Yahoo's Guidelines for Webmasters

[minstrel]

Previously posted as a reply in another thread; reposted here in response to several questions.

Yahoo's Webmaster Guidelines:

How do I add my site to your search engine database?
Yahoo! Search crawls the web every 2-4 weeks and automatically finds new content for indexing. If pages already in the Yahoo! Search index link to your site, it will be considered for inclusion in the next update of the index. Getting your site listed in major directory services such as the Yahoo! Directory and DMOZ is an excellent way to be sure that there are links to your site.

(Edit: On the other hand, if you still want to submit to Yahoo, see here: Suggest a site to the Yahoo Directory)


Pages Yahoo! Wants Included in Its Index
* Original and unique content of genuine value
* Pages designed primarily for humans, with search engine considerations secondary
* Hyperlinks intended to help people find interesting, related content, when applicable
* Metadata (including title and description) that accurately describes the contents of a Web page
* Good Web design in general

Unfortunately, not all Web pages contain information that is valuable to a user. Some pages are created deliberately to trick the search engine into offering inappropriate, redundant or poor-quality search results; this is often called "spam." Yahoo! does not want these pages in the index.

What Yahoo! Considers Unwanted
* Pages that harm accuracy, diversity or relevance of search results
* Pages dedicated to directing the user to another page
* Pages that have substantially the same content as other pages
* Sites with numerous, unnecessary virtual hostnames
* Pages in great quantity, automatically generated or of little value
* Pages using methods to artificially inflate search engine ranking
* The use of text that is hidden from the user
* Pages that give the search engine different content than what the end-user sees
* Excessively cross-linking sites to inflate a site's apparent popularity
* Pages built primarily for the search engines
* Misuse of competitor names
* Multiple sites offering the same content
* Pages that use excessive pop-ups, interfering with user navigation
* Pages that seem deceptive, fraudulent or provide a poor user experience

How do I improve the ranking of my web site in the 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.