Yahoo Paid Inclusion for Lazy SEOs
By its very nature, search engine optimization (SEO) takes time not only to implement, but also to see the changes in traffic and rankings. For those who are in a hurry or just plain lazy, Yahoo offers an alternative with their paid inclusion program (also known as Yahoo Search Submit Pro). However, in exchange for all the time you save in not having to optimize your site, you'll have to fork over some cash to Yahoo.
First off, for those who don't know, Yahoo Paid Inclusion (PI) (or Search Submit as it is now known) is a program whereby you submit content to Yahoo via XML files, agree to pay a flat fee per click, and then obtain first page rankings for your chosen keywords. Yes, I've over-simplified the process and the work required, but what I've written isn't too far off the mark. And I'm not kidding about the rankings. For one client in a pretty competitive market I was able to obtain 100+ top 10 rankings for non-branded terms with just several days worth of work. That kind of result could easily take many months with pure SEO-style work.
Of course, Yahoo is the only major search engine to offer this pay-for-inclusion option, so you'll still need to do SEO for Google and MSN. Also note that Yahoo doesn't guarantee rankings, just inclusion even though in practice rankings are pretty easy to obtain. And full-blown submission programs are not available to everyone, but rather to companies that have managed to meet Yahoo's qualification criteria. Even with these caveats, there is no better way for a lazy SEO to get the job done!
This program is a good way to get a new site cranking along. It's also a good alternative for sites that will just never rank well because of extreme competition or perhaps because of technical limitations like having Flash-based content that search engines can't index. And the program does, in theory, allow you to continue with your SEO efforts so that you can eventually shutdown your PI account and then obtain similar rankings naturally. That last step is something I'd like to test out one day.
Next up for me is passing Yahoo's test and obtaining the Yahoo Ambassador designation for the Search Submit program. I hope I didn't just jinx myself!