YAHOO! SITE MAP: A USEFUL INTERNET MARKETING TOOL

A website refers to a compilation of Web pages that can be typically accessed through a software package, commonly known as a Web browser (one example is the HTTP on the Internet). These pages, which are essentially documents that are in the HTML or XHTML format (HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language), are accessed from a ‘common root URL’ - or the website’s homepage (as most people know it). From this homepage, the visitor/Internet user can browse or look through the entire website either with the use of the hyperlinks or the URLs of the different web pages.

Viewed on computers and other devices that are capable of connecting with the Internet (such as PDAs and cellular phones), websites can be grouped into numerous types, depending on their use or the services that they offer. Some of them include the following:

· Archive site - maintains and protects electronic contents that are valuable to the point of extinction.

· Business site - promotes a business or a service.

· Commerce or eCommerce site - offers goods for sale.

· Community site - allows people with related and similar interests to communicate with each other (either through chat or message boards).

· Database site - searches and displays a particular database’s content.

· Development site - provides data and sources that are related to software development and web design, among others.

· Directory site - contains wide-ranging contents that are usually divided into categories and subcategories.

· Download site - allows users to download electronic contents, such as game demos and software.

· Game site - provides a ‘playground’ where people meet and play.

· Information site - contains data or content that have the sole purpose of informing visitors (not for commercial purposes).

· News site - dispenses or distributes news and commentaries (similar to an information site).

· Pornography site - shows pornographic videos and images.

· Search engine site - provides general information and serves as a ‘gateway’ for other sites and resources (can also be a web portal site).

· Shock site - shows images and other materials that aim to offend viewers.

· Vanity site - a personal site that is run or maintained by an individual or a small group, the contents of which can be of any information that the site owner wishes to include.

· Blog site or blogs - registers online readings and posts online diaries or discussion forums.

· Wiki site - allows users to collaboratively edit the contents.

Yahoo! is perhaps the most famous example of a very large website. The most popular and widely-used website, Yahoo! is a mixture of the different types of sites - it is a directory site and a search engine site, among others.

Because of the enormous (and diverse) amount of information that it contains, the Yahoo! site map is an extremely useful feature in the Yahoo! website.

A site map is a web page that lists the entire pages on a web site. Organized in a hierarchical fashion, site maps can be in textual or visual form (a diagram or an image).

The Yahoo! site map serves as a blueprint for the Yahoo! website. Similar to a book’s Table of Contents, the Yahoo! sitemap makes it easier for visitors or users to find specific information or pages on the Yahoo! web site without having to browse many pages, because the site map gives an overview or a visual outline of the Yahoo! web site, with each location provided with active links to enable the user to directly move to a specific location.

In addition, the Yahoo! site map allows web developers to put out links from across their sites, making it easier for search engine robots (or engine spiders) to find these pages.

Because the Yahoo! site map improves the search engine optimization of a site, this feature can be considered a valuable tool for online marketers, whose aim is to stimulate and direct traffic to their web sites.

Note, however, that the Yahoo! site map can only give you the ‘basics’. Because it is important for web marketers to ‘rank high’ on main search engines, an effective web marketing strategy that promotes your web site is also very much needed. Listed below are some search engine strategies to consider:

1. Write a descriptive page title at the top of your webpage that avoids ‘filler’ words like “the” or “and”.

2. Incorporate descriptive keywords on your home page, along with your business name. This is called “keyword prominence”.

3. Include a Description Meta Tag at the top of the web page. This refers to the sentences (1 or 2 lines, with a maximum of around 255 characters) that describe the content of your web page.

These are just some of the many techniques that you can employ to get more users to visit your website. The important thing is to focus on keywords - and let Yahoo! site map do the rest.

Google Australia is distributing the most local Olympics searches but is being trumped by Windows Live and Yahoo! in paid traffic, Hitwise Australia says.

