NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Can we live without Yahoo
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Can we live without Yahoo
Kajetan Wojciechowski (webmaster_at_kjdm.com)
Thu, 05 Mar 1998 18:48:14 -0600
Hi Richard, Everybody,
>It (the quoted aricle) basically chronicles how difficult it is >not
only to get into Yahoo nowadays, but to change >inaccurate/outdated
entries. And it doesn't appear
>it will get any better.
I read the article when it first came out, a few weeks ago, and I came
to the conslusion that indeed, it (getting listed) will neither get
easier, nor better.
>The article quotes Yahoo's Director of Surfing (aka editor and >chief),
Srinija Srinivasan as saying:
>"...while users may perceive Yahoo as a comprehensive directory, >it's
a mistaken perception. There's no question that people (heap) >Yahoo
together with other search engines as trying to serve the >same purpose
- when that's not true," Srinivasan said. Instead, >Yahoo is a "media
company," she said, "aggregating information >that we think is of use."
As Richard correctly stated in his post, this sort of talk indicates
exactly the shift in focus at Yahoo that many have observed over the
past year. And as Richard states, we should all
look at getting listed in Yahoo as more of a PR job than a traditional
site submission thing. As attempts to get listed
become more and more like e-mailed press releases to media contacts, we
should all get used to a rate of failure similar to that experienced
with journalists/editors.
>This is a bit of a headache for an agency like mine. How do you
>explain to a client that they might not get listed when Yahoo's >own
form doesn't clearly state this. (I guess you show them >Srinivasan's
quote in the above article.)
Sure, you could show them article.
But most importantly, explain that listing takes time.
The way I tell people is this: "we can get you in Infoseek, Alta Vista,
and HotBot, in a manner of days. These will provide an immediate traffic
boost. Later, your site will also appear in Lycos, and even later still,
in the Excite family of indexes.
Yahoo may take anywhere from six weeks to six months, but it is worth
the wait." Or something like that.
Getting listed in Yahoo is NOT impossible. The chief criteria seems to
be, surprise surprise, the quality of your content. As another post on
another list recently mentioned: "Yahoo must protect the quality of its
listings, in order to maintain its stronghold as the number one
directory." So basically, if your site is just an online ad, with little
or no value to the Yahoo visitors, your chances of getting listed are
slim.
There are many new ideas, some valid and some not, about how to get
listed. A quick search of sites which deal with the nitty-gritty of Web
site promotion, should yield good results. For starters, check out
http://www.virtualpromote.com and http://searchenginewatch.com
and my own DesignLab Journal (how shameless! :)
Take Care All
Kajetan Wojciechowski
<mailto:webmaster_at_kjdm.com>
Subscribe to the free DesignLab Journal, a weekly
e-zine covering all issues of Web site promotion
<http://www.kjdm.com/journal.html> join us!
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