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1st March 2007

Stop Yahoo! from using directory descriptions

New meta tag stops Yahoo! from using directory descriptions in regular search results.

It is normally a good thing to have your site listed in the Yahoo! Directory, not because the entry will bring you so many visitors, but because the listing is interpreted as a sign of quality.

In other words: sites listed in the directory will get a boost in regular search engine rankings.

There is a catch, however.

Yahoo! will often use the Yahoo! Directory title and description in regular search engine listings, instead of using the title tag of the web page and a description taken from the Web page itself (or the description meta tag).

The Yahoo! Directory editor and you may not agree on what constitutes a good title.

Now you can kindly as Yahoo! not to use the directory title and description.

Yahoo is adding support for the Meta tag called ‘NOYDIR’ that will complement the ‘NOODP’ Meta tag, which we already support. If you’re unfamiliar, the ‘NOODP’ Meta tag is basically a way for webmasters to indicate that Open Directory Project (ODP) titles and abstracts will not be used in search results for their pages. While it will continue to pull from various sources to provide the best title and abstract for a given page in search results, but webmasters may still want the ability to exclude titles and abstracts from the Yahoo! Directory. So, it is providing support for ‘NOYDIR’ which will recognize the following Meta tags on your pages:

Add one of the following meta tags to the HEAD section of the HTML of the Web page:

For pages with this tag, it will not use Yahoo! Directory titles or abstracts for your URL in web search results. This will grant webmasters the ability to participate in the Yahoo! Directory Submit program and benefit from inclusion in the Yahoo! Directory, while maintaining control over URL titles and abstracts in search. This will not have any effect on the Yahoo! Directory Search experience, which will continue to use the Yahoo! Directory and title abstract information.

Note that there is a similar tag to stop Google, Yahoo! and Windows Live from using Open Directory descriptions: