Re: Yahoo! listing

Hi Kate,

>Lori and Ken,
>I'd be interested in the nature of the sites that were both accepted and
>rejected.

The one that was just accepted for me was Endtime Prophets. It is a 
personal web page of mine where I analyze the writings of so-called 
prophets:

http://www.users.uswest.net/~lorield/endtime_prophets/

I had recently moved this web site after my ISP decided to quit 
dial-up service, and thus the need to re-register it with all the 
major search engines (I couldn't afford my own domain name at the 
time so will have to move it again eventually as I just got one).

It ranked high in a lot of search engines before I had to move it and 
it had been online for a least a year before this, so that might have 
something to do with it being accepted again. I also had those who 
were linked to it change their URLs before I listed it, and that 
probably helped the listing on Yahoo. I must have about 20 sites 
linked to it and that is where most of my hits come from--similar 
sites. As I recall I had it categorized under the following on Yahoo:
Society/religion/faith & Practice/Christianity/apologetics/

However, I just checked and it is not showing up yet--they said it 
will take 2-4 more days before it will show up in the search engines. 
They said it is in the directory but it's not.

However, my old URL shows up at the top of the list when I searched 
for the words "Endtime Prophets" (I didn't realize it was there) and 
only one site shows up (not mine) for "false prophet" which was the 
major key word I used in the text. Maybe that will change when it 
gets entered into the database in a few days.

  I requested the listing on 9-30-00 so it only took about 6 days. I 
redesigned the web page before I relisted it--because the home page 
had been way too long--I put a lot of the data on inside pages. I 
also made sure it validated cause I had heard that some search 
engines will not list a page if it doesn't--often I would even forget 
to check if the pages validated or not (I use Netscape a lot and it's 
too forgiving :o). Also I found out Yahoo will not list a page that 
is poorly designed or has a lot of broken links so I checked those 
too before listing it.

Also, I read recently that Yahoo lists pages according to their 
extension, i.e., because my URL contains a ~tilde this indicates this 
is a personal page. If I would have had it on a .com site it might 
not have went through in this category (which means I had better not 
move it to my new domain which is loriswebs.com --what a pain!!!!.)

According to what I have read about Yahoo they also list sites that 
have a strong focus--I made sure that was the case before relisting 
it and moved all extrenous stuff to inside pages.

So, in short--I did my homework before relisting it and it worked.

Also, this site used to get the most hits from AltaVista and it won't 
accept the new site, although they do have the old one listed and I'm 
registered with AV too. Maybe after the old one goes offline they 
will.

BTW, I found out something VERY irritating about snap.com/NBCi - They 
will not let me change my old email--I have written then several 
times and I get a canned response every time telling me I can change 
data on my own Live Directory page (I signed up as a member) but you 
can't change your email. That other email will be discontinued in a 
few days that is what they will use to contact me when they accept 
one of my pages.  I suppose I'll have to sign up with the new address 
and relist all my web pages with them (grrrrrrr).

The web page that hasn't been accepted on Yahoo yet is a client of 
mine--Parkway Chevrolet:

http://www.parkwaychevrolet.net/

But then I realized that wasn't validated (i'm still stuck on the 
JavaScript problem) so I'm currently fixing it up and then I'll try 
again. Also I didn't wait the 1-2 months before resubmitting it to 
Yahoo and according to their directions they will ignore it for that 
reason. So now I'm waiting for a reasonable amout of time before I 
try again. Also this site has a BIG problem in that there is another 
Parkwaychervrolet in Texas (we are in WA) with a .com address. My 
client was aware of this when he registered the page but went for it 
anyway.  I have managed to get our site to register up higher than 
the other site on some search engines by paying strict attention to 
the keywords and making sure those words are in the text and a 
plethora of other tips I have learned--mostly researching the source 
code of other car dealerships that rank high and seeing what they 
are/are not doing. We are currently setting up a mirror site with an 
alternate name to try to alleviate this problem.

BTW, I have designed a chart in Works that I use to record my search 
engine listings. It has all the top search engines/directories and 
some of the minor ones (about 25 in all)  on the left side of the 
chart. I have categorized them according to who owns them or who is 
the head org (i.e., Looksmart or Open Directory). I have several 
columns on the right where I keep track of 1st, 2nd and 3rd 
submission and also the results. I have found it an invaluable help 
in remembering where I listed what/when. If anyone wants a copy let 
me know off line and I'll send it as an attachment.

BTW, I'm signed up with the search engine newsletter called Search 
Engine Report and get lots of good ideas from that also.

I hope this helps.

Lori



>I have a site that went into Yahoo almost immediately as well as
>other Search Engines.  I am no genius at this and it was the first site I
>ever built so I was pretty excited when we did a search on Yahoo for jazz or
>blues +Jersey and got at the top of the heap.  Am I lucky or do I just have
>the right category.  I'd like to duplicate this success in the future with
>other sites.
>Kate Pollara
>http://jsjbf.com
>Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Foundation
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Lori Eldridge <lorield(at)uswest.net>
>To: <hwg-basics(at)hwg.org>
>Sent: Friday, October 06, 2000 7:15 PM
>Subject: Yahoo! listing
>
>
>>  Hi All,
>>
>>  After submitting several web sites to Yahoo! over this last
>>  year--several times--- they finally accepted one of them. I feel like
>>  celebrating. This is indeed a rare occasion!!
>>
>>  Yipiee!!!
>>
>>  I don't have a clue why they accepted it either--other than I made
>>  sure it validated and it was search engine friendly.
>>
>>  Lori

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