Yahoo Search Marketing Solutions

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Long ago in a search engine world very different from the one we know, was a PPC company called GoTo.com.  Then a sudden name change and re-branding to Overture.  Personally I think GoTo.com was easier and a "way kewl" brand. The new name abandons the previous branding efforts, confusing things.  As time would have it, we get used to the new name and it becomes a household name.

With the purchase of Overture by Yahoo a new revolution has taken place. Drum roll … Yahoo rolls out it's new brand and its a mouth full.  Yahoo Search Marketing Solutions.  What do the changes mean to us?  Yahoo offers several programs for websites, pay for inclusion, pay per click, terminology needs clarification.

Yahoo will spider your page and include it in the index for free. The old method of submitting your site via the "free add url" is largely unnecessary since they will probably find you page on its own. Large sites with a need for frequent re-visits due to dynamic content may want to pay for regular indexing. They offer several programs to fit your needs.

PPC is another program that lets you bid on keywords and you pay for a click thru to your webpage. Someone does a search for those keywords and Yahoo dishes up results both from the organic search (free) and those that bid on the search term. This can deliver a lot of targeted traffic to your website very fast. There is of course the price tag that come with PPC. Competitive keyword bids can be several dollars.

First create an account with them ($30 non refundable deposit to setup that is applied to clicks) they require a $20 minimum spend. They offer a fast track program that will have a real person assist you in setup for $199. Unless you know absolutely nothing about PPC and keyword research, this part is not critical.

Once you create your keyword list, write the ads and decide on a bid price, (I recommend starting at the minimum to avoid unpleasant surprises when it is activated) it will take 3 to 5 days for a rep to review your site for keyword relevance. Don't be surprised if some of your words are declined. A good way to assure you pass muster is to design the destination pages using the keywords you want. The over all theme of the domain is also considered.

How much to bid and what position you want is tricky. The first position gets 3 times more clicks than the number 5 position often there is a gap between the top positions and #5 of a couple bucks or more so you can get a better ppc bid price by watching for gaps. Here's where you should also consider the lifetime value of a customer vs the one time front-end sale cost.

Yahoo has a number of partner sites that use PPC advertisers in the returns so if your in the top 10 bids your ad will probably get exposure on these sites as well.  Stick with standard keyword match in the beginning and use only a few specific keywords you will be glad you did.

There are a lot of other tips from my insider experience I could share but the biggest surprise I got was the auto charge system. What it does is calculates 3 days worth of clicks and charges you in advance for it. I got a $6000+ charge after running my ads in the competitive mortgage related keyword niche.

My advice so far is to stick with Google if your budget is being used. They don't charge in advance and your ads can be online in minutes. Don't get me wrong there is money to be made with Yahoo Search Marketing Solutions, but be prepared for some of these things and more.