Search Engine Marketing Newsletter March 2004

In this issue read about

• Changes at Yahoo 
• Webconsuls Plans for its clients regarding Yahoo's changes 
• Maintaining your website 

Changes at Yahoo

Before addressing the changes, lets review how Yahoo was delivering search results. At the top under a "Sponsored Listing" heading, were results from Overture. Sites were listed according to their bid in Overture's pay per click system. Then Yahoo listed, in a section labeled "Search Results", results which it got from Google. Yahoo also maintained a directory that costs $299 per year for inclusion.

Late last year Yahoo purchased Overture (which had previously purchased Alta Vista and FAST) and Inktomi. We expect that these will become an inter-related family of search portals. Yahoo has replaced Google for their Search Results section with Yahoo's version of an Inktomi search. This then will be the new Yahoo search engine, which will provide results for Yahoo, MSN, Overture (unpaid listings), Hot Bot, About and others.

Initially there will be a free submit option to get sites considered, which should work for small, stable, relatively simply constructed web sites. The free submit should replace Inktomi's previous pay submit option.

For larger sites, with frequently changing content, Yahoo has announced Overture Site Match. This will be a paid submit service with a pay per click feature as well. It will not be a bid system, as the traditional Overture system, but a fixed pay per click based on site's category. Yahoo says that sites in the Site Match will get no special consideration in ranking, however the content will be reviewed every 48 hours and all pages will be considered.

So in the future we expect Yahoo to continue to show Overture's traditional pay per click results at the top as Sponsored listings and Yahoo new search engine results under Search Results. The listings in the Search Results will come from sites submitted under the free submit program and the Overture Site Match, ranked according to Yahoo's methodology.

Webconsuls' Plans

We will be monitoring all of our clients' search results and regularly reviewing the literature. We will recommend and implement opportunities to improve rankings. We will recommend participation to those clients who would benefit from the Overture Site Match program.

Since the Site Match program will involve considerable effort on our part, there will be an administrative fee imposed.

Maintaining Your Web Site

In its important that you keep your web site up to date. Many of our clients like to vary their content and images to keep the site fresh. For us to make changes to your site, even small ones, requires time on our part. In some cases we outsource the work and have to pay for the changes.

We can not maintain sites without compensation for the time involved. Our basic rate in $75 per hour, with a $25 minimum. So if you send us a change for your site, expect to be billed. We will contact you if the work is expected to take over an hour.

Some of our larger clients pay us a monthly fee that includes web site design maintenance. Obviously this charge does not apply to them.

Dennis Helfand and Dick Fay