Yahoo
SEO
Yes, Yahoo SEO is a
topic if you are selling a certain group of products or to a certain consumer
segment. Yahoo uses its own search robot but it doesn't travel much. Yahoo search
results are surprisingly good though for paid environment, but there's no compelling
reason for Google users to abandon that powerful search
engine.
Yahoo had over 100
million unique visitors in December and 263 million in 2003. Currently it holds
the lead for US market share at 26% to Google's 23%. Yahoo SEO experts are a plenty
but the market for optimizing for this search engine is lacking. Yahoo management
are making many strategic marketing errors. Listing in their directory for instance
at $299 will not provide your site with any guarantee of inclusion in search results.
By not using the stability of the directory and enhancing it, Yahoo is getting
rid of its only value in the marketplace. If searchers want paid results, they
go to Overture.
Yahoo has launched
several new services of late. One big change is their new Web pages section in
their search results page. The usual overture results will still appear with the
Web pages results below it. Yahoo will use its new crawler and algorithm to rank
sites, however it will infuse listings from its other services into this section
Yahoo may face disclosure
issues if it doesn't identify the new listings as a paid listing. Regardless,
these paid listings will come from its new service Overture Site Match.
Yahoo has phased out
the Inktomi search submit service and replaced it with Overture Site Matcha. Much
to the displeasure of many web site owners, Yahoo's inclusion of some sites has
been erratic. If you've lost your ranking temporarily, it is best to wait for
their update.
Overture site match
is a paid inclusion service which charges on a per URL basis much like Inktomi
search submit did. The prices are a little higher however going for an average
of $30 a url for most sites along with a per click charge of 15 to 30 cents. If
your target market is women and children, Yahoo may be an acceptable choice, however
the overall traffic will be disappointing. Make sure you have your conversion
capabilities to the max to make money on Yahoo referals.
Comscore reported that
Yahoo hosts 790 million average weekly U.S. searches. Yahoo
Travel is a very popular travel Web site.
The news comes at a
bad time for Google who are instituting unprecedented changes in their search
algorithm and trying to beef up their advertising space in preparation for an
IPO later this year. A battle is looming between the two search giants that will
likely bring big changes to search engine marketing
practices.
After acquisitions
of Inktomi, Overture, Altavista and Hot Jobs, along with a high-speed ISP partnership
with SBC Communications Inc., Yahoo has seen its total revenue jump from 6.2 billion
in 2002 to 6.8 billion in 2003. Its marketing revenue alone jumped 178% to a record
$545 million.
Yahoo still uses Google's
feed for its main results, but this is set to change very soon. A Yahoo directory
listing is still good value to a strategic search engine marketer and the value
will improve this year.
After the recent
Forida update by Google. many Web sites lost their rankings and visitor
traffic. The result is a new demand for Yahoo ad space and search listings. That
will make it a more competitive competitive ad vehicle.
These events should
be recognized as you plan your search engine positioning campaign. The search
landscape is changing so good luck in avoiding the crunch.
There's lots going
on at MSN as well. Bill Gates recognized Google's performance yet the development
of MSN search has been slow. It has improved but
the proposed search engine may not be ready for a while yet.
Great
Opportunities for Smart Advertisers
The Overture PPC listings
that appear in Yahoo offer excellent exposure. The PPC
ad space is getting pricey, but there may be some economical strategies available
to make it work for you. For short term ad campaigns, the high price may be worth
it, however only sites that are able to convert well are advised to try for the
high priced keyword buys.
e-Shopping
Hot
Yahoo shopping is
growing as well and is one of the top shopping
search engines. Shopping.yahoo.com is said to have increased its number of
merchants to more than 150,000 in 2003, almost 800% more than 2002. More than
50 million products are now available in Yahoo Shopping.
You don't have to have
a Yahoo-hosted e-store to get into the Yahoo product search engine. You'll have
to bid a little higher though.
Small to medium sized
e-tail sites should take delight in the turmoil as
it presents opportunities for companies that are quick and flexible in responding.
If your site is built with this adaptability to a changing market, it may see
better performance than your competitor's. |
