There is a strong possibility that other people have placed links on their website pointing to the removed pages. Some people may have even previously book marked the removed pages for future use. Once you’ve removed the pages you have eliminated these sources of prospects.

Search engines follow links to find websites and web pages. By removing these pages, you are removing the content that they have come to expect (once they’ve found and indexed it). If they are unable to find a number of pages that you have improperly removed from your server then they very often will leave your website. This can make getting your new pages indexed difficult and slow.

Fortunately, the solution is relatively simple. If you plan to remove a page from your website you would first set up a 301 redirect to another related page. For example if you had a page named “july-sale.htm” and it is now August, you would set your 301 redirect to automatically send all requests for that page directly to “august-sales.htm” instead. Once that is in place you can safely delete the page. If you’ve already deleted pages from your website without setting up 301 redirects you can still fix the problem. If you view your error logs on your web server you can find all of the 404 errors which are caused by requests for files that do not exist and then set up a 301 redirect for each missing file.

This ensures that when someone comes to a page that no longer exists, rather than getting an error message and leaving, they are instantly whisked away to the next most relevant page and you get the chance to turn them into a client or customer. It also ensures that when the search engines come looking for a page that no longer exists they are redirected to the next most relevant page causing them to spend more time crawling your website. It’s important to point out that some hosts do not offer the ability to set up these type of redirects and will recommend adding a java script to the page. This will not work for the search engines because they do not execute any scripts, and it will only work for a portion of visitors.

Related SEO Post

• How to Get 100,000 Visitors or More from Yahoo (1)
• Make Money Online with SEO (1)
• Keyword Optimization Guide for Search Engine (1)
• The Best Way To Get Listed On Yahoo! (1)
• Optimizing a Press Release for Search Engines (1)

At last count, Yahoo receives over 180 million visitors a month.

Can you imagine the kind of traffic you’ll receive by getting just a small percentage of Yahoo’s traffic?

For many, getting listed in Yahoo is like winning the lottery: millions enter, but only a few are accepted.

However, by following the 7 simple SEO steps listed below you’ll be able to :
o jump past the millions of websites vying for a listing o get your site listed o receive more targeted visitors o and ultimately earn more money.

Here’s how to get your site listed in Yahoo:

1. Focus on a GOOD Keyword

Understanding which keywords people are actively searching can mean the difference between your site getting 50 visitors a day or 1000 visitors a day. So, you’ll need to target keywords that people are actively searching for to get any meaningful source of traffic.

Here are 3 ways to Discover Popular Keywords:

o Wordspot - http://www.wordspot.com/ o Goto Search Term Suggestion Tool http://inventory.go2.com/inventory/Search_Suggestion.jhtml o Good Keywords - http://www.goodkeywords.com/

2. Set Up an New Domain

It’s a good idea to create an entirely new domain using the Keyword you came up with in Step 1.

Sure, it may involve an upfront cost:

o $15 / year for a domain name + year worth of hosting (Find this Amazing price at http://www.doteasy.com/) o $199 for an Express Submission. o Total Cost = $214 dollars

However, just imagine how many visitors you can bring with a Yahoo listing. For instance, let’s say you can bring 500 visitors a day (a conservative estimate). This comes out to about 182,500 visitors in a year.

A total cost of $214.40 for 182,500 adds up to less than 1/10 a penny a visitor. Plus, if you submit this new site to the various search engines, you will gain even more visitors. You won’t find a better bargain out there.

3. Create Unique Content

Setting up a new domain is not enough for getting into Yahoo. To get into Yahoo, you’ll need to present unique content for the Yahoo editors. Remember, each site that’s submitted to Yahoo is reviewed by live humans.

So how do you create unique content for the Yahoo reviewers?

One way to do this is to find gaps in Yahoo’s listings, and provide the information to fill in those gaps.

Simply search Yahoo’s category listing in the subject area you plan on submitting to and finding an area that is lacking content. Then, your job is to simply create the content to fill in the gaps for them.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to create a massive 500 pg. website. 7-10 pages of unique content (including links to other sources) should be more than adequate to get you listed.

4. Title of Your Site Should Be On Your Actual Website.

In most cases, the yahoo reviewers will use your company name as the title of your listing. So if you have the ability to do so, you might want to consider this in choosing your business name. When deciding on your business name, be sure to include your most important keyword (Step 1 above) in it.

If you already have a business name, you might want to fill out another “Doing Business As” form with your local courthouse and create another assumed name for your business.

5. Create a Very Brief Description

Try and keep your description text to 12 words or less of advertising and hype free text. However, be sure to include your important keyword (Step 1) into the description.

6. Choose a Specific Category and Secondary Category

Yahoo distinguishes sites as either commercial or non- commercial sites. If your site is selling anything at all than your site belongs in the Business and Economy section of Yahoo.

Try and be as specific as possible when trying to submit your site into Yahoo’s first and secondary categories. This will help target your visitors and limit the amount of competition your site will have.

7. Implement a Back Up Strategy

Even though you did everything right, you still may not be included into Yahoo’s directory. Don’t worry, follow this back up strategy:

If you used the Business Express service to submit your site and didn’t get in with your first try, you’ll be sent an email within 7 days stating why you weren’t listed. Here’s you second chance to get in. Simply fix the problem that they’ve indicated and then recontact your reviewer to inform them of the changes you’ve made in what’s know as the “appeal” email by Yahoo.

If you did not use the Business Express service, you may want to contact Yahoo about your submission. When contacting Yahoo, I suggest you include the date of your submission as well as the title and URL of your web site.

Yahoo is swamped with emails, so sending them an email to them may be ineffective. What I suggest is that you either call or write to them about your site’s listing (writing is the preferred method). Here’s Yahoo’s contact information:

Yahoo!, Inc. 3420 Central Expressway, 2nd Floor Santa Clara, CA 95051 Main Corporate Telephone: (408) 731-3300 Fax: (408) 731-3301 User Support Telephone: (408) 731-3333 - LISTING NUMBER Extension #1: For information on submitting a new URL Extension #2: For information on making changes to an existing listing in Yahoo! Extension #3: Information about Yahoo! search results

When contacting Yahoo, it’s a good idea to get to the point quickly. Simply ask if they have had a chance to review your web site and reiterate how your site adds value by providing unique content to their directory.

So now you have the information needed to get your site listed in the biggest directory on the net. WHY STOP HERE? Why not use the information presented above to get more sites listed?

Related SEO Post

• How to Rank Well on all Four Major Engines? (5)
• How broken links can hurt your website (2)
• Make Money Online with SEO (1)
• Keyword Optimization Guide for Search Engine (1)
• The Best Way To Get Listed On Yahoo! (1)