Since most referrals to sites from Yahoo come from search results and not from people visiting certain categories, it is wise and best (in most occasions) to submit to a very specific category with lots of keywords in category name. To see this strategy in practice revisit results page for "Internet marketing articles" on Yahoo.com. Notice that top ranked site is in a category

with lots of keywords, these are: Internet, Business, Advertising and Web, these combined with various keywords in title, description and URL combine to give this site a pretty good chance at ranking well on a few good keywords and phrases. Therefore category names are just like having more titles and descriptions. Note - if you are a regional operation try to pick a category with name of your state or province in it. This will help you get targeted local visitors from Yahoo.

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.

Yahoo favors short titles. This stems from fact that shorter title is, less likely they will be to edit it. This means less work for them. However if you follow above guidelines and Yahoo's own onsite guidelines, chances are you won't be edited very much.

The description part 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. Make it sound very appealing to potential visitors at same time. However, you must avoid anything that resembles hype and bragging, for example - number 1 site on net for... The best on web for...

Yahoo will either edit this kind of language to something that doesn't benefit you at all or worse... just move on to next application. 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 a real person reviews your site and if you exaggerate, your site will not be approved. It's as simple as that.

The length of description should be about 10 - 15 words. Note: On Yahoo submittal form, they say 25 is maximum. Never go near this number; they are sure to edit it and probably remove your keywords. Refer to Yahoo's own words: "Please be brief"

SIDENOTE

Sometimes people email me asking this question: "Does title and description that I submit to Yahoo have to be same as Meta description tag and title tag on my site". The simple answer is: NO!

Have an "about us" page on your site - Yahoo likes to know who it is dealing with. On this page describe what you do honestly and also post physical address of your organization.

IMPORTANT

Don't Spam Yahoo. If they notice you submitting your site more than every 2 or 3 months, they will just forget about you and move on.

Good luck in your quest for Yahoo success!

Stick to Your Budget Do calculations and stick to them. What percentage of your visitors buy? What is cost of product? and so on. Don't be tempted to start a bidding war against a Pepsi or Wal-mart! Set a bid cap based on your calculation of your visitors' value. You are only interested in showing a profit.

Pay Per Click search engine optimisation is a full time task, as bids change without notice. You can literally, sit in front of your screen and manage your bids on an hourly basis. Naturally, this is far from practical and of course time is money. Be disciplined and set yourself a time budget as well as a financial one. Will you monitor your bids once a day or week? Three times a day or even more frequently?

Bid at Smaller PPC Search Engines Okay, Overture is daddy, but prices reflect that. A visitor who searches at Overture is just as qualified as someone searching on same words at any PPC Search Engine. Often newer and smaller PPC Search Engines have less bid competition and represent good value.

Qualify Your Title & Description After results have been returned. Make sure your titles and descriptions are focused to type of visitor you want. This can actually increase your click throughs by 44%. Write your title and description so that they relate to keywords that you are bidding for. Often using keywords in both title and description will increase your click through rates. People will only click if they are genuinely interested - so you'll save money that would have been wasted from clicks of people who were just browsing your link. When it comes to Pay Per Click tips, this is arguably, one of most important to note.

---------------------------------- Resource Box

Richard Baker is Director of Blue Fruit Ltd - a specialist Pay Per Click placement consultancy.

"...overdelivering solutions at affordable prices"

http://www.bluefruit.com ----------------------------------