Yahoo's Site Match Links Unveiled

[Garrett]

Tim Mayer of Yahoo visited WebProWorld recently to set the record straight on the difference between how regular Yahoo results appear and how Site Match results appear.

Ronniethedodger pointed to what he thought were Site Match results: http://rds.yahoo.com/S=2766679/K=money+business/v=2/TID=F251_44/SID=e/l=WS1/R=6/H=0/*-http://www.everythingaboutvitamins.com/.

These links are what Daniel Brandt calls, "plain "click counter" redirects that appear on every URL."

Tim responded that this was not in fact a Site Match link, and that Site Match links look like this:
rdrw1.yahoo.com/click?u=http://www.ibiblio.org/tkan/xmcd&y=022F06033A99E6E8&i=482&c=9106&q=02%5ESSHPM%5BL7%7C%7B%3Fos~fzm6&e=utf-8&r=25&d=wow-en-us&n=8R545H097DP408T1&s=21&t=&m=4072437D&x=01D37651EA37F317

If you'd like to see Yahoo's results unveiled check out Daniel Brandt's proxy search over at Search showdown: Yahoo v. Google (http://www.yahoo-watch.org/cgi-bin/proxy.htm). Brandt's proxy strips out the first redirect that appears on a standard Yahoo search, and it's in the secondary redirects that we see the "rdrw1."

The proxy gets results from two different data centers, so sometimes the beginning "rdrw1" changes to "rdre1."

Brandt's been recording data and has identified several parameters in the url that are likely to have some bearing regarding how these links are added to the results.

The identified (though yet undefined) parameters are:

MI=ic
MI=ss
MI=free
MI=other
MI=sitematch

Brandt's proxy search is an excellent way to see which of your competitors have possibly paid to get urls in Yahoo's results, or if you're researching products, to see which results in the set are paid. (Not that the payment affects ranking, according to Yahoo.)

WebProNews and Google-Watch appear with the MI=other parameter and neither of us have paid for inclusion, which suggests a relationship between MI=other and RSS feeds.

Brandt added that, "[Danny] Sullivan's site was this way when we talked two weeks ago, but now his XML 'My Yahoo' link is gone in the main search.yahoo.com listings, and he has a normal link on my proxy. So that reinforces the theory that the XML and MI=other are related."

As Yahoo's set to drop the Inktomi pfi links on April 15th, what we're seeing now may change dramatically. Says Brandt, "I am interested in how the links will change on April 15 -- how many of what Tim calls a Site Match link, and what I merely refer to an 'almost all of them are paid' link, will get dropped by Yahoo."

Check out the Yahoo proxy search (http://www.yahoo-watch.org/cgi-bin/proxy.htm).

[soty]

So you believe that Yahoo ranks higher the paid links higher than non-paid ones....even if the non-paid ones are already in the directory?

What do you think will happen after April 14th?

[soty]

I was going to pay for the Express program in Yahoo but dont want to if it will change on the 14th.

[cbp]

Soty

You are confused between the Yahoo search index and the Yahoo Directory - they are different beasts.


So you believe that Yahoo ranks higher the paid links higher than non-paid ones....

The paid inclsuion in the search index via Site Match does not affect rankings. The paid inclusion in the Directory may influence ranking and extremely small amount (as you get a backlinks from the directory, but you can get that for free elsewhere).


I was going to pay for the Express program in Yahoo

That Express program is for the Directory and NOT the search index.

CBP

[smakyyy]

i dont have a paid link, but i am # 2 on yahoo on keyword "diamond ring" so explain that?

[kidsmartliving]

I'm still a bit confused - will yahoo's search be dropping all non-sitematch links (say, the inktomi subscribers, so ONLY paid listings will appear in Yahoo via SiteMatch or Overture PPC) or will natural searches still appear - but maybe ranked lower? Is the main benefit to SiteMatch the 48-hr update (and maybe higher ranking) vs. natural rankings via Yahoo's Slurp?

And will yahoo directory listings still appear in the search results, or will those just be directory accessable now?

Thanks for any insight anyone may have. I already shell out alot to Overture and have great natural positionings on Yahoo. Not sure what to do.

[cbp]

See this thread:
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=15072

CBP

[spidersam]

thanks for the thread cbp!

[ronniethedodger]

Right now we have a number of sites that were under the Inktomi inclusion, which will be running out here shortly. They are enjoying pretty darn good rankings right now at Yahoo ... and impressively good rankings at MSN. So I do have some concerns about what will transpire over the next several days. We are not going with the SiteMatch program, because it makes absolutely no sense to have to pay for inclusion and a PPC charge on top of that. We are however keeping in the Overture game for the time being.

