Search Engine Optimization Help

Yahoo! is rolling out their monthly search algorithm change. You might notice some shakeup in the rankings as a result. This will take place over the next few days.

Yahoo! alerted the search community to the update via a typically brief and vague message on their Search Marketing blog:

The Yahoo! Search engineering teams are rolling out updates to crawling, indexing, and ranking algorithms. Similar to previous updates, you may notice some ranking changes and page shuffling during the process, which we expect to complete over the next few days.

Thank you for the feedback, letting us know the community still finds these Weather Reports helpful. To share your thoughts on this latest update, please visit the Site Explorer Suggestion Board.

Have you observed any changes in Yahoo! rankings? Share your findings in the comments below.

Yahoo! Canada is getting the homepage treatment that the U.S. page got not too long ago. The new homepage, which goes live today, enables users to customize their homepages with apps and social features.

“The Web is an indispensible part of Canadians’ lives, it’s where they socialize, stay in touch with family and friends, buy products and services and share their photos and memories,” says Matt Idema, Yahoo! vice president and country manager, Canada.

Canadians will also now be able to access email from select email providers, including GMail and Yahoo! Additionally, users will be able to sync their PC and mobile experiences.

“Whether for their PC or mobile device, Yahoo! Canada is bringing greater simplicity and relevance to the way Canadians experience the Web. Our new homepage is designed to help Canadians stay on top of what is going on in their world, and around the world no matter where they are,” explained Idema.

After three months at AOL, Shashi Seth jumped ship to join Yahoo! He’s been named Vice President of Yahoo! Search Products. Basically, Seth went from AOL, which is powered by Google to Yahoo!, which will soon be powered by Bing.

Meanwhile, Sue James has been elected to Yahoo!’s Board of Directors. James has spent a huge chunk of her career at E&Y. She joined the company in 1975, became a partner in 1987, and retired in June 2006. Then, she consulted with E&Y until December 2009. James is a CPA and as part of her work with E&Y, participated in the audit work for major corporations such as Intel Corporation, Sun Microsystems, Amazon.com, Autodesk (Bartz connection!) and HP.

James also serves on the Board of Directors for Applied Materials, Inc., Coherent, Inc. and Tri-Valley Animal Rescue.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Carol Bartz graded her first year as Yahoo!’s CEO. She gave herself a B minus.

That’s probably a fair grade.

Bartz did finally get the search deal with Microsoft done. But the deal hasn’t been implemented yet and their search market share has fallen quite a bit.

Yahoo! stock has recovered a bit from 2008, when Jerry Yang failed to take advantage of Microsoft’s generous offers. But there is still recovery to be made.

2010 presents Bartz with plenty of challenges, including beginning to execute the Microsoft deal – and continuing to building on Yahoo!’s strengths as a media company. With Bartz’s dedication and high standards, she’s likely to turn that B minus to an A plus in no time.

Yahoo! has a new update that serves up some personalization into search results. Let’s say you’re searching for pizza. You’ll now get results for pizza places in your area, despite not including a location in your query:

As you can see, there are also links so that you can refine your search to an even narrower neighborhood or town within a greater metro area.

Additionally, Yahoo! will serve up the local biz shortcut when it recognizes you’re searching an establishment in your town:

This is a great implementation of personalized search. And it shouldn’t be too threatening to SEOs, who should be focused on local search as part of their overall search strategy.

Latest comScore data for November search volume is showing a slightly unexpected result. For the second time Bing managed to beat Google in terms of total US core search volumes, while Yahoo’s search volume continues to go down.So while the total US core search volume increased from 13.2% in October to 17.8% Y/Y in November, Microsoft sites domestic core search market share increased by .4% from 9.9% in October to 10.3% in November. Likewise, Microsoft sites domestic core search volume  for October-November increased by 38.2% from Q3’s  25.8%. Comparing it with October’s core search volume, it is also up from 30.8% to 46.0%.

For Google, domestic core search market slightly increased from 65.4% to 65.6% in November. Core search volume also increased from October’s 17.4% to 21.8%. In the domestic core search for the first two months of Q4, Google’s search volume decreased from 21.1% in Q3 to 19.6% in Q4.

As for the remaining search engine:

• Yahoo! domestic core search market share dropped to 17.5% in November from 18.0% in October. Yahoo! grew November core search volume by 1.1% Y/Y, up from down 0.7% Y/Y growth in October. Yahoo!’s first 2 months of 4Q domestic core search volume growth of 0.2% Y/Y trails 3Q’s 11.6% Y/Y growth.

• Microsoft sites domestic core search market share increased to 10.3% in November from 9.9% in October. Microsoft sites grew November core search volume by 46.0% Y/Y, up from 30.8% Y/Y growth in October. Microsoft sites domestic core search volume was up 38.2% Y/Y in the first two months of 4Q, ahead of 25.8% Y/Y growth in 3Q.

