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

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

Yahoo will either edit it to something that doesn't benefit you at all or just move on to the next application, the latter being the most likely. If they do edit it you can bet your keywords won't appear in the 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 in the end if your site is not as you described it, it will not get listed, it's as simple as that.

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

"Please be brief".

Sometimes people email me asking this question ''does my title and description that I submit to Yahoo have to be the same as the meta description tag and title tag on my site?''. I always give them the simple answer of NO!

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

Some experts question the merit of keyword rich domains as a way of gaining an advantage over other sites in Yahoo. I however have seen this strategy in action and it does give advantage, most of the 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 http://www.yahoo.com and enter in ''linking strategies''. WHAT SITE COMES UP! That was a very good example wasn't it :-)

Another tip for getting a Yahoo listing is to include an about us page on your site as Yahoo likes to know who it's dealing with. On this page describe what you do honestly and also post the physical address of your business or the building your website is run from.

In closing I would like to mention a very important point. Don't under any circumstances spam Yahoo, if they notice your submitting your site more than every two or three months they'll just forget about you and move on.

Well that's it - I hope you enjoyed reading this Yahoo submitting tips article as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Good luck in your quest for Yahoo success.

Article by David Callan. David is an Internet marketing professional and webmaster of http://www.akamarketing.com/webmaster-forums/. Visit his webmaster forums for the latest discussions on search engines, website authoring and Internet marketing related issues and topics.

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