Yahoo! will not index Web sites that are incomplete, contain broken links, typos, misspellings, etc., or otherwise do not live up to their standards. A good test is to look at the other sites listed with the category where you feel your site should be listed and make an assessment of the other sites. If yours is at least as attractive as those and does not contain broken links, incomplete pages, or other errors, you have a good shot at being accepted.

Any "under construction" graphics can be a hindrance to getting listed at Yahoo! since they could indicate to the Yahoo! category editors that the site is incomplete or "not ready for prime time."

Your site title and description META tags match your Yahoo! submission. Also, the text on the Web page itself should support your Yahoo! submission. For instance, if the description you submitted to Yahoo! includes the phrase "foreign car parts," but your site's home page clearly states, "We Deal in American Car Parts Exclusively!," the odds of a Yahoo! category editor letting that slip passed him or her is 0 percent.

Whenever possible, it helps to have the copy on your home page support your Yahoo! submission. I do not recommend making radical changes to the site copy, headlines, or image tags in support of your Yahoo! site title and description, just make sure the two appear consistent or at least not in conflict.

Other site elements that can cause problems are frames. In some instances, it may be appropriate to submit a separate page from your Web site that deals with a unique or specific topic to an additional Yahoo! category. In some cases (though relatively rare), Yahoo! will accept a second submission from a Web site that has already been listed. However, if your site uses frames, there is no easy way to link to a particular page other than the home page. That means that any internal page from within your Web site that might have been eligible for an additionally listing cannot be considered by a Yahoo! editor. If you cannot set a bookmark to the internal page of your site, Yahoo! category editor are unlikely to investigate a workaround for your so the site can be listed. If you needed yet another reason to avoid frames, this is it.

Here's the Plan

Remember, in Yahoo! your site title and description are king. There are only 25 possible words, and maybe a few additional words in the site title from which Yahoo! can formulate its ranking decisions. So take some time to follow this step-by-step plan to formulate your winning submission:

Goal #1: Target phrases that, when queried produce first-page ranking opportunities

It's always better to have your Web site displayed immediately after someone performs a keyword search, as opposed to hoping that there searcher pokes around and clicks through several categories to find you. This means that if you query a keyword or phrase and Yahoo! returns a long list of Yahoo! categories, you should not target a keyword phrase or plan your strategy around attaining a ranking on this keyword. For example, nobody attains a first-page ranking on a search for the word "marketing." With Yahoo!, a search for the word "marketing produces a list of 20 Yahoo! categories--no individual Web sites are displayed on the first page of search results. A better choice would be "small business marketing consulting," or another more targeted phrase that reflects what your offer.

Goal #2: Develop a site title and description that contain targeted keyword phrases that will present first-page ranking opportunities and will be accepted by Yahoo!.

Keep in mind that Yahoo! requires your site title to be your company name unless you have built a Web site for a particular branded product that your company sells. For instance, if Nike introduced a sneaker called "The Terminator" hat had its own Web site and URL as opposed to being a page within the company's corporat3e site, that site could be titled "The Nike Terminator Basketball Sneaker" and be considered a separate Yahoo! listing.

Goal #3: "Massage" your site description into a form that will not likely be edited by Yahoo!.

One mistake many people make when submitting to Yahoo! is to create a 25-word description that's an obvious attempt to simply cram in as many keywords as possible into a barely credible sentence. This is just begging the Yahoo! category editor to butcher your description and likely remove some of your valuable keyword phrases!

First, take a look at the listings of your sites contained within the Yahoo! category that would be your first choice. You will notice in some categories that all of the sites descriptions begin with the word "offers" or provides" or "features" or "specializing in " etc.,--go with the flow. This means the Yahoo! editor for this category likes this language. Give the editor a site description that sounds like the others in that category--same tone and word choices.

If you don't see your targeted keyword phrase in the description of any of the other companies listed, it may be because the Yahoo! editor for this category doesn't like that phrase or thinks that it's not sufficiently descriptive. Chances are if you use that phrase, it will be edited out of your final description. So, for best results, do all that you can to ensure your submitted description used similar language to those already included in that section.

Finally, make sure your entire site is fully operational: no broken links, under-construction graphics, or non-working feature. Remember, a person will be visiting your Web site and thoroughly clicking around. Also, review several, if not all of the other Web sites in the category where you will be proposing that your site be listed. Understand that, like it or not, your site will be compared against others in the categories where your seek to be listed. To that extent, beauty is relative.