I for one will be wanting to see the changes that occur after the 15th. The whole reason I brought up the click tracking Url had more to do with the spamming of the Yahoo results, than whether it was a paid inclusion or a SiteMatch result.

The redirect Url that Yahoo had in the link was not the problem. Yahoo's redirect actually was going to the site it was supposed to. It was the actual site itself that was then redirecting to a totally different site -- that was the problem I had. 80% of the top 100 results for "money business" all go to one site. I then tried "home business" and those results were just as bad. On that test, it was split between two sites mostly ... but both sites were on the same Server and are related.

Tim did thank me for the "spam report" though. So I will be watching what measures Yahoo takes on that matter here after the 15th. As it stands right now, those results that I told him about are still sitting there and have not been removed or adjusted in any way.

[Daniel Brandt]

I now believe that the Inktomi PFI links can be identified as those links that have rdrw1.yahoo.com/click or rdre1.yahoo.com/click in front AND have the MI=ss tag. If they don't have the MI=ss tag then they aren't PFI, even if they have that extra redirect in front.

In a review of some random searches, I didn't find any MI=ss that did not have the extra redirect, so perhaps the MI=ss is sufficient by itself to identify the Inktomi PFI links. I'll probably strip out the second redirect within a week or two and just show the MI= tags. I don't like long URLs because they clutter up the page and are distracting.

Here are the relative percentages of the links displaying one of the MI= parameters. The first number is the count, and the second is the percentage of the total.

MI=ic - 7778, 27.8
MI=ss - 14268, 50.9
MI=free - 1943, 6.9
MI=other - 3615, 12.9
MI=sitematch - 426, 1.5

TOTAL - 28030, 100.0

[Daniel Brandt]

It happened. As of today, the MI=ss links are gone, just like Yahoo said it would happen on the 15th. These are the old Inktomi PFI "Search Submit" links. It took three days to kick in fully.

[ronniethedodger]

It happened. As of today, the MI=ss links are gone, just like Yahoo said it would happen on the 15th. These are the old Inktomi PFI "Search Submit" links. It took three days to kick in fully.

They disappeared, eh? What are their designations now, or is too early to tell?

[Daniel Brandt]

If the page is present due to the normal crawl, then it looks like any other link and has no special designation. If it's not present due to the normal crawl, then that page is not in the index at all. Maybe it will get crawled in the near future, maybe not.

[Daniel Brandt]

These are the Yahoo proxy counts since noon on April 18:
(number counted, percent of total)

MI=ic - 907, 52.7
MI=ss - 59, 3.4
MI=free - 291, 16.9
MI=other - 354, 20.6
MI=sitematch - 110, 6.4

TOTAL - 1721, 100.0

The MI=ss (Search Submit) has been retired. This was Inktomi's PFI+CPC (pay for inclusion plus cost per click) program. The 59 hits here are probably remnants due to incomplete propagation of the changes that were started on April 15. Before April 15 it was 50 percent of all MI= links, but now it is only 3.4 percent.

MI=ic is Index Connect. That was Inktomi's name; Yahoo has renamed it Site Match Xchange. This is the PPC+CPC program for large sites (over 1000 pages) and it has an XML feed program.

MI=sitematch is obvious. Expect this category to grow now that MI=ss has been retired.

MI=free includes a lot of dot-org sites. This is most likely the free program that Inktomi instituted. As of last August, Inktomi's description of their Search Submit program included these words: "Additionally, to ensure that major charities, educational establishments and other non-profit organizations have an opportunity to make their content available in the search index, Inktomi is providing inclusion services free of charge to qualified organizations." Yahoo plans to do this also, but their review process for nonprofit inclusion is not yet in place.

MI=other is still a curiosity. My opinion is that these are sites that Yahoo wanted bumped up a bit in the rankings, and the easiest way to do this was to install that extra redirect to yahoo.com/click. Then to identify these links as separate, they needed to add a MI=other parameter. Sites with RSS feeds seem to be one example of such special treatment, as Yahoo offers a special RSS anchor for these. But other sites also get this treatment. Many are noncommercial sites that are fairly prominent or at least informative.

The Yahoo Watch proxy (http://www.yahoo-watch.org/cgi-bin/proxy.htm) now shows a big fat green dollar sign in front of MI=ic and MI=sitematch links. We do this because the FTC on June 27, 2002 "recommends that if your search engine uses paid placement, you make any changes to the presentation of your paid-ranking search results that would be necessary to clearly delineate them as such, whether they are segregated from, or inserted into, non-paid listings."