A question by XcellenceIT: Does Yahoo! search engine matter any more?

[Cratima]

XcellenceIT team has a question and I decided I should help them by posting the question. Here goes:
Everybody knows that Google is a leader in search engines. But Yahoo! search engine comes right behind him.
Besides my natural question: since all my acquaintances use Google, who are those using Yahoo! search engine after all? , I have another question:
Is it worth it putting efforts in improving for Yahoo! search engine? Google has Sitemaps, Yahoo! has Site Explorer, but is it worth the time to have your web site inserted in both?
OK, you have to make your web site as much W3C-friendly as you can. But Yahoo! search engine friendly?

Frankly, I don't think it's worth the time, but I'm looking for a second opinion.

Any feed-back on this will be greatly appreciated.

[tomcatuk]

I'm always confused as to how you optimize for Yahoo! Surely the basic principles are the same? The only thing I notice (10% of SE traffic from Yahoo!) is they seem to weigh anchor text in links more heavily, and of course they ignore NOFOLLOW so backlinks from blog comments seem to help.

I would imagine eventually Yahoo! will take up on NOFOLLOW. In terms of results placement, I do better on Yahoo! but it's happened by chance rather than plan - I don't read up at all on Yahoo! optimization and probably never will.

[deilenberger]

I have to agree - I can't see why there would be any difference in optimization Google vs Yahoo. Websites should be optimized for PEOPLE first, then for search engines. I also get 10-12% of my traffic from Yahoo - so unless I want to throw away that much business I'd be a fool not to court Yahoo.

[SemAdvance]

Hi

Well lets see if this answers your question

Sites with the most traffic,

1. Yahoo
2. Msn
3. I forget
4. Google

source:ComScore

Now who uses Yahoo?? The people who use Yahoo mail, games which has been a channel killer for ages and others who spend on average 30 minutes on Yahoo daily.

Google which is hovering around 5 minutes page time per user is trying to catch up.

See the first two in the list are portals not search engines. Each has a search engine and its portal residents do not leave the walls to go search on Google.

Another portal you may have heard of and still around since day one

AOL

Yahoo is going nowhere anytime soon, they will continue to be a force in their niche once someone leads them to understand their identity.

Yahoo has typically better conversion numbers among retailers in the $20.00 to $100.00 basket average sales price.

On a closing note worldwide Yahoo is much larger in display advertising than Google.

As was noted only a fool would turn away their traffic.

Peace

[fctoma]

Originally Posted by SemAdvance

Yahoo is going nowhere anytime soon

I think that this says it all... there is such a shake up in Yahoo with the man stepping down last week.

I've always had great luck optimizing for Google. We've had our domains around for 10+ years, solid top 5 rankings for 90% of our core, heavily competed for terms.

My rule of thumb... optimize for Google and the rest will fall in place.

Sure the stats above show Yahoo and others with more visitors. What those stats do NOT show is Google is by far # 1 for search traffic... excluding the portals. So, if you optimize for Google you should do just fine.

[Akashic]

I've never considered optimising for yahoo but we still rank in the top 5 on yahoo for most of our most popular search terms. I agree with fctoma above ... optimise for the big G and the others will fall into place.

[Matteo]

Originally Posted by Cratima

Besides my natural question: since all my acquaintances use Google, who are those using Yahoo! search engine after all?

The typical internet user is probably someone you don't know (or maybe it's your mom). Like it was said earlier in the thread I would imagine that 70%-80% of all internet users are the unsophisticated. That means they are going to enter the internet and use whatever portal their internet provider gives them That means Google, Yahoo and MSN. That means you need to optimize for all three (though I'll be dogged if I can get optimized for Google Yahoo and MSN at the same time, for some reason I am good with Google and Yahoo, and miss MSN. If I have to miss one I guess it's okay to be missing MSN. ASK is pushing the advertising so they might be growing in popukarity, though I have been unable to find any numbers.

There is a great temptation to look past the great unsophicate numbers, but it is a mistake to do so.

