As the world's largest directory/portal and generator of search related traffic, Yahoo! entertains a wide range of localized sites and categories. Not all of them require paid inclusion for business sites. So if your site qualifies, you may want to sign up under a regional category instead of paying $199 for the mere chance of having your site reviewed. You may even consider setting up a dedicated web site under a foreign TLD (top level domain) in order to achieve multiple entries in this prime traffic pusher. (Take care not to merely clone your main site, however: Yahoo!'s editors are well known not to take kindly to that well worn strategy.)

But will it really effect search results? That's the best part of it: it won't! The typical surfer doesn't really care where a domain is listed within Yahoo!'s vast, hard to fathom category structure. So getting listed at all - anywhere! - is the only important point.

Below you will find a list of localized Yahoo! URLs and the TLDs you may want to sign up under to get listed.

Note, however, that restrictions may apply: some TLD registrars will only register commmercial sites with a physical corporate presence in the country concerned. You can check out all the world's TLDs and their registrars at: < http://www.betterwhois.com >

Europe ------ Denmark (.dk): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/dk > France (.fr): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/fr > Germany (.de): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/de > Italy (.it): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/it > Norway (.no): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/no > Spain (.es): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/es > Sweden (.se): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/se > UK + Ireland (.co.uk, .ie): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/uk >

Asia/Pacific Region ------------------- Asia (Selection: .af, .bd, .bt, .id, .la,.lk, .mm, .mo, .ph, .pk, .sr, .th, .ir): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/ai > Australia + New Zealand (.au, .nz): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/an > China (.cn): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/cc > Hong Kong (.hk): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/hk > India (.in): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/id > Japan (.jp): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/jp > Korea (.kr): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/kr > Singapore (.sg): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/sg > Taiwan (.tw): < http://www.yahoo.com/r w >

The Americas ------------ Argentina (.ag): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/ag > Brazil (.br): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/br > Canada (.ca): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/cd > Chinese: < http://www.yahoo.com/r/cn

Mexico (.mx): < http://www.yahoo.com/r/mx > Spanish: <

http://www.yahoo.com/r/ep >
U.S. Cities ----------- Atlanta: < http://www.yahoo.com/r/at >
Boston: < http://www.yahoo.com/r/bo > Chicago: <
http://www.yahoo.com/r/ch > Dallas/Fort Worth: <
http://www.yahoo.com/r/df > Los Angeles: <
http://www.yahoo.com/r/lo > New York City: <
http://www.yahoo.com/r/ny > San Francisco Bay Area: <
http://www.yahoo.com/r/ba > Washington D.C.: <
http://www.yahoo.com/r/wd >
U.S. States ----------- < http://www.yahoo.com/r/mm >
About the author:

Ralph Tegtmeier is the co-founder and principal of
fantomaster.com Ltd. (UK) and fantomaster.com GmbH (Belgium), <
http://fantomaster.com/ > a company specializing in webmasters
software development, industrial-strength cloaking and search
engine positioning services. You can contact him at
mailto:fneditor@fantomaster.com