SEO For Yahoo! Small Business: How To Optimize For Top Yahoo! Rankings

• Yahoo! Looks For Certain Criteria When Ranking Website Content •
• SEO For Yahoo! Sticks To Ethical Proven Guidelines •

I am always asked by clients how they can rank highly in organic results both in Google and in Yahoo!. I’ve even had a couple of clients ask if they are going to have to write two sets of content geared to each search engine, and will I have to provide meta tags that are uniquely optimized for each search engine, too.

Fortunately, none of that is necessary (except in extreme cases, which I won’t bother to explain, as it rarely is an issue most of us would have to address). I assure clients SEO for Yahoo! and their small business website or blog isn’t going to cause us problems, not at all!

As I tell everyone, Google brings almost every website at least 60-65% of its traffic, thusly it is important to keep Google “happy” as far as how we go about ethically optimizing the site for top search rankings results.

That being said, Yahoo! most likely will bring in the 2nd highest amount of visitor traffic.

There are algorithmic differences between how the two engines determine ranking positions. Though neither search engine publishes their well guarded secrets as to EXACTLY how they determine who gets to be #1 versus #2 or #3 (or #1,352 ) … there are assumptions that SEO analytical experts have said most probably do hold true.

How Does Yahoo! Differ From Google’s Ranking Factors?

As I just stated, it is really a very well guarded secret as to how the search engines come up with the final ranking results. However, it is generally agreed that the following are things that make Yahoo! rank pages differently. These are not all of the differences that have been uncovered, but in my opinion some of the most interesting to note for the average website owner:

• Yahoo! offers a paid inclusion program, so that skews the ranking results in favor of those paid inclusion sites;
• Yahoo!’s results seem to be biased more toward commerce than informational sites;
• They have an incredible amount of their own content, so let’s face it – they are probably biased to ranking their own content pages highly;
• They seem to not put as much relevance on a site’s age;
• Their returned search results are based more on the actual search words used in the query, whereas Google analyzes the query on a conceptual basis and determines what you are really searching for; and
• Yahoo! is not as good at filtering poor quality or non-relevant to the site’s theme in-pointing links as Google is.

Can I say unequivocally that these are 100% true? No, I can’t. Like I told you, the SEO analysts have to make educated guesses. But I believe the above assumptions are safe to make note of. But please don’t obsess over them

So … Back To the Topic Of This Post:  How To SEO For Top Yahoo! Small Business Rankings

If we realize that Google is going to bring us the lion’s share of our visitor traffic, and we realize that there are algorithmic factors Yahoo! uses that we have no control over, then how to best optimize your content and Titles, Descriptions and Keyword tags?

The answer is really quite simple and straightforward: use the tried and true search engine optimization guidelines that work well for all the engines. We’re not going to fret over the nuances between algorithms! We’re going to roll up our sleeves and just do a darn good job of ethically optimizing our sites!

In a nutshell, utilize your keyword phrase properly in the Title tag and meta tags; use it in the title of the page of content; use it within the content, without becoming spammy; and use it in a hyperlink if possible.

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In a broader sense, make sure all your content is original, well written and relevant to the keyword phrase you are targeting. Over-deliver the content. Keep your visitor’s experience first and foremost before what you think will make the search engines happy. Write for humans, not spiders!

Have a well designed site, with easy to follow navigation. This enhances your visitor’s experience; helps keep them on your site for a longer period of time; and helps the spiders be able to crawl and index your site.

Fill your site with lots of great, well optimized content. Yes … get other sites to link to you. Yes of course take advantage of social marketing. I could go on with other things to do to help you rank better in Yahoo!, but not right now.

The message here is that we cannot drive ourselves nuts over algorithmic differences! If our SEO efforts are sincere and carefully tended to, then Yahoo! will hopefully rank us well, as will Google, MSN and all the rest, too.

If you want to see what criteria Google uses in order to rank pages, read Google Webmaster guidelines.

To read up on Yahoo! search content quality guidelines and other ranking criteria, refer to their informative page SEO For Yahoo! Small Business Guidelines.