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SEO For Yahoo!
Yahoo! is the second biggest of the three major engines and
includes an enormous network of websites. The algorithm is
based on that of Inktomi which Yahoo! purchased back in
2002 as part of their plan to stop serving Google results to
search queries. The algorithm itself can pose a problem for
some SEO's as we optimize client websites to rank highly on
multiple search engines due to the way that it differs from
Google and MSN. That said, any issue can be addressed
provided that the right attention is given to the right details.
The Factors
To optimize and rank highly on Yahoo!, as with any of the
major engines, specific areas need to be addressed. On
Yahoo! the major areas are as follows:
• Keyword density
• Site structure
• Backlinks
• Aging
Keyword Density
As noted in the article on MSN, it would be unwise for me to
specify a keyword density for you to target on your website.
There are two reasons for this. First, if there is a delay
between the writing of this article and when you read it
specific numbers could well send you off in the wrong
direction. Second, you will need to analyze your specific
competitors to determine what the best density is in your area
and for your type of website. Optimal keyword densities are no
longer a one-size-fits-all calculation. Your industry and site-
type will affect the optimal densities and thus, a complete
analysis using a tool such as Total Optimizer Pro (http://www.
totaloptimizer.com/) will be necessary.
Additionally, optimal keyword densities change on a regular
basis and so you will need to periodically reanalyze your
densities and compare them with others in the top 10 to
insure that your densities remain within the optimal levels.
When using Total Optimizer Pro for the onsite analysis we
generally aim our densities for the upper end of the top 10
results but not aiming to be the top. Generally you will see a
range that appears much like a bell curve with a couple sites
in the very low range (0.5 to 1.0%) and a couple site in the very
high range (5.0 to 8.0%). The rest will generally fall in the
middle. Ignore those in the very low and very high range and
target towards the upper end though not the highest of the
remaining sites and you will be on target.
Site Structure
On no other engine is site structure more important than on
Yahoo! While having a good site structure is important for a
variety of reasons, it was on Yahoo! that Beanstalk noted the
most significant gains when we brought our homepage and
key internals into compliance with W3C standards (the rest of
the site will be brought into compliance as part of our
complete redesign scheduled for launch on April 24th). While
slight gains were noticeable on both Google and MSN they
were so minor that they may well have just been part of the
ebb-and-flow of the results. On Yahoo! however we noted a
three page jump the day the changes were picked up. No
other changes to the site were performed during this time.
The site structure is important for two key reasons. First, the
site structure determines the order in which your page content
gets seen by the search engines and thus, which content will
be given the highest priority. Content that occurs higher up in
the code of your page (not necessarily in your browser) is
given a higher weight than content lower down in the code.
Second, a properly structured site will be lower in code
through the use of CSS, reduced or eliminated table use, etc.
The reduction in code will push the content higher up the
page as far as a search engine is concerned and thus, it will
be given more weight.
Backlinks
Like the other two major engines, having a solid backlink
count from relevant sites using good anchor text practices is a
major factor on Yahoo! for any reasonably competitive phrase.
When it comes to calculating backlinks Yahoo! is far more
similar to Google than MSN. Aspects of backlink counts that
must be taken into consideration when optimizing your
website for Yahoo!:
Quality of site - like Google has attempted to do in the past
with PageRank and is learning to do with TrustRank, sheer
numbers aren't what will get you high rankings on Yahoo!, the
quality of those links is more important. We must remember
than PageRank is a Google calculation, not Yahoo! and so it
alone cannot determine the value of a link when we are
optimizing for this engine. It can be used as a quasi-
benchmark however when determining if a link is a quality link
on Yahoo! we are better off to considered whether it is from a
site that is ranking well on Yahoo! for the same or related
phrases, does it come from a site that it related to ours, does
the site link to a site that is ranking well on Yahoo! and does
the link come from a trusted domain. For these purposes a
trusted domain can be considered any domain that is over 3
years old, has a solid number of backlinks coming from a
wide variety of sites and which at least a solid number of are
non-reciprocal links.
