The second factor that a bidder at Overture must address is issue of tracking. If a business doesn't know which search phrases it's leads are coming from, that business can waste a good deal of time and money. This is where Web programming technologies such as PHP, PERL, and ASP can be extremely useful. Without going into too much detail, these technologies can be used to track a customer from click to sale.

If you are interested in Overture, you should read over some of resources available from their site at http://www.overture.com/. But there is one resource that you won't find unless you are a business that uses Overture, and it is located at http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/. This second link is to their Search Term Suggestion tool, and it is a useful tool for determining keywords and phrases that are used in searches. It's also a pretty good all-around marketing tool to find out what's hot online.

Before you actually submit a site (or have a site submitted for you), you'll need to go through your site with a fine-tooth comb. Yahoo! editors are sticklers for working links, proper spelling, and good site navigation, so make sure that everything on your site is in working order. Also, some time should be spent deciding on title and description of your listing. Along with relevant keywords in category URL and site domain name (e.g. www.keyword-keyword-keyword.com), keywords in title and description are main factors that determine how well your site is ranked in search results at Yahoo!. In fact, because Yahoo! is a search directory and not a pure search engine, "on-the-page" criteria such as keywords in a page's text or META tags are not taken into consideration in ranking algorithms.