Searching at Yahoo

[claudiasmt]

Can someone tell me how people normally search at Yahoo? Are most searches done via entering key words -- or do most people go to the respective category to find what they want?

I am debating on the title for my company -- and not sure if starting the title with a higher letter would be more useful or using a popular key word first in the title (that starts with a low letter) would afford more click throughs at Yahoo.

[Puck_man]

Since the way that Y! now presents its serps, I would say that people are more likely to use the search results rather than drill down through the categories. Having said that, it is still desirable to hold a high alphabetical position. How about using a number(s) at the start of yoour titie. ie: 1-800-keyword, or something to that effect.

[ihelpyou]

Keywords in the title work great. The alphabet has little to do with ranks. People do search on the Yahoo front page and do not dig into the categories.

[Advisor]

Remember, you have to use your company name as the title for Yahoo.

Jill

[claudiasmt]

Thanks for the input!

It seems to me that it might be possible to get a good ranking on Yahoo due to the recent changes to the way sites are listed. And if the domain name, title and description all have the key words that I am trying to target -- this might give my site the extra push it needs to make it to a top 10 listing.

If I do a search for these key words at Yahoo, there are only about 5 sites (of the first 100 or so searches that come up) that actually use my key words in the domain, title and description.

Does that indicate that I may be able to get a first page listing if I would use the keywords in these 3 areas??

The key words are pretty competitive, however as I understand -- Yahoo really handles the site differently than the spidered engines -- so was thinking that since my research shows only a limited number of sites optimized correctly for my key words -- perhaps I could possibly pull a good ranking here?

By the way, the information provided here is very helpful.

[ihelpyou]

As Jill said, your title has to be your business name. As many do, you could buy another domain name and make up a fake business name with keywords in it.

[Kal]

Originally posted by ihelpyou
you could buy another domain name and make up a fake business name with keywords in it.

Actually, some of us were forced to make up a "fake" business name when our registered business name .com domains were already taken by U.S. companies :( .

Next best thing is often the 'ol keywords in the domain trick. Although I'm happy to say that I was able to get my company .biz domain recently :) Now I have the dilemma of whether to keep the keyword domain and point it to biz or dump it and use biz instead...

[claudiasmt]

Kalena --

If I purchase a new domain name and change the title of my site to include my targeted key words, do you feel that Yahoo would accept the new site with the new domain name if my inside pages link back to my original domain name?

The links back to the old domain would be for inside pages that do not have the site name on them -- only the category name.

Would this type of design be considered a mirrored site? I read that Open Directory does not like mirrored sites -- but was not sure about Yahoo's policy.

[Advisor]

If they noticed it, my guess would be that they definitely would not like it, and reject the site. Because after all, you'd be simply trying to "trick" them into thinking your business was named something that it wasn't.

Then again, they may not notice. Up to you to decide if you want to risk your $300.

Jill

[Kal]

Yes I'm with Jill. Don't risk submitting mirrored sites to Yahoo.

If you are going to change your site title and domain, then be consistent and make all links to your new site, with none to the old. Also if your existing site is already listed in Yahoo, be sure you don't submit a new domain pointing to the same content. The last thing a Yahoo (or ODP) editor wants to see is exactly the same site being submitted via 2 different domains, esp in the same category - you'll lost your $299 quicker than you can say "spam".

If you're happy with your domain name and don't want to change the title to accommodate keywords, just make sure your content is relevant to your chosen Yahoo category and the keywords in your submitted description. As long as your site is relevant and the keywords remain in your Yahoo-edited description, you should still rank ok - not as highly as those with keywords in their title as well, but still high enough hopefully.

[oh and don't forget Yahoo's "new sites" penalty. You start at the bottom of the rankings and move up depending on how popular your site becomes]