Now in regards to getting indexed by Yahoo! Local, it is important to know two things upfront. First, your business may already be indexed by Yahoo! Local so it is best to do a search first. Second, Yahoo! Local is now offering a free 5-page website to small business owners who want to establish a web presence. This promotion is to encourage business owners to get listed locally so that Yahoo! can continue to expand its map of businesses per region. If you find your business is already listed in Yahoo! Local, then check information for accuracy since sometimes there are errors. These errors are easily corrected by going through sign up process. For more information see http://local.yahoo.com/

By using 3 key methods listed above, your website will get a jumpstart in local search arena. Also, don’t forget a link-building campaign as well since you’ll need a few relevant links pointing back to your website. So, what are you waiting for? Get started now!

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Links like these will look something like this:

<a href="index.html" rel="nofollow">Home Page</a>

Page addresses to avoid

Spiders will also ignore pages if they don't like URL (the address needed to find page).

For example, a Web site that has URLs containing several variables can cause spiders to ignore page content. You can spot pages like these as they have a ? in them, and &, for instance:

http://webpositioningcentre.co.uk/index.php?page=12&cat=23&jib=c

This URL has three variables, parts with = in them, between ? and &s. We find that if a page has one variable, or even two, top search engines will spider them without any problems. But if a URL has more than that, often search engines will not spider them.

Spiders particularly avoid URLs that look like they have 'session IDs' in them. They look something like this:

http://webpositioningcentre.co.uk/index.php?page=12&id=29c8d7r2398jk27897a8

The set of numbers and letters do not make much sense to humans, but some Web sites use them to keep track of who you are, as you click through their Web site.

Spiders will generally avoid URLs with Session IDs in them, so if your Web site has them, you need to talk to people who developed site about re-writing it so they do not use these IDs, or at least that you can get around Web site without them.

Clean links = happy spiders

If you use clean, easy to follow links without several variables in them, your Web site should be spidered without problem. There are, of course, many other facets to successful Search Engine Optimization, but if search engines can't spider your content, your site will fall at first hurdle.