How Will the Microsoft-Yahoo Deal Affect Your SEO and PPC?
The recent search deal between Microsoft and Yahoo! is going to have an impact on search engine rankings, but unfortunately that impact won’t be fully seen until Bing and Yahoo results get merged over the course of the next year. Yahoo is going to be displaying Bing results, which are powered by what was once known as MSN Live Search.
People who monitor their search engine results on a monthly basis can attest to the high level of volatility in search engine positions on the former MSN, so there will be some curiosity as to whether Yahoo results will be as volatile. Bing also will have access to Yahoo’s search technology, so integration of best practices will hopefully have a positive impact on the churn seen by the average customer.
Both Yahoo and MSN have sponsored result platforms. Yahoo’s platform has been known as GoTo, then Overture, and is now called Yahoo Search Marketing. MSN/Bing’s platform is known as Adcenter. The latest terms of the deal indicate that Bing (Adcenter) will be the preferred platform for ad serving. People who have been in Pay-Per-Click for a few years know that Yahoo served up ads on MSN Search until early 2006. There is probably even an advantage for Bing, since cash-strapped marketers have been cutting back on lesser known ad serving platforms while trying to get maximum exposure on Google. Now, there will once again be a single ad serving platform. This favors Bing since there are even some cases where people didn’t bother to sign on to Adcenter, but now people will need to transition to the platform for Yahoo placement.
How does this impact paid inclusion? Yahoo has a program called Search Submit, which allows people to buy their way into the natural search results. It was previously sold through Inktomi and AltaVista, which Yahoo acquired and rebranded as Search Submit Express and Search Submit Pro. For some search engine purists, paid inclusion leads to less trust in Yahoo results since they are effectively populated with sponsored results. On the other side of the coin, there are sites that count on Search Submit Pro for a substantial revenue stream. At the time of this writing, there is no comment on paid inclusion, but its addition into Bing might give Google leverage from a trust perspective. Google does not allow paid inclusions in its natural results, so it could argue that it has “clean” results that aren’t bought and paid for.
Since Bing is going to be the default for search results, customers who want to be seen on Yahoo and Bing should consider adding fresh content on a regular basis, periodically getting more links to their website, and ensuring that the site is not presenting any obstacles to search engine spiders. Incidentally, this is the exact advice we would give to people who want better Google rankings, but our experience does show that Bing shows fresh pages faster, and is not necessarily as dependent on link popularity. Bing also appears to give preference to domain names that match keyword searches (just like Google) and is often the first search engine to rank new websites.
Until all the details are worked out, and various government agencies bless the whole transaction, SEO customers should concentrate on ranking factors that are universal to all search engines. In almost every case, optimization is based around the Google algorithm, since Google still controls the greatest market share. Over the past several years, there has been little demand for “better Yahoo results” from SEO clients, since a site’s success or failure in search results is generally determined by Google. Similarly, people weren’t clamoring for MSN placement, but the marketing push for Bing has led to a lot more inquiries about being visible in that engine. As always, the keys to good SEO results involve having a resource rich site, trustworthy links, and a structure that search engines can read. No matter how Bing and Yahoo blend their results, these factors are still going to be important, so anyone with a well optimized site is going to have a big advantage when the dust finally settles.
People who monitor their search engine results on a monthly basis can attest to the high level of volatility in search engine positions on the former MSN, so there will be some curiosity as to whether Yahoo results will be as volatile. Bing also will have access to Yahoo’s search technology, so integration of best practices will hopefully have a positive impact on the churn seen by the average customer.
Both Yahoo and MSN have sponsored result platforms. Yahoo’s platform has been known as GoTo, then Overture, and is now called Yahoo Search Marketing. MSN/Bing’s platform is known as Adcenter. The latest terms of the deal indicate that Bing (Adcenter) will be the preferred platform for ad serving. People who have been in Pay-Per-Click for a few years know that Yahoo served up ads on MSN Search until early 2006. There is probably even an advantage for Bing, since cash-strapped marketers have been cutting back on lesser known ad serving platforms while trying to get maximum exposure on Google. Now, there will once again be a single ad serving platform. This favors Bing since there are even some cases where people didn’t bother to sign on to Adcenter, but now people will need to transition to the platform for Yahoo placement.
How does this impact paid inclusion? Yahoo has a program called Search Submit, which allows people to buy their way into the natural search results. It was previously sold through Inktomi and AltaVista, which Yahoo acquired and rebranded as Search Submit Express and Search Submit Pro. For some search engine purists, paid inclusion leads to less trust in Yahoo results since they are effectively populated with sponsored results. On the other side of the coin, there are sites that count on Search Submit Pro for a substantial revenue stream. At the time of this writing, there is no comment on paid inclusion, but its addition into Bing might give Google leverage from a trust perspective. Google does not allow paid inclusions in its natural results, so it could argue that it has “clean” results that aren’t bought and paid for.
Since Bing is going to be the default for search results, customers who want to be seen on Yahoo and Bing should consider adding fresh content on a regular basis, periodically getting more links to their website, and ensuring that the site is not presenting any obstacles to search engine spiders. Incidentally, this is the exact advice we would give to people who want better Google rankings, but our experience does show that Bing shows fresh pages faster, and is not necessarily as dependent on link popularity. Bing also appears to give preference to domain names that match keyword searches (just like Google) and is often the first search engine to rank new websites.
Until all the details are worked out, and various government agencies bless the whole transaction, SEO customers should concentrate on ranking factors that are universal to all search engines. In almost every case, optimization is based around the Google algorithm, since Google still controls the greatest market share. Over the past several years, there has been little demand for “better Yahoo results” from SEO clients, since a site’s success or failure in search results is generally determined by Google. Similarly, people weren’t clamoring for MSN placement, but the marketing push for Bing has led to a lot more inquiries about being visible in that engine. As always, the keys to good SEO results involve having a resource rich site, trustworthy links, and a structure that search engines can read. No matter how Bing and Yahoo blend their results, these factors are still going to be important, so anyone with a well optimized site is going to have a big advantage when the dust finally settles.
Labels: ppc, search engine optimization, yahoo msn deal
posted by Patrick Hare at
10:03 AM
2 Comments:
Well, Yahoo didn’t want to be acquired. This partnership will keep Yahoo independent for now. Who knows, they can develop new technologies and become a better, more profitable company and not rely on the web services.
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Great article. Hopefully, this makes Google deliver better results, as I have seen a decline in the results over the past few months.
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