How to Rank Well in Yahoo!
Trying to rank well in Yahoo! can be frustrating (to say the least). I know people who have tried for years to rank well — and who own top spots for major keywords in both Google and MSN — but who have had zero success at all with Yahoo!.
Here’s why.
For at least some industries and/or keywords, the top spots are reserved for those who are paying to be there. Yahoo! provides this helpful illustration:
What they don’t tell you, though, is that there are actually three tiers of rankings within their “Search Submit and other results” section: Search Submit Pro, Search Submit Basic, and free organic results. Those break down something like this:
(Important Disclaimer: I do not know whether Yahoo!’s example search of “Flowers” actually uses the three-tier system, so I definitely don’t know which results are in which tiers. I’m only using this image to illustrate the tiers. I have seen clear evidence of the three-tier system on two very major sites in completely different industries, but I’m not at liberty to reveal who they are.)
Within each tier, the results appear to be algorithmically ranked, just as they would be if there was no tier system.
It’s possible that Yahoo!’s three-tier system is in place only in certain industries and/or for certain keywords. For some sites, paid inclusion makes a dramatic difference. For others, it makes no difference at all. I don’t know if that’s because Yahoo! only uses the three-tier system for select niches, because there are little to no businesses using Search Submit in many niches, or some other reason. The only way to tell if it will make a difference for you is to apply for the program and see.
anuncis classificats
September 20, 2008
at 5:36 am
Yahoo PPC program is really complicate to use, as customers are required to open one account per country, so for this reason I’m not working with them. I hope they reduce their formalities soon. For the moment, I’ll just focus on the organic results.
Shane
September 20, 2008
at 5:46 am
These two paid-inclusion products (Search Submit and Search Submit Pro) are actually different from Yahoo! Sponsored Search. I would imagine that they all have similar rules, but it might be worth looking into.
Matthew
September 22, 2008
at 4:00 pm
Good deal Shane, there apparently another tier as well – SSPSS – Search Submit Pro Self Serve – it’s a bit cheaper than the full SSP but has most of the features that SSP has, you only have to do them yourself. Some of the things you don’t get from what I can tell.
You only get up to 5 domains to submit into your feeds. Also, with SSPSS you lose the ability to submit the ‘quick links’ or ‘alternate links’ inside your feed that appear under your domain in the SERP – (Note: Google gives this for free but you can’t control the links – I might be wrong on that from the Google side, however.)
Just my .02 – is anyone else using it and does anyone have any benchmarks on what they used to decide if it was worth it or not? Just curious…Cheers, Swanzi
Lee
September 23, 2008
at 12:00 am
Personally, I think Yahoo’s natural rankings are broken. I’ve paid for search submit on a site, gotten it included in the Y! directory and have it optimized up to wazoo, and nothing — not even a third page ranking. Google and MSN love me with that site. This is all compared to a site I’ve all but abandoned and it has #1 rankings. Soooo who knows! The art (and joys) of SEO…
Chris Guthrie
September 25, 2008
at 1:11 am
Hey Shane,
I think you hit it right on. I know with other websites I run it’s nearly impossible to get any traction with natural search rankings in Yahoo. So along with your evidence it would make sense that a portion of the rank results are paid results.
By the way nice blog, I don’t know why you don’t have wayyyy more subscribers.
I’ll be linking to this post soon (not that I’ll send a ton of traffic, but I’m sure my readers will be interested in this as well).
Shane
September 25, 2008
at 8:40 am
Thanks, Chris! I appreciate the kind words.
And just to defend Yahoo!, it does appear that they’re very selective about who gets into the paid programs. Having people pay to be there might actually give better results in some (many? most?) industries.
NPs Save Lives
November 8, 2008
at 9:27 pm
I am ranked very well in Google, but it is definitely harder to rank in Yahoo. I’m still checking back from time to time and I often check my usually high ranked keywords on Google to make sure that I haven’t angered the Google gods in some way.
Itchy Skin Rash
April 18, 2009
at 12:40 pm
I have one site doing well in yahoo and one that does well in google but I can’t find in yahoo. They both have unique content and are regularly updated. I wasn’t sure what the organic results requirements are for yahoo.