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The Yahoo! search database contains
detailed information about web pages
and the structure of the Web. The
database stores information about
links between web pages and uses
that information (as well as
additional algorithms) to gauge the
popularity of a given page.
Here is a snapshot of the Site
Explorer Beta.
You will need to either log into your Yahoo!
account or create an account to use site
explorer.
I found it to be similar to Google's Sitemaps
page:
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Add
your URL to Google's index
We add and update new websites to our
index every time we crawl the web; we
invite you to submit your top-level
URL to make sure we don't miss your
site. |
Site Explorer is a tool that lets you
access the information we have about a
site's online presence. You can see
which sites and subpages are indexed
by Yahoo! Search, track sites that
link into webpage, and view the most
popular pages from any site. Use Site
Explorer to:
-
Find which
subpages within a URL are indexed
by Yahoo!.
-
Find pages that
link to that site or any page. (inlinks)
-
Submit and track
feeds for your sites.
You can get even more
detailed information about a site or
its URLs when you authenticate the
site.
Exploring a site is as
easy as doing a web search but instead
of entering a "query term"
you will enter a site's URL. A Site
Explorer search will not return the
same results that a web search would.
Instead, Site Explorer uses the URL
you submit to return particular
information related to the structure
of that URL in the Yahoo! Search
database and on the Web.
For further analysis,
you can export Site Explorer data in a
tab-separated (TSV) form. Also check
out Site
Explorer's Web Services APIs for
ways to help you understand your site
traffic and usage better.
Note: You can submit
missing URLs to the Yahoo! Index
for free. If you own a site, register
it with us to see even more
information and simplify managing any
site feeds you have.
How
do I improve the ranking of my web
site in the Yahoo! search results?
Generally, you can ensure you have
unique and targeted content for your
audience. Here are a few tips that can
help your page be found by a focused
search on the Internet:
- Think carefully of the key terms
that your users will search on to
find content like yours. Use those
terms to guide the text and
construction of your page.
- Users are more likely to click a
link if the title matches their
search. Choose terms for the title
that match the concept of your
document.
- Use a "description"
meta-tag and write your
description accurately and
carefully. After the title, the
description is the most important
draw for users. Make sure the
document title and description
attract the interest of the user
but also fit the content on your
site.
- Use a "keyword"
meta-tag to list key words for the
document. Use a distinct list of
keywords that relate to the
specific page on your site instead
of using one broad set of keywords
for every page.
- Keep relevant text and links in
HTML. Placing them in graphics or
image maps means search engines
can't always search for the text,
and the crawler can't follow links
to your site's other pages. An
HTML site map, with a link from
your welcome page, can help make
sure all your pages are crawled.
- Use ALT text for graphics. It's
good page design to accommodate
text browsers or visually impaired
visitors, and it helps improve the
text content of your page for
search purposes.
- Correspond with webmasters and
other content providers and build
rich linkages between related
pages.
Note: "Link farms"
create links between unrelated
pages for no reason except to
increase page link counts. Using
link farms violates Yahoo!'s Site
Guidelines and will not
improve your page ranking.
For more information on improving
the quality of your web site and your
site's search engine ranking, please
refer to the "Search
Engine Optimization" category
in the "Yahoo!
Directory". Sites like
Webmaster World feature discussion
forums that can offer pointers on web
search. Unfortunately, we are not able
to offer specific advice on the
placement of any given site in web
search results.
Please Note: The sites listed in
Yahoo! Directory's Search Engine
Optimization category are run by
independent third parties, and are not
owned or overseen by Yahoo!.
We (Search
Engine First) have not
tested the efficacy of adding your
websites via site explorer yet as
far as ranking (they do say that
there is no guarantee on
positioning) on Yahoo! search but
we will keep you updated. We
used a test website called Mesa
Builders (Custom
Decks in Colorado) as our test
site. This was an account
created with Yahoo! Sitebuilder
software which comes with the
purchase of a hosting account on
Yahoo! (That also includes your
domain name purchase).
Yahoo! has a very elite
control panel for your hosting as
well as stats. I did find it
difficult to navigate to stats on
my first encounter with the
control panel. It is very
versatile in as much as it is user
friendly to the newbie website
creator as well as to the seasoned
website developer as it allows php
and perl tools.
One thing I
found using the Yahoo package is
that my WEB CEO site submission
software would not import the
website data as far as title and
meta tags, and Alexa.com couldn't
even find the website with the
entire URL. I've never
experienced this with Alexa (for
new websites). I
emailed Yahoo! support but have
not yet heard back from
them. I will include their
answer in this section, so stay
tuned.
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SEARCH
ENGINE OPTIMIZATION