Yahoo_Mike" is the nickname of a Yahoo employee who is very helpful in responding to questions of webmasters in the forums at WebmasterWorld.com.
During the last few weeks, Yahoo_Mike gave many tips that may help you to improve the ranking of your web site on the new Yahoo search engine.
About getting non-profit sites listed in Site Match
The Yahoo employee said that the first step is to send an email with your site information to psm@yahoo-inc.com to see if it qualifies for the program. Someone would follow up with you if additional information was required.
About being listed in Yahoo after the Inktomi program has run out
The Yahoo employee said that web sites that participated in the Inktomi paid inclusion program that were already crawled by Yahoo would remain in Yahoo search after the end of the Inktomi program on 15th April.
About not paying the pay per click (PPC) costs
The Yahoo employee said that your Site Match URLs would no longer be available until you added funds to your account when your PPC budget ran out. If your URL had been previously crawled, then the URL would continue to appear because it remained in the Yahoo crawler index.
About the speed of Site Match
The Yahoo employee said that it could take up to 4 business days for new Site Match URLs to be reviewed and added to the Yahoo search results.
About Yahoo showing free crawled web sites
The Yahoo employee said that Yahoo search results had begun showing free crawled sites when it had launched in February and that the crawler continued to add new sites and pages every day. According to Yahoo_Mike, it can take several weeks for a web site to be visited or recrawled if you submit it via the Add URL program.
About being listed in the Yahoo directory and the effect on Site Match
The Yahoo employee said that if your web site was listed in the Yahoo directory it would also be crawled. That crawl would happen on the same frequency as other web sites on the web. Web sites in the Yahoo directory should be crawled within 7 weeks.
About being listed in the Yahoo directory but not in the search engine
According to the Yahoo employee, it can also happen that a web site that is listed in the Yahoo directory is not listed in the Yahoo search engine results. The Yahoo directory is reviewed by editors only. Sites from Yahoo's Add URL feature, Site Match service or crawler are reviewed both algorithmically and by editors.
The Yahoo employee said that there are some techniques, such as hidden text, that a human editor would not detect. However, the algorithmic evaluation would catch these problems. The site would be accepted into the directory but not into the Yahoo! Search results.
For the Yahoo directory, this would be alright because the directory listings are not ranked by relevance and so they are not influenced by hidden text. Hidden text is in violation of Yahoo's editorial guidelines because it is an attempt to influence the relevance of the search results.
This means that the inclusion in the directory does not guarantee inclusion in the normal search results although it makes the inclusion easier.
(Editor's note: We've always warned [19 Common Mistakes That Prevent Your Web Site From Showing Up On Search Engines] webmasters about the risks of using shady search engine optimization methods such as hidden text or doorway pages. Search engines don't like them at all. If you want to achieve good results, you should focus on ethical search engine optimization).
Yahoo_Mike also said that another reason for being listed in the Yahoo directory but not in Yahoo Search is that your web site cannot be crawled because the web page uses Flash technology. If you want to find out if your web site is optimized for a high ranking on Yahoo, try IBP's Top 10 Optimizer.
Source: Yahoo_Mike's quotes are taken from the WebmasterWorld forum. A subscription is required to read all postings in that forum. This Search Engine Facts newsletter will keep you informed about the latest trends in search engine rankings and is free.
If you want to know more about Yahoo's Site Match program and if you want to find out whether it works for your web site, read this Yahoo Site Match article.
