I am not trying to beat a dead horse, but I just happen to think that many people do not recognize and/or understand the value of Yahoo Paid Inclusion (YPI). There is no denying that Google is the leader, holding (by far) the largest market share, but does that mean that YPI should be forgotten? It can be a very valid source of driving qualified traffic to a website.

For those of you who are well versed in YPI, this blog post might be a tad redundant. Please forgive me in advance, as I feel the need to remind every online marketer just how fruitful YPI can be!

Just the facts:

YPI results appear in the organic section of Yahoo.

YPI is fundamentally a hybrid of SEO and SEM, which is unlike any other channel that exists today.

There is no way to bid more (or less) aggressively in YPI to gain better rankings, as all results are dependent upon the relevancy of your website; the more SEO friendly your website, the better opportunity you have to get ranked higher.

Although, the platform for YPI is Cost per Click (CPC), the pricing is category based, rather than keyword based.

YPI is stricter with their guidelines. In order to maintain the integrity of the program, all websites must first get accepted into the program. Not every website is a candidate for YPI; if your site is utilizing black hat tactics (link spamming, hidden text) or has other issues like duplicate content, you will more than likely get rejected.

Don’t forget about Yahoo Paid Inclusion! It should be taken into consideration as a viable method to bring qualified visitors to your website.

On June 22, 2009 Yahoo announced its first version of their new self service display ad builder called My Display Ads. Yahoo didn’t jump into the display ad match when others like Google, Facebook, and Myspace did.

According to Yahoo’s press release, the intention with My Display Ads is to be of service to specific types of advertisers. The first is small and mid-size local marketers. What better way for Yahoo to showcase its enthusiasm to the local market than by doing a case study on a real local advertiser. The local targeted mid-size advertiser had never used display ads prior and was a part of Yahoo’s Spring pilot. The advertiser used display ads targeted to the Greensboro, NC marketplace for its Memorial Day sale as well as its regular television, print, and radio efforts. The traffic was so compelling and converted well enough for them to pull out of other marketing efforts to spend more online using My Display Builder and target other geographies.

Ad networks see Yahoo’s quality inventory as niche and well targeted. The ad inventory fed into their display ad system includes both Yahoo-owned and network properties through Yahoo’s Right Media exchange. This allows other small networks to opt into Yahoo’s display network. Thus, advertiser’s ads can be seen on other small search engines, news articles and so forth.

Those who aren’t running paid efforts in other engines and use Yahoo search marketing solely, now have another performance tool to help increase spend and revenue. Yahoo added new targeting options including geographic and demographic targeting late last year. Now with the release of the display ad platform, the advertising targeting options will open up a new playing field for advertisers.

 Yahoo display ads can help national advertisers target specific local markets. Serving display ads to specific locations gives the ability to create detailed ad messages for regional markets and gives an opportunity to national advertisers to grab hold of their targeted audience.

The best time to jump on board to Yahoo’s display advertising program is now. Competition is relatively low and bids are as well. Once word gets out that the feature is available and marketers start using it, the bidding war for ad space begins.

Yahoo introduced several new enhancements to their targeting capabilities this week including geo-targeting, ad scheduling, demographic targeting, and added bid adjustments based on those targeting features.

Now, according to the Yahoo Search Blog, you can incorporate different geo-targeting settings at different levels within the same campaign or ad group. For example, you can set a geo-target option for a zip code in New York and the entire state of California. In addition, you can set higher bid amounts for each geo-targeted location.

Another enhancement is the long awaited ability to day-part. Advertisers now have the option to have their ads be displayed at the designated time of their choosing. In addition, you have the option to increase your bids at specific times of day.

Demographic targeting will allow advertisers to target theirs ads to a specified group of people. For example, you can target females, ages 18-20. You will also have the option to set a premium bid for audience segments you feel are more valuable.

With these improvements, advertisers have greater control over who sees their ads. They also have the ability to drive a more targeted user to their website and get higher qualified customer.