• Ask Network domestic core search market share dropped slightly to 3.8% in November from 3.9% in October. Ask grew November core search volume by 10.8% Y/Y, up from 4.2% Y/Y growth in October. Ask Network domestic core search volume was up by 7.4% Y/Y in the first two months of 4Q vs. 4.5% Y/Y growth in 3Q.

• AOL November domestic core search market share declined to 2.8% from 2.9% in October. AOL November core search volume declined by 13.7% Y/Y vs. a 12.8% Y/Y decline in October. AOL domestic core search volume was down 13.2% Y/Y in the first two months of 4Q vs. a 15.4% decline in 3Q.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Bing Beats Google in November Search Volume Growth

Latest comScore data for November search volume is showing a slightly unexpected result. For the second time Bing managed to beat Google in terms of total US core search volumes, while Yahoo’s search volume continues to go down.So while the total US core search volume increased from 13.2% in October to 17.8% Y/Y in November, Microsoft sites domestic core search market share increased by .4% from 9.9% in October to 10.3% in November. Likewise, Microsoft sites domestic core search volume  for October-November increased by 38.2% from Q3’s  25.8%. Comparing it with October’s core search volume, it is also up from 30.8% to 46.0%.

For Google, domestic core search market slightly increased from 65.4% to 65.6% in November. Core search volume also increased from October’s 17.4% to 21.8%. In the domestic core search for the first two months of Q4, Google’s search volume decreased from 21.1% in Q3 to 19.6% in Q4.

As for the remaining search engine:

• Yahoo! domestic core search market share dropped to 17.5% in November from 18.0% in October. Yahoo! grew November core search volume by 1.1% Y/Y, up from down 0.7% Y/Y growth in October. Yahoo!’s first 2 months of 4Q domestic core search volume growth of 0.2% Y/Y trails 3Q’s 11.6% Y/Y growth.

• Microsoft sites domestic core search market share increased to 10.3% in November from 9.9% in October. Microsoft sites grew November core search volume by 46.0% Y/Y, up from 30.8% Y/Y growth in October. Microsoft sites domestic core search volume was up 38.2% Y/Y in the first two months of 4Q, ahead of 25.8% Y/Y growth in 3Q.

• Ask Network domestic core search market share dropped slightly to 3.8% in November from 3.9% in October. Ask grew November core search volume by 10.8% Y/Y, up from 4.2% Y/Y growth in October. Ask Network domestic core search volume was up by 7.4% Y/Y in the first two months of 4Q vs. 4.5% Y/Y growth in 3Q.

• AOL November domestic core search market share declined to 2.8% from 2.9% in October. AOL November core search volume declined by 13.7% Y/Y vs. a 12.8% Y/Y decline in October. AOL domestic core search volume was down 13.2% Y/Y in the first two months of 4Q vs. a 15.4% decline in 3Q.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Bing Beats Google in November Search Volume Growth

The tool is called “Ad Interest Manager” and it lets you opt-in and out of ads based on interests and preferences. Here’s a screenshot:

The Ad Interest Manager also shows you what Yahoo! activities you conduct the most. They use this to help determine which ads to serve up to you, personally.

Last but not least, the Ad Interest Manager displays information about your IP address, location, age range, and gender which are gained from your computer and cookies. Ads can also be served up to you based on that information. I’m not posting a screenshot of my info – you’ll have to check that out for yourself.

Yahoo! really does want you to make their homepage the center of your web-browsing universe. Next year, they’re going to make that easier by integrating Facebook. Not only will you be able to see your network’s activity directly on Yahoo!, you’ll be able to easily share content on Yahoo! – including answers, news, sports, etc.

500 people visit Yahoo! every month while 350 million people are members of Facebook. Looking at the numbers alone, this is a no-brainer.

BTW, it is quite reminiscent of the new design strategy by MSN – where they’ve integrated Facebook and Twitter into their new look.

Yesterday, we learned Michael Jackson was Bing’s most popular search term of 2009. Today, Yahoo! revealed that the deceased pop star topped their list as well.

Unlike Bing’s list, which featured several other deceased celebrities, Yahoo! searchers were apparently jonesin’ for Vampires, Wrasslers, and tabloid starlets.

1. Michael Jackson
2. Twilight
3. WWE
4. Megan Fox
5. Britney Spears
6. Naruto
7. American Idol
8. Kim Kardashian
9. NASCAR
10. Runescape

For top searches on mobile devices, a certain Transformers 2 star took the top spot:

1. Megan Fox
2. Mobile Games
3. Michael Jackson
4. Movies
5. Rihanna
6. Mail
7. Lady Gaga
8. NFL
9. Ringtones
10. iPhone

The winners of the Yahoo! Yodel Studio contest have been announced.