[edhan]

Originally Posted by deilenberger

I have to agree - I can't see why there would be any difference in optimization Google vs Yahoo. Websites should be optimized for PEOPLE first, then for search engines. I also get 10-12% of my traffic from Yahoo - so unless I want to throw away that much business I'd be a fool not to court Yahoo.

I agree with deilenberger that we should be optimizing for PEOPLE first since the website is for people to visit. Search engines should come after that. I do believe that once you have done your sites for PEOPLE, somehow or rather, search engines will bring traffic to your sites.

To me, as long as search engines bring traffic to my sites, I will not deny them.

[espectations]

Have a look at sitemaps.org - Home - "Sitemap 0.90 is offered under the terms of the Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License and has wide adoption, including support from Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft."

As far as I know the idea with sitemaps.org is to have one sitemap that you submit to all the engines - I submitted the same sitemap to both Yahoo and Google - last time I checked I could not find a place to submit the url to MSN.

Might save you some time.

Build your site for your visitors and stay within each search engines' guidelines - you will do well. Be careful not to over optimize your site.

And as a last thought - never be compacent, Google is not the only search engine out there.

[DrTandem1]

Let's see, AT&T is partnered with Yahoo. Yahoo is the official default search engine on their tool bar, AT&T has the largest single broadband customer base in the US covering some 22 states along with the largest wireless network...here comes their partnership with Apple and the exclusive iPhone with a real browser. I'm going to take a big risk and say, yes, Yahoo still matters.

Yes, Google is the biggest. So what? Yahoo was the biggest for a long time. Who will be next? The fact is, the big three all produce very similar organic SERPs. Yahoo and MSN are far faster than Google to list new sites and new pages. However, I don't think you can design for one over the other. So, the question is virtually moot.

[TrafficProducer]

I would expect some changes

Yahoo brings back co-founder Yang as CEO

[Purple13]

Hi
I created a ROR sitemap especially to appeal to Yahoo etc. At the time, opinion on this forum was that it couldn't hurt and would almost certainly help.

As times gone on though, I realise that the ROR might have been a mistake. It seems that my organic listings positions dropped a few pages in Google ever since.

Of course there may be other factors involved here but still it naggs at my mind about the ROR.

My follow up question is "Should I remove my ROR sitemap altogether?" Will this do more harm than good? I've never heard of anyone removing a sitemap but I guess this is a good a place as any to ask.

I suppose in reply to this post, if the removal of the ROR means i suffer in Yahoo but gain in Google, then it would be worth doing it.

Jonathan

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by edhan

I agree with deilenberger that we should be optimizing for PEOPLE first since the website is for people to visit. Search engines should come after that. I do believe that once you have done your sites for PEOPLE, somehow or rather, search engines will bring traffic to your sites.

This ongoing assertion that people need to be put first misses the boat: if you don't optimize how do you expect people to find your site? SEs are equally important.

Originally Posted by SemAdvance

Hi

Well lets see if this answers your question

Sites with the most traffic,

1. Yahoo
2. Msn
3. I forget
4. Google

source:ComScore

I think you are referring to these figures:



But I think this thread is more about Search Share:



May 2007 figures put Google at 49.7% and Yahoo! at 26.4% ... so
Google continues to gain in search share and Yahoo! continues to lose ground ... so, yes, Yahoo gets more traffic, but some of them must be leaving for Google since it has almost twice the search market ... And if we are talking search, Google is the first one to please (after you finish pleasing the people who can't find your site until you please the SE , of course).

I always optimize for Google first and let the chips fall where they may with the others ... in my experience it's hard to be in the top 5 for Google and Yahoo so I choose the one with nearly twice the search share ...

Originally Posted by SemAdvance

Another portal you may have heard of and still around since day one

AOL

which is owned by Time Warner, isn' t it? And AOL Search is powered by Google.

I am the GoogleGirl, I Guess, MJ

[Dubbya]

If Yahoo! is sending you a ton of traffic, or if you hope to gain traffic from Yahoo!, then do what you can to improve your placements in their search results.

