How to Configure a Yahoo! Store for SEO

This example uses ski goggle as the sample search term.

1.      Make sure the Meta-title field has your search terms in it relevant to the product/category for that page.  For example, one of the search terms we are focused on is  “bolle ski goggles”.  On the Fathom page you will want to make sure that you use a term such as “bolle fathom ski goggles” or, better yet, “fathom bolle ski goggles”.   “fathom bolle ski goggles” is better because the exact search term “bolle ski goggles” is in the title.  Do not use capital letters and separate search terms with the pipe (|).  Pay attention to your product names.  The Yahoo store will use the product name as the default Meta-title if the Meta-title is left blank.  In that case, you need to be careful that there is no HTML in the product/category name field.  The HTML will cause your Meta-title to be malformed and not display properly.  Also keep in mind that most search engines will only use a maximum of 60 characters for the title.  Plan on anything over 60 characters not being indexed by the search engines.

2.      When creating a new product/category in your Yahoo Store make sure to use an ID that has your search term in it.  For example: fathom-bolle-ski-goggles.  Even though Yahoo specifically states that this ID is not use for the public it is, however, used to create the HTML page name (i.e. fathom-bolle-ski-goggles.html).  For this reason you will want to use IDs that have search terms in them.  You cannot change IDs once they have been created.  The only way to change an ID is to delete and recreate the page.  (see: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/smallbusiness/store/edit/regular/regular-61.html)

3.      If possible, Make sure the Yahoo Store Name field has a search term in it.

4.      Get as many of you search phrases into your Yahoo Store’s Caption field as you can while making sure that the Yahoo Store’s Caption is still easy to read by your customers.  Use anchor links in your Yahoo Store’s Caption to link to other product and informational pages within your site and make sure to the anchor text itself has your search terms in it.  For example, do not use “click here” as anchor text.  Use something like “Click here to see our collection of Bolle Ski Goggles” and wrap the “collection of Bolle Ski Goggles” with your anchor text.  Also, make sure to add a title tag with the search terms in it too.  Here is the example code: Click here to see our <a href=”/my-page-about-something.html” title=”collection of Bolle Ski Goggles” name=” Bolle Ski Goggles”>collection of Bolle Ski Goggles</a>

5.      The Meta-keywords and Meta description are less important that the other elements of the page above.  This is because these two elements are not displayed to the end user and, for this reason, the search engines place less importance on these elements.  Ideally, it is best to have all the meta fields complete but you are much better off spending time and focusing on the content of the page than the Meta-keywords and Meta-Description.  If you would like to populate these fields quickly just copy and paste the Meta-title into the Meta-keywords field (use commas to separate the search terms instead of the pipe) and copy and paste the Yahoo Store Caption into the Meta-description field.

6.      Remember, the first rule for on-page SEO is forget about that SEO and make sure the page sells!  If the page is well-SEOed but does not sell, you can get top of page one placement across your entire industry and still not make a sale.  First, is make the page sell and second is make it SEO friendly.