Re: Yahoo!

From: Michael Martinez <Michael_at_xenite.org>
Date: Tue 05 Dec 2000 15:40:20 -0500

I'm snipping for brevity.

BARBARA SYBAL <gfx_at_gfxinc.com> WROTE:
> I believe I re-emphasized the above in my last posting
> when I said that category, if using keyword searches,
> does come up in Yahoo, and that if a regional category
> is listed as No. 20, most people won't scroll down that
> far.
>
> Maybe I'm the only one who believes that category is
> important in directories (I have noticed a change in 5
> years of being listed with different URLs).

No one is saying that category is NOT important. It
just shouldn't be your first priority.

ROBERT J. WOODHEAD <trebor_at_animeigo.com> WROTE:
> With a geographically limited business it is crucial to
> have your city in the title or description because
> this is how almost all searchers will try and limit

TO WHICH BARBARA SYBAL <gfx_at_gfxinc.com> REPLIED:
> I snipped the above because I also said that my regional
> location is not important to a listing, and I would prefer
> being listed right along side my competitors in the
> main Business > Printing category ... and that I would
> happily give up $400 (canuck bucks) for that privilege.

That would be a complete waste of money for "full color
printing" (which you say is one of your targeted
keyword phrases):

http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=full+color+printing

Absolutely no categories are returned. Just individual
sites. And notice that sites listed in regional
categories are being returned before sites in major
categories.

Why? Precisely for the reasons we've given you. The
keywords are in the site names and Yahoo! descriptions.

BARBARA SYBAL <gfx_at_gfxinc.com> WROTE:
> Since you used my site as an example, what I care
> about is key phrases such as "postcard printing"
> or "full color printing" (or variations thereof) (notice
> that I used the American spelling of color to de-emphasize
> locale).

http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=postcard+printing

Produces similar results.

Change your description to use "full color printing"
and "postcard printing" (if Yahoo! will let you --
that's the hard part) and you'll improve your chances
of ranking in the search results considerably without
spending a dime (because you're already in the
database).

It's the query tool which matters the most to the
surfers. Not the categories. There are so many
categories most surfers are not going to try and drill
down to wherever they need to go. They'll just let the
query tool do it for them.

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Received on Tue Dec 05 2000 - 14:40:20 CST