If you followed the instructions on how to get indexed by Yahoo!, and checked if the site was listed, then you successfully submitted your site. But it does not stop there, you still need to authenticate your site with Yahoo to see what pages got indexed by Yahoo. If your site was not yet indexed by Yahoo!, you just wait, eventually Yahoo! will crawl and index your site.
Anyway, when I wrote the blog entry, How to Get Indexed by Yahoo!, last Tuesday, after submitting the site, you were supposed to be redirected to the page like the one in number 4.
But today, when I tested it, instead of that thank you page you will be redirected to another page, to the Authentication page right away. Yahoo! probably changed it so that you will not forget to authenticate the site. Perhaps, some really just submit the site and do not authenticate it.
Let me start again from the very beginning.
1. Login to your Yahoo! account.
URL: https://login.yahoo.com/
2. Then go to Site Explorer – My Sites page.
URL: https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/mysites
3. Submit your site for free by typing the domain name at the one line form.
4. Then click “Add My Site” button.
5. Once you submitted the site, you will be redirected to the page like the one below:
It says:
To authenticate your site ownership, you can either add a META tag to your home page, or upload a verification file to your site, please follow the instructions below.
How would you like to authenticate your site?
– By uploading a verification file to my site.
– By adding a META tag to my home page.
6. Click the link to see the instructions and you will see the illustration below.
– If you click “By uploading a verification file to my site”. You will see the illustration below.
It says:
. Download (button) an authentication key (DO NOT change the file name or content):
If you have a problem with downloading the authentication key, please create a text file named y_key_ea2a9d1c73744911.html, and put the string 29f4d5e87a118513 into the file.
. Upload the verification file to your site.
Please upload the key file that you downloaded, or created yourself, at the root level of your site directory. The expected file path is
https://www.sehdi.com/y_key_ea2a9d1c73744911.html.
. When the file is uploaded, please click the button below to let us know that the authentication key is in place. We will authenticate your site within 24 hours.
Ready to Authenticate (button)
– If you click “By adding a META tag to my home page”. You will see the illustration below.
It says:
Copy the META tag listed below and paste it in your site’s home page:
<META name=”y_key” content=”29f4d5e87a118513″>
. The META tag must be within and near the beginning of the first <HEAD> section of the page, and before the first <BODY> section.
. When the META tag is added, please click the button below to let us know that the META tag is in place. We will authenticate your site within 24 hours.
Ready to Authenticate (button)
7. You have two choices either to upload a verification file via FTP or add a META tag to your home page.
– If you would like to upload a verification file, follow the instructions like at the one below. See number 6 for text.
Once you downloaded the file, open and check the content of the file.
Click the file and it will open in your browser.
Check the content of the file using “View Source” by clicking File menu, then look for “View Source”.
It should look like the one below:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN”>
<HTML>
<!– 29f4d5e87a118513 –>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>
</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Do not change anything.
Open an FTP software and upload the file.
– If you would like to add a META tag to your home page, follow the instructions like at the one below. See number 6 for text.
Go to the header of your file and look for <head> and </head> before the </body>.
Put this key <META name=”y_key” content=”29f4d5e87a118513″> inside or in between the <head> and </head>.
It should look like the one below.
<head>
<META name=”y_key” content=”29f4d5e87a118513″>
</head>
If you are using XHTML instead of HTML, it is advisable to change the word META into small letters and put a closing tag before the greater than symbol. Put a space after the last quotation mark then forward slash.
It should look like the one below.
<head>
<meta name=”y_key” content=”29f4d5e87a118513″ />
</head>
8. Once you have done either of the two, go back to Yahoo! Site Explorer.
9. Click “Ready to Authenticate” button. The page will look like the one below while it is processing.
10. Once it is finished, you will be redirected to a page. You will see the illustration below.
It says:
Your site is pending authentication.
If you have added the META tag, please keep the tag <META name=\”y_key\” content=\”29f4d5e87a118513\” > in your site’s home page. We will revalidate your site ownership by checking this META tag regularly.
If you have uploaded the verification file, please keep the file y_key_ea2a9d1c73744911.html on your site root https://www.sehdi.com and do not change the content (29f4d5e87a118513).We will authenticate your site ownership by checking this file within 24 hours.
Download (button) an authentication key (DO NOT change the file name or content):
11. Give it a few hours. Yahoo! will authenticate your site ownership within 24 hours.
12. The next time you login at the Yahoo! Site Explorer, and you see the “green round with check symbol” under Status on the right side corresponding to the domain name, then your site has been authenticated.
13. Click the “green round with check symbol” and you will see the illustration below.
It says:
Your site has been authenticated.
If you have added the META tag, please keep the tag <META name=\”y_key\” content=\”29f4d5e87a118513\” > in your site’s home page. We will revalidate your site ownership by checking this META tag regularly.
If you have uploaded the verification file, please keep the file y_key_ea2a9d1c73744911.html on your site root https://www.sehdi.com and do not change the content (29f4d5e87a118513).We will authenticate your site ownership by checking this file within 24 hours.
Ready to Authenticate (button)
14. Click the domain name and you will see the illustration below.
It says:
Authentication Status: Verified
If you the see the illustrations like the ones in number 13 and 14, that’s it.
It is finished. Your site has been authenticated.
Well then, good luck!
Note:
The domain name sehdi.com should be the domain name that you submitted.
The text file and the meta key will be different. Yahoo! will automatically create those for you.
Great instructions!
The problem with yahoo site meta tag is sometimes the siteexplorer doesnt recognize the meta tag when we do the authentication process. I prefer to upload the html files rather this ones. With Google I did exactly what you said and I can not understand well. Thank you so much for explaining a whole process in brief. I will surely try it and let you know later.