Position of link - like all the major engines, the position of your
link on the page is important. A link at or near the bottom of
the page is less valuable than a link nearer to the top. Also, if
your link is on a page with other links, the effect that link will
have on your rankings decreases respective to the number of
links on the linking page.
Anchor text - the text used to link to your site will help reinforce
that the keywords in that anchor text are associated with your
site/page. Also, if that anchor text in in the midst of the content
it will hold greater weight than if that anchor text is in a
directory-style format above a description (i.e. link a standard
links page)
Non-reciprocal links - reciprocal links are certainly still
valuable on Yahoo! however it is important to supplement
these links with non-reciprocal links in the form of directory
listings and other one-way links.
Aging
The bane of new websites is the aging delay. Many focus on
Google's "sandbox" when they think of aging delays however
Yahoo! employs one as well, though it is lighter and lasts a
shorter duration of time. New sites and links are not given the
same weight as sites and links that have been around for a
while. The aging delay on sites has been extended over the
past couple years however it isn't as severe as that imposed
by Google. New sites can expect to find it extremely difficult to
rank for competitive phrase inside of 6 months even if
everything else is in place. To add to the difficulty is a delay on
the value of links. When a new site launches it obviously has
no links. These links are subject to a delay that appears to be
somewhere between 3 to 4 months before they hold their full
weight.
The combination of these delays can make it very difficult for
new sites to rank for competitive phrases inside of 8 to 12
months however because the restrictions are lighter than
those imposed by Google one can expect to see rankings for
secondary, tertiary and completely unexpected phrases far
faster on Yahoo!
Conclusion
If is important to note that a very important area that needs to
be considered is coming in part four of this series. Simply
optimizing your website for Yahoo! will likely not get you the
traffic you're hoping for. Part three will cover optimizing your
website for Google and part four will be titled "SEO For The
Big Three: Tieing It Together" and will outline how to tie all the
optimization tactics together into a concise strategy that will
result in top rankings on all three major engines.
Yahoo! is the second biggest of the three major engines and
includes an enormous network of websites. The algorithm is
based on that of Inktomi which Yahoo! purchased back in
2002 as part of their plan to stop serving Google results to
search queries. The algorithm itself can pose a problem for
some SEO's as we optimize client websites to rank highly on
multiple search engines due to the way that it differs from
Google and MSN. That said, any issue can be addressed
provided that the right attention is given to the right details.
The Factors
To optimize and rank highly on Yahoo!, as with any of the
major engines, specific areas need to be addressed. On
Yahoo! the major areas are as follows:
• Keyword density
• Site structure
• Backlinks
• Aging
Keyword Density
As noted in the article on MSN, it would be unwise for me to
specify a keyword density for you to target on your website.
There are two reasons for this. First, if there is a delay
between the writing of this article and when you read it
specific numbers could well send you off in the wrong
direction. Second, you will need to analyze your specific
competitors to determine what the best density is in your area
and for your type of website. Optimal keyword densities are no
longer a one-size-fits-all calculation. Your industry and site-
type will affect the optimal densities and thus, a complete
analysis using a tool such as Total Optimizer Pro (http://www.
totaloptimizer.com/) will be necessary.
Additionally, optimal keyword densities change on a regular
basis and so you will need to periodically reanalyze your
densities and compare them with others in the top 10 to
insure that your densities remain within the optimal levels.
When using Total Optimizer Pro for the onsite analysis we
generally aim our densities for the upper end of the top 10
results but not aiming to be the top. Generally you will see a
range that appears much like a bell curve with a couple sites
in the very low range (0.5 to 1.0%) and a couple site in the very
high range (5.0 to 8.0%). The rest will generally fall in the
middle. Ignore those in the very low and very high range and
target towards the upper end though not the highest of the
remaining sites and you will be on target.
