"I've been trying to keep up with all the search engine changes, but I'm not sure what to think of Yahoo! Now you can: 1) submit for free, 2) Pay $49.99 plus $0.15 to $0.30 per click, 3) Pay for Performance (i.e., Overture), or 4) pay $299.00 to submit to Yahoo!'s Directory. I understand Yahoo! is looking for multiple streams of income, but what is the best choice for a small business, especially if it doesn't have an e-commerce site?" -- Patricia Hughes, Hughes Technology Solutions
Your questions would be answered differently for different kinds of businesses. Here's how I see it:
Submit for free (http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request) is a no-brainer. By all means submit your website to Yahoo!, but first make sure that both your webpages and navigation system are search engine friendly. Your traffic from "natural" or "organic" searches is the lowest cost traffic you can find, so it's well worth the effort (and expense) to optimize your site to receive it. You can learn more about how to do this in my new e-book, Dr. Wilson's Plain-Spoken Guide to Search Engine Optimization.
Overture Site Match is Yahoo!'s new paid inclusion service. They guarantee that your pages will be included within about 48 hours in the index for AltaVista, AllTheWeb, Yahoo!, and FAST, but you get no bump in rankings for your dollars. Costs for 11 or more URLs are $10 each annually, plus either 15¢ or 30¢ per click, depending upon product category. I do not recommend this unless Yahoo! isn't listing your product sales pages and you have already optimized these webpages to rank high. Even then, many companies won't find this profitable. http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/bzinfo/prod/marketserv/searchsub.php
Overture Pay for Performance (P4P or PPC, http://wilsonweb.com/afd/overture.htm), is a very important advertising channel for businesses selling products or services on the Internet. Many small businesses are using Overture P4P and Google AdWords to make a nice living. Local business should now consider taking advantage of geo-targeting features that only show your PPC ads to those in your immediate area.
Yahoo! Directory Express Submit (https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/express/intro/) is a bit pricey for some businesses at $299 annually. But a paid link from this high PageRanked site will boost your own site's ranking on Google, Yahoo!, and other search engines. Do it if you can afford it. Remember to get a free listing in the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.com), though you'll need patience waiting for a volunteer editor to consider your submission.
Yahoo! Product Submit (http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/bzinfo/prod/marketserv/prodsubmit.php). If you have consumer products, consider a paid listing in Yahoo! Shopping. You'll pay 19¢ to 50¢ per click depending upon your product category ($1.25/click for flowers and diamonds), but you'll get targeted traffic from people in a shopping mode. Remember that Google's Froogle product submissions are free and will give you a bump in Google's regular search rankings.
posted by Jen @ 8:21 AM
<< Home