Optimizing for Yahoo

virtualcontractor · #1 (**permalink**) 10-27-2005, 01:50 PM

My new client is well optimized for Google. I did a check on their clicked keywords for search engine and positioning and found that none of their organic traffic is coming from Yahoo! Also that none of the keywords that are coming up well in Google are coming up at all in Yahoo. 1 in about 100 are actually coming up in MSN as well as Google but Yahoo is coming out a big zip! Anyone ever see this before? Any suggestions on how to optimize for Yahoo without Killing the Google Listings?

SEOforGoogle · #2 (**permalink**) 10-27-2005, 04:37 PM

The first thing you should check for is to see how many pages are indexed by Yahoo - I've seen the same thing for my own clients, and the reason was usually Yahoo only had the homepage and maybe the sitemap page indexed.

chandrika · #3 (**permalink**) 10-27-2005, 06:21 PM

I also have this problem, where i get most traffic from google 66%, then msn 25%, but yahoo, sends only 2%

I dont want to change my pages too much as I dont really know how I got them ranked in the first place and if I were to lose the msn and google traffic i wouldnt like it. But it does seem starnge that Yahoo is not showing the pages but the others are.

I was actually going to ask here today whether yahoo has some kind of different level of amount of keywords it judges on or something.

And I was going to ask, is it actually possible to make a page that has similar rankings across all the search engines, or is it that they all have different standards so that is difficult to achieve?

amar · #4 (**permalink**) 10-28-2005, 04:38 AM

Hi Friends,

As per my experience yahoo will give more importance to page content.

Creating invidual pages with keyword rich page content will bring up rankings in yahoo.

Thanks,
Amar

dburdon · #5 (**permalink**) 10-28-2005, 10:40 AM

Ranking well across the big 3 engines is possible if you understand the biases in the way they each work.

Specifically Yahoo responds to the alignment of title, description and content. Its more on page than the other two.

virtualcontractor · #6 (**permalink**) 10-28-2005, 10:47 AM

Content is definitely NOT the problem, this site is 99.9% content as it is a News site...the only thing non-content is the advertising, which is always relavent to the specific content as well.

But I have noticed that the title, description, and keywords in the meta-tags do not always collaborate with the content on the actual page, perhaps that is something we need to focus on.

We have 165,000 pages indexed in Yahoo... 631,000 in Google!

**incrediblehelp** · #7 (**permalink**) 10-28-2005, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by virtualcontractor

Content is definitely NOT the problem, this site is 99.9% content as it is a News site...the only thing non-content is the advertising, which is always relavent to the specific content as well.

But I have noticed that the title, description, and keywords in the meta-tags do not always collaborate with the content on the actual page, perhaps that is something we need to focus on.

We have 165,000 pages indexed in Yahoo... 631,000 in Google!

Is the website banned in Yahoo? I have seen many websites do well in MSN and Google, but nothing in Yahoo because of a demotion done by Yahoo engineers.

dburdon · #8 (**permalink**) 10-29-2005, 10:13 AM

VC,

what keywords are you looking to rank for? Have you researched in and around them? When you've found the ones you really want make sure they are included in your site title and description meta tags.

Almost by definition theses words should be coming up in your news postings.

freehits · #9 (**permalink**) 10-30-2005, 01:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Is the website banned in Yahoo? I have seen many websites do well in MSN and Google, but nothing in Yahoo because of a demotion done by Yahoo engineers.

Bingo, Yahoo changed everything 2-3 months ago, and with little reason many a site got chucked from the top 5 pages, with no pattern I could ever find.

Meanwhile on yahoo forum posts and spammed guestbooks seemed to rise to page 1 everywhere.

They had always been as DBurdon says,

Title H1 - H2 - Content, and one anchored link text,.....match them all up somewhat and find some success, but they also have decode to penalize sites for whatever reason a few months back.

divinewrite · #10 (**permalink**) 11-03-2005, 07:02 PM

I'm having the same problem. My copywriting site (divinewrite.com) is ranked no.5 for "copywriter" on Google.com. However, I'm only ranked no.67 on Yahoo for the same keyword.

My content is keyword rich and pretty much all on-topic. My tags generally correlate with my content. I have only about 70 pages, but that's a lot for a copywriting site.

Yahoo definitely hasn't banned me, and it has indexed some 86 pages (don't know how that could be, but that's another matter altogether).

Similarly, another site of mine (articlepr.com) is ranked no.10 on Google.com for "article submission" but doesn't even appear in the top 200 on Yahoo. Although for this site, Yahoo appears to only have indexed the home page (it's only a new site).

Any ideas?

dburdon · #11 (**permalink**) 11-09-2005, 06:32 AM

I've found the alignment of site title, description and keyword meta tags is the key to unlocking Yahoo.

