Basically what I'm saying here is that if title you are submitting (i.e.. Your official business or website name) is alphabetically very high. Then you'd want to compromise between a lower level very specific keyword rich category and an upper level more general category in hope that you'd receive more visitors because you would be listed high on page due to your alphabetically high title.

Personally I'd try to get into most general category possible on all occasions and rely on keywords in my title, URL, and description to get a good ranking in search results.

As for title Yahoo insists that you use your official business or website name when applying to them, if you submit some keyword rich title they wont even look twice at your application. You should take this into account when choosing a domain name/official website name.

I did - AKA Marketing - 'A' is useful in getting listed high in general categories as discussed earlier, because AKA is an abbreviation I can 'get away' with having AKA all caps which again helps with category strategy. Also it includes a good keyword - Marketing and they cant accuse me of applying to them with a keyword rich title, can they?.

Yahoo favors short titles, this stems from fact that shorter title is less likely they will be to edit it. Which means less work for them. However if you follow above guidelines and indeed Yahoo's own onsite guidelines chances are you wont get edited down.

The description part I think is tricky part. The Web site description posted with your URL is a big factor in how your site will rank once it's listed in directory.

You have to submit a description which has your main keywords in it, and make it sound very appealing to potential visitors at same time, however you can't have anything that resembles hype and bragging, for example - number 1 site on net for ..... The best on web for .. . . ...

Again Yahoo will either edit it to something which doesn't benefit you at all or just move on to next application (most likely). If they do edit it you can bet your keywords won't appear in final listing, for these reasons it is important to get it right first time.

The description should be concise and based on facts, most importantly it should include your most important keywords whenever possible. Do not exaggerate what is located on your site. Remember your site gets reviewed by a real person and in end, your site will not get listed, simple as that

The length of description should be about 10 - 15 words. Note however on Yahoo submittal form, they say 25 is maximum, never go near this number, they are sure to edit it, a mess with your keywords. Refer to Yahoo's own words "Please be brief".

SIDENOTE Sometimes people email me asking this question ''does my title and description that I submit to Yahoo have to be same as meta description tag and title tag on my site''. Simple answer, NO!

We have already discussed most of issues regarding domain name choice and Yahoo above, however there are others, most notable whole 63 character thing, this allows for very long keyword rich domain names,if you decide to pursue this strategy, don't go mad and use up nearly all 63 characters because Yahoo reviewers wont like it, however do use long domain names to your advantage. Get ones with your main keyphrase in it, and have these words separated by hyphens ( - ) because Yahoo's algorithm like hyphens it may give you a rankings boost. Also remember to try for alphabetically high domains, which are plausible and make sense. If you can that is.

Some experts question merit of keyword rich domains as a way of gaining an advantage over other sites in Yahoo, however I have seen this strategy in action and it does give advantage, most of time it's only a slight advantage but we're talking about Yahoo here, a small advantage can mean a lot more visitors. To see why I believe in keyword rich domains, go to Yahoo.com and enter in ''linking strategies''. WHAT SITE COMES UP! . That was a very good example wasn't it :-)

Other tips for Yahoo is to have an about us page on you main page - Yahoo likes to know who it's dealing with. On this page describe what you do honestly and also post physical address of your business/building your website is run from.

IMPORTANT Don't under any circumstances spam Yahoo, it they notice your submitting your site more than every 2 or 3 months they will just forget about you and more on.

Well that's it - Good luck in your quest for Yahoo success ---------------------------------- Article by David Callan David is webmaster of http://www.akamarketing.com Visit his site for free internet marketing articles, advice, ebooks and more.

Free Non-commercial sites can be submitted at no charge through Zeal.com. Sites listed in Zeal will be distributed across LookSmart Network.

8. Lycos. http://home.lycos.com/addasite.html

Free submission of one page of your site. Takes 4-6 weeks and is not guaranteed. You need to fill out a form to sign up.

Paid - guaranteed submission within 48 hours Price - $18.00/year Cost per URL - $12.00

9. Netscape. http://digitalwork.netscape.com/onlinead/registersite

Your site will be submitted each month to major search engines such as Google (used by Yahoo), AOL, Excite, MSN and Hotbot.

Price - $99.99/year

10. Northern Light. http://www.northernlight.com/docs/regurl_help.html

Free. This one only has free submissions. Only submit one page from your web site. Their spider will crawl through rest of pages.

11. The Open Directory Project http://dmoz.org/add.html

A directory is different to a search engine, because submissions are reviewed by real people, not machines. When submitting, search for appropriate category for your web site, then go to top of page where it says, “add URL”.

Free This is great directory to get listed in because you will also be listed with its partners which include: AOL Search, DirectHit, HotBot, Google, Lycos, Netscape Search and others.

It takes 2 weeks to several months to get listed.

12. Yahoo. http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest

Yahoo is most popular search engine service. It also uses actual people to compile its listings. It partners with Google when search results fail to find a match within Yahoo.

This directory has only fee-based inclusions for business sites, called Yahoo Express. Your site will be reviewed within 7 business days. Keep in mind that payment DOES NOT automatically guarantee inclusion in directory.

Price - $299.00 non-refundable, recurring annual fee per submission, for initial consideration in Directory.

Tips 1. If you want to get traffic to your site, make sure you get listed in all or at least a few of these major players. Make sure your web site is optimized before you do your submissions (read “How to Use Keywords to Optimize Your Site for Search Engines - http://www.isitebuild.com/keywords.htm). This will vastly increase your chances of getting listed.

2. Getting massive amounts of traffic doesn’t guarantee sales. Your web site copy must pull your visitors through page for them to take action. Get others to read your copy and ask for their opinions. (read “How to Avoid Sloppy Web Site Copy” - http://www.isitebuild.com/copy).

3. To achieve higher rankings (and therefore more traffic) in search engines, you need to continually refine your web site. Monitor your site rankings by adjusting keywords used in your meta tags and web site copy, then submit again.

4. Search engines should be only one of your marketing strategies. One week you could be at top of a search engine, next week your site may disappear. Use other methods to drive traffic to your site, so you don’t just rely on search engines.

Now go and submit your site to these major search engines. When you succeed in getting a top listing, as a result of taking action on this article, drop me a thank you note – I’ll be cheering for you!

Herman Drost is a Certified Web Site Designer, owner and author of iSiteBuild.com Affordable Site Design, Hosting and Promotion Packages http://www.isitebuild.com