Extend your reach

If you’re a frequent visitor to the blog, you’ve probably already figured out that Yahoo! offers a full range of services to help publishers be successful on the Web. Heck, we’re pimpin’ them all the time and we don’t mind admitting it—because they’re quality products.

Last week in this space we posted a short primer on two free Yahoo! services that can help ensure your site and individual pages get indexed: Yahoo! Submit Your Site and Yahoo! Site Explorer. 

This week we explore Yahoo!’s paid Search Marketing and Directory services. While publishers currently in the beta program can access all these services and more via the new Publisher Services tab in the secure account interface, those not yet in the beta can also access them using links provided below.

Life in the Fast Lane
As mentioned last week, submitting your site to Yahoo! Search is free. But to expedite the process and ensure that the most up-to-date information appears in Yahoo! AltaVista, AlltheWeb and other search results, you might want to try Yahoo!’s Search Submit Express.
For an annual fee and a tiered cost-per-click, URLs that meet the program’s editorial quality standards will be crawled every 48 hours, and you will be able to monitor your results via a special reporting interface.

Up, Up and Away
Another option is Yahoo! Sponsored Search, which prominently displays your site in Sponsored Search results on the pages of Yahoo! and leading sites across the Web:

Yahoo! Sponsored Search delivers highly targeted customer leads to your business by allowing you to control placement within paid search results across the Web. It connects your business with customers searching online for precisely what you sell, delivering highly targeted customer leads at a high ROI. And it’s easy to get started: Just pick your keywords, write your ad listings, make your bids, and you’re off and running. You pay only when your listing is clicked upon.

(Larger business with advertising budgets of $10,000 or more per month should call the nice folks at the Yahoo! Search Marketing Direct Sales team at (866) 250-7572.)

But wait, there’s more
In addition to submitting your site to Yahoo! Search, you may also want to consider a listing in the Yahoo! Directory. Where Yahoo! Search is organized by keyword, the Yahoo! Directory is organized by subject. It allows users to narrow down their results by specific interests. For example:

Business & Economy
      Business to Business
                             Auctions
                                    Automotive

This narrows down all the auctioneers that deal with automobiles that appear in the Yahoo! Directory.

To submit your site for consideration in the Directory, visit Yahoo! Directory Submit. The base cost for Yahoo! Directory Submit is $299 per listing per year.

Different sites have different needs and budgets, so you’ll want to read all the material carefully before you decide which path is best for you. Visit Yahoo! Search Marketing for a complete look at all of our SEM services.

If you’re not yet in the Yahoo! Publisher Network, be sure to bookmark these links so that you can return to them easily.

—Michael Mattis, Blog Editor

** Site implementation may vary.