• Tiffany Jo Allen of Tucson, AZ
• Katherine Skene of St. Andrews, UK
• Ankitaa Bhattacharji of Mumbai, India

The winners were publicly voted on after Yahoo! selected three finalists each for the US, UK, and India from 21,000 submissions.

Tiffany Jo’s Yodel can be heard on the Yahoo! homepage for the next week. Simply click on the exclamation point in Yahoo!’s logo to give it a listen.

Katherine and Ankitaa’s Yodels will be featured on the respective UK and India Yahoo! homepages in coming weeks.

He came, he kinda sorta conquered and now he’s left. Investor Carl Icahn, who stirred up investors during the Microsoft acquisition attempt, quit Yahoo!’s Board of Directors on Friday.

After Yahoo! failed to accept Microsoft’s offer to fully acquire the Sunnyvale-based Internet company, Carl Icahn embarked on his own attempt to overthrow Yahoo!’s Board of Directors. Icahn ultimately settled with Yahoo! just before the 2008 shareholders meeting. He got a seat on the board plus the board was expanded to bring in some outsiders.

A few months later, Jerry Yang stepped down as CEO. Eventually, Carol Bartz was named as replacement. Now, there’s a pending search deal with Microsoft, and Yahoo!’s stock has been steadily increasing.

Wam, Bam, Thank You Ma’am. I guess Icahn’s work at Yahoo! is done.

One of the most significant online shopping days of the year is Cyber Monday, which, like Black Friday, follows Thanksgiving and unofficially marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season. But new data that Yahoo! has released suggests that Black Friday is itself increasingly becoming a popular day for online shoppers.

Last year, while overall click-through rates were down for both days, conversions shot up 147% for Black Friday while they “only” increased 73% on Cyber Monday.

Let’s face it, search marketers. You gotta play both days.

Anecdotally, I can testify to being online with my computer at midnight on Thanksgiving/Black Friday, soaking up a sweet deal on some scooters for my kids. I did it all from the comfort of my rental condo atop of a peak in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, which I can assure you is far preferable to the (unfortunately lethal) stomping grounds of big box stores across the land.

While the economy has consumers as uncertain as ever, I wouldn’t be surprised if last year’s Walmart deaths have people bumping those conversion rates even more this year. Make sure you’ve got great deals and free shipping. You might just save a life.

Web developers who use Yahoo!’s BOSS (Build your Own Search Service) have requested the incorporation of Sponsored Ads as a way of generating revenue on their sites. Yahoo! has obliged the requests, but has arranged for a third party to manage everything.

Developers will need to apply through Domain Development Corp (DDC) in order to be selected to have Sponsored Ads on their BOSS search sites. DDC will provide support and payment for the program, not Yahoo!

Yahoo! did take the opportunity of the announcement to reiterate that it still does not know how the impending Microsoft search deal will affect BOSS. In the meantime, it looks like there are revenues to be had for BOSS developers.

If you’re conducting a search on Yahoo! and use one of the filters on the left hand side to narrow your search, you may now see Sponsored Ads. The ads will appear on filtered results for selected sites who are also Yahoo! advertisers. Here’s an example.

Let’s say you’re searching for “argyle sweater.” You filter the results by JC Penney. The ad that JC Penney placed for the larger “argyle sweater” search will also appear in the filtered search that display only pages from the company’s website.

This won’t change the bidding for placement in the original, broader search. But the competition will be nixed, once the filter is in place.

How do you get your site listed as a filter? Yahoo! isn’t revealing the secret sauce, but says it uses many factors including listings’ quality, popularity and user response to determine which sites get the filter treatment.

This morning, ZDnet ran a surprising post that Yahoo! forked over 200,000 names to the Iranian government following the country’s contentious elections this summer. The post seemed based on some very loose information, and I waited for the official rejection from Yahoo!

Said rejection has occurred on the Yodel Anecdotal blog. Blog editor Nicki Dugan emphatically denied the allegations:

The claims are false. Neither Yahoo! nor any Yahoo! representative has met with or communicated with Iranian officials regarding the matters referenced in the article, and Yahoo! has not disclosed user data to the Iranian government.

With mobile search on the rise, it’s no surprise that search engines wish to monetize the traffic. Yahoo! today announced that they’re adding search advertising to their mobile search for iPhones, iPod Touches and Android devices.

One ad appears at the top of the search results and two ads appear at the bottom. Take a look:

Noticeably missing from the announcement is the inclusion of Windows Mobile phones, a curious exclusion in the wake of the recently struck Microsoft-Yahoo! search deal.

Yahoo! begins its new global advertising campaign today and part of that campaign is a new television ad. Check it out:

The ad will air on all major broadcast channels plus major cable networks such as AMC, ESPN, USA, Comedy Central and Bravo.

Advertising seems to be working for Bing, which has steadily gained market share since launch. It will be interesting to see if Yahoo! gains back some search share, despite their advertising campaign focusing on content.

What do you think of Yahoo!’s new ad? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.