Introduction
Another type of search engine is the directory search engine. Directories don’t display search results based on keywords; instead they display results by category and subcategory. Web sites are usually categorized by the site, not by pages on the site. What this means is that your overall listing in directory search results will depend largely on either paid placement or on correctly categorizing your site as tightly as possible.
Yahoo! Search Marketing is a PPC program that’s similar to AdWords, but there’s one big difference. Yahoo! is a very commercial search engine, which means that many of the search results are paid placement ads or are web sites that have been added by the web-site owner. Editors usually review and approve submitted listings before they are shown in search results.
Yahoo! is also a portal that contains many different services, such as instant messaging, e-mail, maps, and much more (Google is structured in a similar manner). Being a portal means that Yahoo! has many loyal users who are likely to see your ads once you begin a PPC campaign with Yahoo! Search Marketing. When you sign up with Yahoo! Search Marketing, you have two options for the type of account you’d like to have.
Marketing Strategy
These options are different from Google, because you can have a free PPC plan that you use, create, and maintain on your own, or you can choose to have a Yahoo! specialist help you create your campaign. If you decide to use a Yahoo! specialist, there’s a one-time $199 set-up fee. As with Google, there’s no reason you should pay to begin your PPC advertising with Yahoo! Search Marketing.
You can begin with the basic, free PPC service, and if you find that your ads don’t perform well or that you need help managing your campaigns, you can always upgrade to the paid service. You even have the option of creating your first ad, but not providing billing information to activate the ad. As with Google, the ad won’t begin showing in search results until you have activated it with billing information.
Conclusion
After you complete the sign-up process and log in to your account, the set-up is similar to AdWords. The tabs are a little different, but it all works about the same. The tabs that you have available in Yahoo! are the dashboard tab, a campaigns tab, a reports tab, and an administration tab. In addition, there are links on the pages that will take you to additional features and capabilities.