A Hitwise Search Portfolio of 100 leading search variations on the word ‘Olympics’ revealed that Google Australia is distributing over 75 percent of “clicks”, according to Hitwise Asia Pacific research analyst, Sandra Hanchard.

A click is said to occur when a user conducts a search, and then clicks on a search engine result to visit a website.

However, while handling lower click volumes, both Windows Live Search and Yahoo! Search Australia are distributing more paid clicks than Google.

Yahoo!7 Sport, ninemsn, and Telstra all received paid traffic off Olympic search terms to their respective websites, Hanchard stated in a blog post .

The official Beijing 2008 (English language) site is the main beneficiary of downstream traffic from Olympic searches so far, receiving more than one in four clicks, according to Hitwise data.

But Hitwise research director for Asia Pacific, Alan Long, claimed the official site will face increasingly ‘stiff competition’ from news sites in 2008.

This will not only affect the volume of users but also the value the site provides to Games sponsors, Long said in a separate post .

“A lot has changed since I was involved with Olympics.com during the Sydney 2000 Games, regarded at the time as the very first digital Games. Then, the official site was the leader in all major markets,” stated Long.

“Now, news and media websites are more sophisticated with multimedia capabilities that make it very difficult for a once-every-four-years site to compete against,” he added.

Having thus far been very positive about Yahoo! on my blog (and generally in life), I do want to take a moment to spew some negativity in light of the new policy about blogging at Yahoo! Don’t worry, I still love the policy, but it does say that we are free to express our opinions, both positive and negative as long as we explain our claims.

So let the Yahoo! negativity begin:

Having thus far been very positive about Yahoo! on my blog (and generally in life), I do want to take a moment to spew some negativity in light of the new policy about blogging at Yahoo! Don’t worry, I still love the policy, but it does say that we are free to express our opinions, both positive and negative as long as we explain our claims.

So let the Yahoo! negativity begin:

I hope I am not the only Yahoo! employee that when they started here thought the corporate colors were red and yellow. Apparently our colors are actually purple and yellow. If I didn’t know it coming in I know it now. Boy howdy, do I know it now. Our color scheme infects our campus. If it can be one or both colors it is. The carpet, the cubes, the signs, the grape and banana jolly ranchers in the cafeteria. Believe me, if you came here you’d notice pretty fast.

I’m all for color branding, but there is something here that crosses the line. The food served by the cafeteria should not be color coordinated to our company. Yellow squash and purple cauliflower is a common occurrence for veggies here. When it is time for roasted potatoes, they are Yukon gold, and those Peruvian purple potatoes that I have otherwise only seen on jetBlue and on cooking shows. It turned my stomach the first time I tried it, but I have conditioned myself on it. Today though crossed the line. Purple potato salad was too much. Chunks of purple potatoes peaking out from behind mayo. *shudder*

Seriously people, there is research on color and taste/quality perception! Here is a little test you can even run yourself.

I didn’t realize until today how shallow of an environmentalist I am. There was an article in the San Jose Mercury News about how the recent heat wave has taxed the extremely green (environmentally friendly) Adobe headquarters buildings in San Jose. In particular, the west tower was the greenest office building of its kind when it first came online and was hit pretty hard in the 100+ temperatures.

My first reaction should have been “I’m so happy that I am going to work at a place that has such deep regard for the environment that they would go so far out of their way to make an ecologically sound office building.” It wasn’t. My actual reaction was “oh crap. I’m going to be in the West tower!” Apparently I need to go see Al Gore’s movie at least 5 times, and go to a painfully unfocused protest in Berkeley to get in touch with my inner environmentalist again.

I was however pleased to note that an enterprising engineer at Adobe convinced everyone to close their blinds and reflect the heat away from the building (apparently saving 300Kw). I wonder though, when I got to work this morning, all of my stuff on the window sills had been moved away, and all of our blinds were adjusted to 45 degree angles. Maybe Yahoo! facilities read the article too.