A Tale of 2 WAHMs

SEO (search engine optimization) use to be an easy game. Back when the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, and AOL) all pulled their search results from Google. You only had to worry about ranking in one and you ranked in all. It was also a whole lot easier to rank quickly with a few link exchanges.

Times have changed though. First Yahoo branched off to their own, then followed MSN. While Google still holds the majority of the market for searches, we can’t forget there are still two other major search engines taking a good share of the pie.  For some interesting stats, be sure to check this out.

When Yahoo first split it was a complete mess. I remember that period of mass panic, because I was one of them completely freaking out. My 500+ page site wasn’t indexed, and I took a major hit in the pocket book. Directly there after, Google started making changes and booted another one of my much smaller (yet profitable) niche sites. It appeared in Yahoo though, and I barely noticed a change in sales from the small site.

See back in 2004, Yahoo was more known for being the “shopping” search engine. Even though Yahoo got a much smaller share of surfers, they seemed to get the majority of the shoppers. Basically the conversion rates for Yahoo searchers was much higher. It took a lot less visitors from Yahoo to make a sale than it did with Google.  In fact, your sales were about the same from both even though MUCH less traffic came from Yahoo.

Is Yahoo still the “shoppers search engine”? I don’t know, but I plan to find out……

Like everyone else, today I spend more time worrying about where I’m ranked in Google than I do anywhere else. Why wouldn’t I? Google accounts for more than 50% of all search engine traffic, and my main site is pure content (something Google loves). Plus if you have a well optimized site, you are going to rank well in all the search engines. Or so you would think. I’m having a hard time figuring out (based on my own stats and rankings) what exactly Yahoo and MSN really are basing their rankings on.

Taking a look at the article on Top Search Engines, you would think at least 20% of my traffic would be coming from Yahoo. For September 2007 though, this isn’t the case. Pulled directly from my own stats, over 80% of my traffic came from Google, with less than 1% coming from Yahoo. Checking this information with my own rankings it’s not hard to see the reason WHY - my rankings for various keyword phrases in Yahoo stink.

It really does puzzle me, because my site is not fluff. It’s pure original content, designed well and ranked well in Google. You would think if I was ranked in the harder search engine (google), I would have no problems with the others. For some reason though, Yahoo just doesn’t like me.

So I had an idea last night. I’m going to take a page on my site (one that’s focused on selling specific affiliate products), and optimize it for Yahoo. I want to see if Yahoo is still the “shopping search engine”, and what it actually takes to rank well in that picky engine. I don’t want to blow all my rankings in Google, so it will only be ONE page I’ll be testing. One that really isn’t ranked well to start with, so I won’t really LOSE anything.

Sound like fun? Yup I think so. Now to go find valuable information on SEO for Yahoo…..

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