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Yahoo Sponsored Search

Search results are a powerful way for customers to find your website because users are actively looking for the services or products you have to offer.

Similar in operation to Google's Adwords programme, advertising with Yahoo Sponsored Search means your listings can appear prominently in search results on a number of top portals and search engines, ie altavista, MSN, alltheweb, CNN.com, HP Invent and Infospace, enabling you to reach a significant proportion of internet users.

The users who click through to your site are targeted prospects who are interested in precisely what you have to offer. If your website accurately reflects the promise made in your listing, you should be able to achieve a high return on investment. You pay only when users click through to your site.

There are five basic steps in setting up a Yahoo Sponsored Search listing.

1. Select your keywords - The first step is to select keywords that are directly relevant to your website content. Yahoo's research shows that advertisers who bid on 20 or more keywords experience the greatest success. Note that their editorial staff will review your search terms for relevancy to ensure that your website contains content that is consistent with your keywords.

2. Write a search listing - Next, you write search listings for each of your keywords . A search listing consists of a title and description about your site and what you have to offer. Effective search listings are concise, factual and include the search term in both the title and description.

3. Decide on a bid amount - Yahoo Sponsored Search listings are ranked by bid amount ie the amount you are prepared to pay when someone clicks on your listing. You need to specify a bid amount for each of your search terms. You pay only when a user clicks on your listing.

4. Editorial Review - After being reviewed by the Yahoo editorial team your search listings are distributed across the Yahoo network of sites.

5. Prepare for your visitors - When users type in your keywords your listing appears on the search results pages, positioned according to the amount of your bid.