If you're not worried about the little amount of traffic you get from them, don't worry about it and leave well enough alone.

Traffic is traffic, regardless of where it comes from but good traffic is worth working toward. Find out where your customers, clients or qualified users are coming from and work on improving your search result placements.

Most of my traffic comes from Google, then Yahoo! and MSN but the bulk of my buying customers find my site through listings in Canadian shopping directories. My search results placements are infinitely better in Yahoo! and MSN than on Google, but the competition is much less agressive in the other two engines for the same search phrases and keywords.

All things being equal, I'll focus more on getting listings in quality shopping directories but do what I can to drive in some random traffic from the big dawgs.

[SemAdvance]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

This ongoing assertion that people need to be put first misses the boat: if you don't optimize how do you expect people to find your site? SEs are equally important.




I think you are referring to these figures:



But I think this thread is more about Search Share:



May 2007 figures put Google at 49.7% and Yahoo! at 26.4% ... so
Google continues to gain in search share and Yahoo! continues to lose ground ... so, yes, Yahoo gets more traffic, but some of them must be leaving for Google since it has almost twice the search market ... And if we are talking search, Google is the first one to please (after you finish pleasing the people who can't find your site until you please the SE , of course).

I always optimize for Google first and let the chips fall where they may with the others ... in my experience it's hard to be in the top 5 for Google and Yahoo so I choose the one with nearly twice the search share ...



which is owned by Time Warner, isn' t it? And AOL Search is powered by Google.

I am the GoogleGirl, I Guess, MJ

Yes I believe that is the com score figures I was speaking of but not sure the thread was inre: search share....I think it said does Yahoo matter anymore and I am now sure others and myself have proven beyond a doubt Yahoo does matter indeed.

While you maybe the GoogleGirl and thats all well and good,

I'm the "build a business and screw what Google has to say man"

Mainly due to the fact that 100,000s of business existed before Google, and still continue to do so today, without the usage of the search giant...


I may start a GA group if you would like to be the first client

;->

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by SemAdvance

Yes I believe that is the com score figures I was speaking of but not sure the thread was inre: search share....I think it said does Yahoo matter anymore and I am now sure others and myself have proven beyond a doubt Yahoo does matter indeed.

Um, Yahoo! search is the thread topic:

Originally Posted by Cratima

Everybody knows that Google is a leader in search engines. But Yahoo! search engine comes right behind him.
Besides my natural question: since all my acquaintances use Google, who are those using Yahoo! search engine after all? , I have another question:
Is it worth it putting efforts in improving for Yahoo! search engine? <snip>. But Yahoo! search engine friendly?

And thread is called: Does Yahoo! search engine matter any more? not does Yahoo matter? But you are right, of course, one does want placement in 20-some per cent of the search market - but given a choice, Google would be the first one to optimize for ...

Originally Posted by SemAdvance

I may start a GA group if you would like to be the first client

;->

Cute. But that infers an addiction to Google is causing a problem in one's life ... and in my case, it's quite the opposite. My primary focus on Google works quite well for me.

Originally Posted by SemAdvance

I'm the "build a business and screw what Google has to say man"
;->

Yes, of course, you can build a business without Google, but since placing well in Google makes it so much easier to do so, why wouldn't a wise business owner want to optimize for it?

Thanks for letting me share, MJ

[megahertz28]

I would have to disagree with Drtandum1 about MSN & Yahoo, indexing faster than G. I think that depends on where your first organic link originates, or at least that seems to be true in my experience. I will totally agree with him though that Y is going places in expansive markets. IMHO they are far from a dead horse and worthy of attention. I try to think of the battle as a race, just because Yahoo got out of the gate quicker and faultered doesn't mean in the long run can't come back to win the crown ~ untill the next go 'round. (I kinda hope they do...what a sight it would be, having all these fanatics that bet on Google cursing as they through their tickets to the ground!!