YSM Short Descriptions Required in May 2007

Hi there,

Heads up here! Two important changes coming soon:

Starting in May 2007 we will require short descriptions for ALL new or modified ads in our new advertising system.

Starting in June 2007 Yahoo! Search will only show short descriptions or up to 70 characters of the long description. Accordingly, we highly recommend that you include a short description in your ad if you have not done so already. Long descriptions will continue to be shown on some of our external distribution partner web sites. Our goal is to help improve the overall search experience. We have found that shorter descriptions have been a best practice in the past.

What’s changing?

• Titles will continue to be 40 characters or less.
• Short descriptions are now required when creating or modifying an ad; short descriptions must be 70 characters or less.
• Display URLs must be 35 characters or less.

We’ve posted some helpful tips on short descriptions at the following links:

Think Short post at Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog
http://www.ysmblog.com/blog/2007/04/05/think-short/

Short Descriptions Overview
http://help.yahoo.com/help/l/us/yahoo/ysm/sps/start/overview_shortdesc.html

If a short description is not provided by the end of June 2007, we will automatically cut-off your ad on Yahoo! Search, which may impact your ad quality and potentially your ranking. So get started now by adding short descriptions to your existing ads to guarantee that your most important information is included.

As usual, if you have any comments feel free to post here. We are listening and welcome your feedback. You could also send me a private note.

All the best,
YahooPete