Aim for 100% and you won't be far from the top.

**incrediblehelp** · #12 (**permalink**) 11-09-2005, 03:50 PM

On a seperate point I just want to remind everyone that this cool little tool is still available to play with on Yahoo:

http://mindset.research.yahoo.com/

divinewrite · #13 (**permalink**) 11-09-2005, 06:02 PM

Thanks dburdon. Sorry if this sounds naive, but can you explain exactly what you mean by 100% alignment?

Cheers.

JuniorOnline · #14 (**permalink**) 11-10-2005, 12:04 PM

was about to ask the same question...
could we also have an example to clarify??

thanks :)

freehits · #15 (**permalink**) 11-10-2005, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dburdon

I've found the alignment of site title, description and keyword meta tags is the key to unlocking Yahoo.

Aim for 100% and you won't be far from the top.

While I think this was a great to the point solution 3 months ago, they have since thrown something else into this mix.

Clearly you should have a keyword packed title - url - headin 1 and heading 2 tag all with the same target phrasing in mind, this is what burdon had said. But while this was the sure-fire fix, it doesnt seem to always be the solution anymore.

Yahoo chucked alot fo good sites out a few months ago with a change or update, and they definately have left a bit more mystery to the recipe than had once been the case.

In general they tend to like somewhat spammy on page design. And in this i mean heavy keyword use in every page element.

dburdon · #16 (**permalink**) 11-10-2005, 07:18 PM

Hoptoo,

I'm not suggesting over-optimisation. Exactly the opposite. Yahoo is on page driven and in many respects has an honesty about it that is missing in Google. I've found Yahoo particularly conducive towards B2B campaigns.

Start with the prospect in mind, then build your content, then build your description, then build your title.

It's vastly more subtle than keyword packing.

divinewrite · #17 (**permalink**) 11-10-2005, 07:27 PM

IMHO, that's exactly what I've done. Any chance you Yahoo experts could take a peek at divinewrite.com and offer some constructive feedback on why my efforts see me ranking no.1 worldwide for my primary keyword "copywriter", but only no.69 in Yahoo?

**incrediblehelp** · #18 (**permalink**) 11-10-2005, 07:47 PM

Glen why aren't you in the Yahoo Directory? For such a competitive/generic term I am sure Yahoo would show a little preference to their directory based websites. Also I am not saying simply get into the directory and you will go to the top, but I am sure it will help. By looking at just the top ten of your keyword query you can see that only a couple of websites show a directory position so I would guess not being in the directory, is not the real reason why your not at the top I am sure.

Have you played with the Yahoo tool I posted above?

http://mindset.research.yahoo.com/se...p?p=copywriter

Lets say you could simplistically break the web down into two groups, shopping websites and information/research websites. What if the search engines realized the difference between the two and used this a major determining factor in the SERP's This is what the tool basically represents.

Move the toolbar all the way over to shopping and divinewrite.com is in the top ten, move it all the way over to research and you are pretty far down. So what does this tell us? Pretty simply that the current algo that Yahoo is using weights what they consider more "research" related websites higher. This is similar to the way the Google algo usually is, but not anymore. Personal I feel Google is more shopping oriented in their last jack-off update, but that is another story. MSN SERP's have always looked shopping oriented much more than research oriented websites.

wcthrill · #19 (**permalink**) 11-13-2005, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dburdon

I've found the alignment of site title, description and keyword meta tags is the key to unlocking Yahoo.

Aim for 100% and you won't be far from the top.

Totally agree. On Nov 11 I wasnt even ranked for the term "scalp inflammation" as soon as I added it to the the title in an H1 heading I was ranked 20 on 11/13...wish it was that fast on all my kywrds..one question though..what do you mean by 'alignmeet of site title'?

JuniorOnline · #20 (**permalink**) 11-21-2005, 08:24 AM

'alignmeet of site title'?

please someone explain this?

dburdon · #21 (**permalink**) 11-21-2005, 07:56 PM

Divine Write, Junior online,

alignment more than anything else is the key to Yahoo. I've found it works an absolute treat for top rankings with Yahoo.

Its not keyword stuffing. Just ensuring that all the components of title, meta tag description, on page copy and a sprinkling on IBL anchor text all contain the keywords you're chasing.

If Divine Write PMs me I'll send an analysis of the website that shows what needs to be done.

freehits · #22 (**permalink**) 11-22-2005, 12:09 AM

Perhaps I witnessed another form of change or a personal attack on many of my site then. Perhaps some hijack or scraper damage. What you say has always been the simple key to rank, then 2 months ago they apparently chopped down on some factor as dozens of sites with the same yahoo alignment perfectly in place that had dominated