these Yahoo's are related to the country and the region where they come from. The submission to Yahoo can be done in two ways: the free submissions, but which has some disadvantages such as not being available to all sites, and the Yahoo Express way which is fast and reliable but very expensive.

Let's take a more detailed look at these two ways of submissions to Yahoo:

The Free Submission:
The free submission to Yahoo is limited because it does not include the “commercial directory” where most of the “Business and Economy” categories are placed. Yahoo UK & Ireland and Yahoo Australia & NZ include these categories in the free submissions, so for one that does not operate in the USA it is cheaper submit to an International Yahoo.

Another limitation is that there aren't allowed commercial sites. Even if your site does not belong to “Business and Economy” category but is commercial the only way you could submit it is through Yahoo Express. The difference between a commercial and non-commercial site is its content. If the site is designed to offer information without selling anything or containing banners and commercials then it is a non-commercial site. If your site sells something then it is commercial. But this can also be interpreted; because for example if you have a couple of banners but your site only offers information then what kind of site is it?

The reviewer of the site is the judge of that. If he considers that your site is commercial because you have a few ads on it, even if you don't sell anything he will label it and commercial and the only way you could submit to Yahoo would be through Yahoo Express. The biggest disadvantage abut the free Yahoo is that is unreliable and slow. Months can pass before your site will be listed.

The Yahoo Express Submission:
This type of submission is intended for the ones that don't have too much time and for those that have a commercial website. This type of submission requires a $299 ($600 for an adult content) non-refundable fee, but Yahoo promises that your site will be reviewed in maximum a week. In case of a rejection you have 30 days to make an appeal, a single appeal, without paying additional fees.

The fee is not to guarantee your site an entry in the Yahoo directories but to be reviewed by one of Yahoo's editors. Before agreeing such a submission be sure that all the requirements imposed by Yahoo are respected. Once your site has been inducted into the directories you will have to pay the same fee ($229, or $600) every year for another review. If the review is not passed and/or if you don't pay the fee your site will be removed from the directories.

For a person that doesn't operate a commercial site but wishes to have his site reviewed as fast as possible paying that fee every year is very difficult, almost impossible. The sites that are not included in the "commercial directory", which contain categories under "Business and Economy", do not have to pay the fee annually.

What to do in case of Yahoo Express rejection
If you have been rejected by Yahoo you don't have to panic, even if you have paid $299 or $600 for that review. You have 30 days to make an appeal, but only one and before applying the appeal, be sure that you have fixed the problems pointed out in the rejection e-mail. Yahoo usually give some generally reasons explaining why your site has been rejected, so it is can be pretty difficult to identify the problem.

These are their generally reasons:

The lack of content or unique content
What you have to do in this situation is add more content to your page, such as a message board, new articles, different links and more. Be sure that your message board has some activity otherwise it won't count, and also the links should not be only affiliate links. The content should be displayed on the top of the page, and it should be unique, so don't copy it of the internet.

Many editors will send you this message if your site requires a registration in order for the content to be viewable. If a registration is a must be sure that you send the editors a username with a password so they can login.

Backward Compatibility is not available with older browsers
What you need to do in this situation is make sure that your site supports older browsers. This is important because Yahoo takes this very seriously. The IE 4, Netscape 4 should be supported but also the older versions. The minimum supported resolution should be 640x480 and your site should also support the Mac system.

The design should remain the same for all types of browses and on all types of resolutions. As long as it does everything is perfect, no one demands that the graphic on 640x480 to be the same as on 1024x768. It is important that your site is not entirely based on Java Script-links. This means that the site should work even when the Java is deactivated.

If you have trouble creating a design that would work on both older and newer browsers, you should create two designs and give the visitors the opportunity to select the proper design. Once again, it is not the quantity of the design, but is the quality, meaning that as long as the information is displayed on both versions it is all right.

Under Construction
What you should do in this situation is fix broken links, images or "under construction" signs that most certain caused this message. This can also happen because of the impossibility of using an older browser to view your site. The “Backward Compatibility is not available with older browsers” details this better.

No Address
In this situation most likely you haven't submitted a contact address, a telephone number and so on. You must provide one of these, and it is a good idea to do so on every page you own. Yahoo prefers the addresses of the owners even if some don't want their addressed being displayed online. This is an action which Yahoo has intended to stop the online fraud, because with just the P.O. Boxes submitted many have made illegalities. Sometimes providing the P.O. Box will work, otherwise it won't. The privacy policy and terms of service are required in case your site is a commercial one.

What to do in case of Free Yahoo rejection
If you don't receive a confirmation that your site has been inducted into Yahoo's directories in 4 weeks from your submission it is most likely that your request has been rejected. Usually an acceptance is announced through an e-mail but sometimes Yahoo forgets to do so.

In this case don't despair but search for your domain name into the search box. If your site has been accepted it will appear under Web Site Matches, otherwise it will appear Web Page Matches, or in many cases it won't appear at all. If your site has not been accepted and 3 to 4 weeks have passed, send another submission but not before you check for possible errors with your site. Don't send the submission before that time, because it might be considered spam.

If the second submission is not accepted, you can write at support@yahoo-inc.com and politely ask them what is the reason for their decision. Send them an URL of your site and the domain you wanted to your site to belong to. Don't write an e-mail too long because they don't have to much time to read it.

In this situation all you can do is wait. Sometimes your site will be accepted other times it won't. Do not write them a second letter unless you have made several submissions after the 4 weeks period. You will receive instruction once you have sent the e-mail to the upper mentioned address. Try to follow them exactly to know what you need to do. There are lots of experts on those forums and they can review your site if you ask them politely.

This is Yahoo's address:
Yahoo! Corporation
3420 Central Expressway
Santa Clara, CA 95051, USA

Write them a letter if you couldn't find a solution elsewhere.