Tips for Ranking Well on Yahoo??

[jcboy460]

How do you rank well in Yahoo? Yes I know, Yahoo is a distant second to Google. I already rank on first page for all my KW on Google and have had no luck on Yahoo. Any tips?

[bluefrog59]

Things Yahoo pays attention to:

a) heavier emphasis on 'alt' attribute (but don't go too far or Google will get upset).
b) strong variation in page titles (not all the same - make them keyword rich)
c) loads of links (and it doesn't hurt to have a listing in their directory).

[jcboy460]

I think I am two out of three. Only thing missing is the directory. Can't justify paying that much.

[bluefrog59]

I think I am two out of three. Only thing missing is the directory. Can't justify paying that much.
Yeah, me either. I'm less concerned about rankings in Yaho than Google but it is nice to pick up the peripheral traffic provided mods to the site don't affect the Google side of things.:D

[Jim Olenbush]

Yahoo seems to reward those sites that buy site wide text link ads on major news sites. Google does not count those at all, but Yahoo eats it up.

[Rehoboth1]

I've been working SEO magic for close to ten years now and in my experience Yahoo tends to value domains that have been arond for two or more years. Google is easier to get into and get a page one ranking but Yahoo is far more difficult.

[larthestar]

I find the opposite to be true. I get into Yahoo immediately with #1 rankings for my keywords. I have to search through page after page to find myself on Google.

[RobM]

Its pretty much a crap shoot...good rule of thumb is get 4-5 good ranking in bound links and make sure your keyword density is no greater than 5-7% and you should do fine...but very difficult to optimize around all 3 since they are all different in criteria

[iamsudhi]

To get a good ranking in any search engine the following 3 things pretty much works:

1. Having orginal and keyword rich content on each page.

2. Creating a site map.

3. Having some very good backlinks to the site.

[flatfeemls]

I seem to do pretty well on Yahoo.

But all the its are from Google. So forget Yahoo. Its all about Google first

Paul Gioffre
Real Estate Broker

[elizabeth]

I think gather more backlinks...Yahoo likes it :rolleyes:

[Trutzrose]

.....which serch engine doesn't:D

[bmc]

Yahoo seems to put more weight in ranking on big, well-established sites for competitive key words nowadays. The first page of Yahoo search result is filled with big site names for many competitive key words.

[lebron23]

The SEO rules are constantly changing and so must you. Now Yahoo has a new search engine on display. Good thing for webmasters is that the new Yahoo algorithm is a slight resemblance of the Google algorithm in a few ways, making it less cumbersome to optimize for the new Yahoo. This erases the need to start over fresh while optimizing for Yahoo.

Although Yahoo is using part Inktomi algorithm for its SERPs and that algorithm being similar to Google's algorithm one would have to find the line that formulates the distinct separation of the two and to find out what works and what doesn't to rank well in Yahoo.

Keyword Density

In SEO labs where the new Yahoo algorithm was examined, it appears that Yahoo gives more weight, compared to Google, to a page that displays more keywords. The study suggests that most of the high ranking pages generally had a higher number of keywords or keyword density in the body and title of the page. Of the top placed pages most had a keyword density of around 10%, however some of the highly ranked pages had a keyword density of around 3%. This was an indication that backlinks with anchor text played a part. Below is a chart of the on page elements Yahoo looks at and the keyword densities that make up the total keyword density of the page:

. Title - 15 to 20% (title tag is one of the more important on page elements for the new Yahoo algorithm)
. Body Text - 3%
. Meta Tags 3%

Anchor Text of Incoming Links

Anchor text has been one of the most focused aspects of search engine optimization since Google stepped into the arena however Yahoo looks at them a little differently. Although anchor text of incoming links is looked at with a slight twist in Yahoo they still play a major part of ranking well, however not with as much weight as Google puts on them. You will still need to incorporate strong keyword density into your title and body tags.

Keywords in Directories and File Names

In our labs we studied the relationship between keywords in directory names and file names. As stated above keyword density plays a major role in ranking well for the new Yahoo algorithm. Naming your directories and file names as such:

my-domain.com/keyword/file-name-with-keywords.html

will have a slight impact on your overall keyword density.

Conclusion

Keywords in title and body tags and anchor text of incoming links are the areas you should focus on when you optimize for Yahoo search engine to be well ranked. Also ensure that you have proper Meta Tags as Yahoo ranks sites partially on that as well.

[wchua24]

if your ranking high in google does that mean that you can rank high in yahoo..or there are two different techniques?