Yahoo!/Overture Site Match: A License To Steal

Unless you've been living in a cave somewhere, I'm sure you've heard by now, Overture now offers the Yahoo! Search Inclusion under its own branded name--Site Match.

According to the page info from Overture, submitting your site to individual search engines is expensive and time-consuming. But with Site Match you can reach millions of users by submitting your pages through one program that powers search results for top web portals such as Yahoo!, AltaVista, AlltheWeb and other sites.

Summary of Site Match Benefits (according to Overture):

• More exposure for your site--reach more than 75% of active internet users

• A simple, single point of submission to multiple web portals such as Yahoo!, AltaVista and AlltheWeb

• Frequent refresh of your pages--every 48 hours

• Daily reporting to track and optimize performance

• Pricing--Hybrid of Inclusion and Pay-Per-Click

Site Match uses a hybrid of the old Inktomi paid inclusion program and the pay-per-click search listings. When you start a Site Match subscription, a non-refundable annual review fee is charged for setting up your account and for quality review of your pages. Once your pages are accepted into the program, a cost-per-click fee is charged for each lead driven to your site.

URL Submission (non-refundable annual fee, per domain)

First URL: $49

Next 2-10 URLs: $29 each

11th URL and beyond: $10 each

Cost-Per-Click Fee:

Tier 1 Categories: $.15

Adult

Automotive

Books

Computers & Software

Dating

Education & Career

Entertainment & Attractions

Jewelry & Watches

Music & Video

Office

Other

Reference

Sports & Outdoors

Toys & Baby Equipment

Tier 2 Categories: $.30

Apparel

Electronics

Financial Services

Flowers, Gifts & Registry

Health, Beauty & Personal Care

Home & Garden

Professional Services

Real Estate

Telecom & Web Services

Travel $.30

Okay, now that we've gotten the preliminaries out of the way, here's the real deal on Yahoo!/Overture's Site Match:

It's a license to steal! It really is. Here's why:

Site Match isn't a true pay-per-click program, like Google's Adwords or Overture's own pay-per-click program.

What's the difference? With Site Match, you don't have any control over how much you pay for a particular keyword. I'll talk more about that later.

Site Match charges you $49 to "review" your URL, at which point you get included in the databases of several search engines, including the new Yahoo! search engine. By the way, paying the $49 annual fee doesn't improve your page ranking one iota.

It's also important to point out, this isn't the same thing as Yahoo!'s Submit Express,where you have to pay $300 to have them review your site for possible inclusion in their directory, without any guarantee whatsoever.

With Site Match, you're guaranteed that your URL will be included in their various databases, and will be spidered regularly. This is how it works: If your listing is shown for a particular query and someone clicks on it, you get charged an additional 15 or 30 cents--over and above the $49 annual fee! That's one reason why I call Site Match a license to steal. Here's another:

If your URL already happens to be in the search engine databases, you're now paying money for clicks you would have previously gotten for free.

It's really a bad deal, because for most sites, paying more than $.10 per click will end up costing you money.

If you've participated in a true pay-per-click program, you already know that there are many keywords, especially generic terms, that are worth little or nothing, so you'd never bid on them to begin with--or you'd bid very low.

But with Site Match that control is completely taken away from you because, the way the program is set up, you have to pay a minimum of $.15 to $.30 per click, no matter what.

Personally, I think you should avoid Site Match like the Bubonic Plague!

About The Author

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: dean@lets-make-money.net

Visit his website at: http://www.lets-make-money.net

---

What Did We Learn from the Great Search Engine Experiment!

Last Week I did a Search engine Experiment. I wanted... Read More

Google Bring Deskbar Search To Windows Desktop. Now Any Website Can Take Advantage Of This

Google's premier of desktop search proves that the desktop is... Read More

SEO Quickstart - 3 Things You can Do to Improve Search Engine Rankings Right Now

Increasing your search engine rankings should certainly be one of... Read More

Search Engine FAQ

Why shouldn't I use a submission service that submits my... Read More

Searching The Internet Without Search Engines

The World Wide Web contains more than ten million websites... Read More

How to REALLY Profit from SEO

I want to give you a few more things to... Read More

Are You Hung-Up on Page Rank and Back Links?

It's unfortunate that many website owners are so hung-up on... Read More

HTML Title Tags Dictate Your Rankings

There are a lot of things in Search Engine Optimization... Read More

Finding Profitable Keyword Phrases

So you have a site concept developed that you are... Read More

SEO Expert Guide - Sitewide Optimization (part 4/10)

In parts 1 and 2 you learnt how to develop... Read More

What are My Chances to Get the First Place in Search Engine Listings?

You must have heard the stories how people became rich... Read More

Optimizing Online Catalog Copy for the Search Engines

It only makes sense. You have an e-commerce catalog site.... Read More

How to Avoid the Google Duplicate Content Filter?

More and more webmasters are building websites with publicly available... Read More

Googles Trap, DMOZs Nap, And Yahoo!s Crap

On November 16th, 2003, Google commenced an update (the Florida... Read More

The Myth of Search Engine Submission

Contrary to what most people think, it is not necessary... Read More

World of Website Promotion

Website promotion is a big and ongoing process. Every person... Read More

Is Google Having a Tough Time with Their Website Limit?

If you are one to pay attention to what happens... Read More

Link Building in Light of Vision-based Page Segmentation

The days of basing a successful link building strategy on... Read More

Emerging Methods for Effective Search Engine Ranking

Search Engine traffic has always been and continues to be... Read More

SEO Expert Guide - Ongoing Monitoring of Results (part 9/10)

In the Guide, you have, so far, learnt how to... Read More

New Site and Sandbox: How to Get Rid of It

You have put lot of sweat in making your site.... Read More

A Naive Mistake Cost Me My Google Rankings

Little do you know but you too could be making... Read More

Gaining Additional PageRank

Google is the major search engine webmasters have to deal... Read More

Are Your Keywords Making Money for You?

I built my website, it's perfect. My chosen subject of... Read More

Reality Check: A Straightforward Guide to Keywords and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Web site owners need to have realistic expectations when it... Read More

Five and a Half Ways to Amp Up Your Search Engine Optimization

Statistics show that 85% of pages visited on the Internet... Read More

Content Is King

Over the past few years, there have been many debates... Read More

Finding Targeted Keyword Phrases Your Competitors Miss

Finding Targeted Keyword Phrases Your Competitors MissFinding keyword phrases your... Read More

How and When Should I Submit My Website to Google?

As soon as you register your domain name, submit it... Read More

An Ethical Alternative to Doorway Pages

Definition: A doorway page is content created specifically for the... Read More

Banned from Google and Wondering Why?

There are those that get on the computer one night... Read More

Googles PR System Explained

The complexities of Google's PR (Page Ranking) System have grown... Read More

Determining the Value of Your SEO Service

Every once in a while--and probably more often than we... Read More