Belchfire Search Engine Marketing

On February 18th, Yahoo replaced Google as it search engine provider in favour of Inktomi. Yahoo owns Inktomi and and it’s new search engine seems to be a hybrid of technologies from both Inktomi and Overture (also owned by Yahoo). Note that this is separate from the legacy Yahoo Directory.

According to comScore Media Metrix, Google and Yahoo’s market share in January 2004 where:

Google: 79%
Yahoo: 14%

But now that Yahoo has dropped Google these numbers are expected to change significantly:

Google: 51%
Yahoo: 44%

What does this mean to webmasters? Plenty. Web traffic generated from these search engines and their partner and affiliate sites could drastically change as fewer searches come from Google. Sites previously optimized for Google may not fare as well on Yahoo due to the differences in the Google and Yahoo (Inktomi/Overture hybrid) system.

Inktomi seems to weigh more heavily on page titles, meta description and meta keywords, and this is reflected in the Yahoo search rankings page (snip):

• Users are more likely to click a link if the title matches their search. Choose terms for the title that match the concept of your document.
• Use a “description” meta-tag and write your description accurately and carefully. After the title, the description is the most important draw for users. Make sure the document title and description attract the interest of the user but also fit the content on your site.
• Use a “keyword” meta-tag to list key words for the document. Use a distinct list of keywords that relate to the specific page on your site instead of using one broad set of keywords for every page.

So where before a web site designed with Google in mind may not have had unique page titles, meta keywords or meta descriptions, they should certainly have these now, and unique on a page by page basis. Or it may be necessary to modify these on sites already using uniques.

The Yahoo search spider seems to identify itself as:

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Yahoo! Slurp)

So keep an eye on your web logs to see if you’re being spidered. If so, check your rankings in the Yahoo search results for any noticable jump or drop.

Yahoo will also be moving to a paid submission system on around April 15th. Can’t say if they’ll charge the same $39.00 US that Inktomi charged, but some are recommending that if you haven’t submitted your web site for paid submission on Inktomi that you do it now. Submitting to Inktomi on their paid submission program also ensures your site is indexed fast (48 hours), plus Inktomi feeds other search sites like MSN, HotBot and Overture (and a few others). The following Inktomi resellers accept paid placements for inclusion on Inktomi, or rather, the new Yahoo submit service currently called Overture Site Match:

Network Solutions
positiontech
MARKETLEAP - my recommendation
ineedhits.com
Trellian
web gravity

While we’re on the topic of search submissions, be sure to also submit your site on the Open Directory Project. Over 336 other search sites and directories include the ODP data in their results, including Netscape Search, AOL Search, Google, Lycos, HotBot and DirectHit. Basically, you submit once and your site automatically shows up on 336 other search sites. Can’t beat that, and it’s free.

Finally, getting your site into the Yahoo Directory will most certainly effect your page rankings on Google and likely on the new Yahoo search as well. Suggesting a site is still free, but there’s no guarrantees it will be added. The paid service called Y! Express for $299.00 US is the way to go if you have the budget. Guaranteed listing in 7 days.

What’s the bottom line here? Well, any webmaster serious about their search rank needs to monitor their rankings on all the major search engines and be prepaired to make changes and tweaks when the search engine landscape changes. Many sites such as those listed under our SEO Tools links offer free and paid placement monitoring tools. Your web logs are your best friend. Use a weblog stats program to monitor where people are coming from, what search terms they used and use that information to update your pages on an ongoing basis. Two of the best commercial offerings are WebTrends and Urchin. Check out Awstats for an Open Source alternative.

My own move to dynamic page titles, meta keywords and meta description info on Belchfire.net seems rather timely.

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