You are invited to a seminar and buffet lunch in Essex, UK
The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has launched a major campaign to get the UK online. Under this initiative, Robert Brady, the owner of ed-u.com, has been invited to give a series of talks on e-business, traffic building and best practice.
The feedback from previous talks, where Robert revealed how anyone can also achieve dramatic rises in their web-site's traffic, was excellent:
"I was and still am, absolutely and utterly blown away by your knowledge, what you have achieved via the internet and the possibilities for other businesses.... I thank you for a highly informative and exciting talk, I came home amazed by the possibilities."
Lorna Holmes Wagtails by Instinctively Cats and Dogs
"It really was an excellent seminar and the most useful I have attended on any Web based subject."
Di Chapman Virtual Office Services
"That was really fascinating. I've been to many seminars and that was the best I've ever been to."
Nick Briggs Sellandmove.com
"I would like to thank you for the excellent talk that you gave us all"
Sue Axon Saxon Plant and Groundworks
"I'm gobsmacked, that was easily the most interesting seminar I've ever been to. I was truly fascinated by your knowledge!"
Ian Vernon Creative Marketing Solutions
So have a morning off and meet the many other people involved in e-business in the Essex area - you will be warmly welcomed.
Please telephone Robert Brady for further details on 01245 465473.
Increase Traffic to your Web-site - Traffic Tips and Secrets...
Yahoo.com and other directory advice
Directories are indexed by humans, so are different to search engines that are indexed by software.
Paying the piper
Some major directories, including Yahoo.com (USA), have dropped their free submission for businesses option. For instance, if you are a business site, you will have to pay US$299 (approx UK£200) for a Yahoo editor to review your site. If approved, the $299 becomes payable annually. Click here for more details, but beware, a paid review does not guarantee inclusion in the directory.
It is very difficult to get accepted into some of the popular directories, especially Yahoo.com. Visit What's New on Yahoo to reference the quality of sites that they are currently indexing.
If you make sure you are listed on Google.com, you will also show up on the secondary results at Yahoo. You could also buy advertising at Yahoo and ask if you can also have a free category listing.
Pretty please
If you haven't been listed after about a month, re-submit. After another month, try e-mailing or phoning them to ask if there is a problem and explain the situation politely. Include all of your site details in the e-mail.
Yahoo contact details
Yahoo Inc. 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, California 94089,
USA
Main Switchboard and Advertising Requests: (408) 731-3300
Fax: (408) 731-3301
User Support: (408) 731-3333:
Extension #1: Submitting a new URL
Extension #2: Change an existing listing in Yahoo
Extension #3: Search results information
Yahoo! UK Ltd
10 Ebury Bridge Road
London
SW1W 8PZ
tel 020 7808 4400
fax 020 7808 4203
Yahoo without the fuss
A Yahoo registration service is available at the highly respected
1st Search Ranking. They give a money back guarantee to get your site registered by Yahoo.
Looksmart
A directory that is worth considering paying to review your site for inclusion in their index is Looksmart. At the time of writing, it claims a greater reach than Yahoo and powers the directories of MSN, AltaVista and many more top internet portals.
Important considerations before you submit to a directory
You should own your own domain name (http://www.ed-u.com) and not a subdomain (http://www.othersite.ed-u.com). Unless you have a really unique and well-presented site, you will find it hard to get a listing in the top directories with a subdomain. It is also worth knowing that many search engines give low rankings or even refuse to index domains that point to free space sites.
You are more likely to be accepted if the name of your web-site matches your domain name.
Use your most important keywords and keyphrases in the title and description that you submit to the directory.
Use a title nearer the top of the alphabet if possible. As most directories list alphabetically, it really does make a difference. But if you are submitting a commercial site to Yahoo, you should use the official business name for the title.
Directories like to see contact information, a privacy policy and, if you sell goods, a returns policy on your site before they will index it. Click here to learn about the European Union Distance Selling Directive. Also, some of your visitors, potential alliances or advertisers simply will not do business with you if you do not supply them with this information. You should also consider a terms and conditions page.
You are free to copy and adapt the information on our privacy policy and terms and conditions page to suit your site, but we cannot accept any responsibility for the use of any material copied from our sites. Please consult a lawyer to verify all information.
A commercial privacy statement wizard that helps you build your own personalized document can be found at Truste.
If you sell products you should have secure ordering.
Make sure everything on your site works. Check for bad links and Javascript errors, also making sure that all your images are loading.
Check your spelling and look for typos - a small blemish can mar a beautiful face. Not only will trained editors spot them, but your visitors will be put off by them. The visitor's reading flow is suddenly interrupted from digesting your sales message as they home in on the error.
Consider filling your homepage with informational keywords. Don't waste it on a "splash" entry page with just a picture or "enter here" message. Directory editors tend to avoid listing splash pages.
All directories are different. They all have varying criteria for indexing your site. Some will only index your homepage while others will consider indexing other important pages within your site.
Because sites such as Yahoo will only index the information from the title and description of your homepage, sites that carry a wide range of products or services will not be able to be found under those product or service names.
Yahoo directory editors reject sites with domain names consisting of more than 54.
Your site must be compatible with the main browsers. Test your web-site at Anybrowser.com.
Move in next door to your competitors
Make sure you find the exact page you want to be listed on before submitting to the major directories and make sure you use all of your top keywords and phrases in the description. Your submission will be rejected if you choose an inappropriate page. Find which page your competition is on and add your site to that one. Don't use sales hype, this will also get you rejected.
Try not to get sand in your ice-cream
If you have a section of content within your site that has little or nothing to do with your front page and you would like it included in a directory that only accepts homepages, you should consider buying another domain name. For instance if you administer a site that primarily sells ice-creams to Eskimos, but you also export sand to Arabia, you might consider having two different sites. You then have the possibility of obtaining a directory listing in two separate categories.
Divorcing your desserts from your desert has the added benefit of your potential customers finding what they want without having to plough through information with no interest to them. You can always put a link to the other site on both of your new sites' homepages so you don't lose people who have previously visited and bookmarked.
Hundreds of thousands of webmasters are using databases instead of static HTML webpages. Click here to find out why databases might not be the best idea...
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