Yahoo recently announced that help links for the site have been consolidated on one page at http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/webmaster/webmaster-01.html. It’s about time and definitely a step in the right direct, but Yahoo’s help is still basically what amounts to a bunch of interconnected links and autoresponders.

For instance, go to the link above and click on “Search Information, Guidelines, & FAQs” and you’ll come to another page of links. Click on any link on the page and you’ll come to even more links. Chances are, you won’t find the answer to your question after wading through all of the links, which leads you back to the main help page listed above.

Let’s say your question is about a client’s web site that has suddenly disappeared from Yahoo. You’ve been through their Guidelines page numerous times and just don’t see anything that applies to the site. You have no clue why the site is gone, so you fill out the Search Support form at http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/ysearch/cgi_webmaster_support/ asking if there is a reason for the site to be delisted. You ask if there is something that needs to be fixed that you’re missing.

In a day or so you get a canned response back that says to look over the Yahoo Guidelines. You respond back that you have and you see nothing that applies, can they give you a clue. Yet another canned response comes back saying that you need to look over the Guidelines.

This can go on forever. The only difference between the Yahoo rep response from that of an autoresponder e-mail is that each is nicely signed with a rep’s name. Absolutely of no help at all. Your question will NOT get answered.

So, if Yahoo really wants to help, have the reps give real answers. Otherwise, fire all of them and install autoreponders. If nothing else, it will help Yahoo’s bottom line. Yahoo certainly isn’t providing site owners with any real help.