Site Structure
On no other engine is site structure more important than on
Yahoo! While having a good site structure is important for a
variety of reasons, it was on Yahoo! that Beanstalk noted the
most significant gains when we brought our homepage and
key internals into compliance with W3C standards (the rest of
the site will be brought into compliance as part of our
complete redesign scheduled for launch on April 24th). While
slight gains were noticeable on both Google and MSN they
were so minor that they may well have just been part of the
ebb-and-flow of the results. On Yahoo! however we noted a
three page jump the day the changes were picked up. No
other changes to the site were performed during this time.
The site structure is important for two key reasons. First, the
site structure determines the order in which your page content
gets seen by the search engines and thus, which content will
be given the highest priority. Content that occurs higher up in
the code of your page (not necessarily in your browser) is
given a higher weight than content lower down in the code.
Second, a properly structured site will be lower in code
through the use of CSS, reduced or eliminated table use, etc.
The reduction in code will push the content higher up the
page as far as a search engine is concerned and thus, it will
be given more weight.
Backlinks
Like the other two major engines, having a solid backlink
count from relevant sites using good anchor text practices is a
major factor on Yahoo! for any reasonably competitive phrase.
When it comes to calculating backlinks Yahoo! is far more
similar to Google than MSN. Aspects of backlink counts that
must be taken into consideration when optimizing your
website for Yahoo!:
Quality of site - like Google has attempted to do in the past
with PageRank and is learning to do with TrustRank, sheer
numbers aren't what will get you high rankings on Yahoo!, the
quality of those links is more important. We must remember
than PageRank is a Google calculation, not Yahoo! and so it
alone cannot determine the value of a link when we are
optimizing for this engine. It can be used as a quasi-
benchmark however when determining if a link is a quality link
on Yahoo! we are better off to considered whether it is from a
site that is ranking well on Yahoo! for the same or related
phrases, does it come from a site that it related to ours, does
the site link to a site that is ranking well on Yahoo! and does
the link come from a trusted domain. For these purposes a
trusted domain can be considered any domain that is over 3
years old, has a solid number of backlinks coming from a
wide variety of sites and which at least a solid number of are
non-reciprocal links.
Position of link - like all the major engines, the position of your
link on the page is important. A link at or near the bottom of
the page is less valuable than a link nearer to the top. Also, if
your link is on a page with other links, the effect that link will
have on your rankings decreases respective to the number of
links on the linking page.
Anchor text - the text used to link to your site will help reinforce
that the keywords in that anchor text are associated with your
site/page. Also, if that anchor text in in the midst of the content
it will hold greater weight than if that anchor text is in a
directory-style format above a description (i.e. link a standard
links page)
Non-reciprocal links - reciprocal links are certainly still
valuable on Yahoo! however it is important to supplement
these links with non-reciprocal links in the form of directory
listings and other one-way links.
Aging
The bane of new websites is the aging delay. Many focus on
Google's "sandbox" when they think of aging delays however
Yahoo! employs one as well, though it is lighter and lasts a
shorter duration of time. New sites and links are not given the
same weight as sites and links that have been around for a
while. The aging delay on sites has been extended over the
past couple years however it isn't as severe as that imposed
by Google. New sites can expect to find it extremely difficult to
rank for competitive phrase inside of 6 months even if
everything else is in place. To add to the difficulty is a delay on
the value of links. When a new site launches it obviously has
no links. These links are subject to a delay that appears to be
somewhere between 3 to 4 months before they hold their full
weight.
The combination of these delays can make it very difficult for
new sites to rank for competitive phrases inside of 8 to 12
months however because the restrictions are lighter than
those imposed by Google one can expect to see rankings for
secondary, tertiary and completely unexpected phrases far
faster on Yahoo!
Conclusion
If is important to note that a very important area that needs to
be considered is coming in part four of this series. Simply
optimizing your website for Yahoo! will likely not get you the
traffic you're hoping for. Part three will cover optimizing your
website for Google and part four will be titled "SEO For The
Big Three: Tieing It Together" and will outline how to tie all the
optimization tactics together into a concise strategy that will
result in top rankings on all three major engines.
Google SEO 101
