Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Blog

Since different search engines weigh different parts of their algorithms differently, they can all have similar relevancy while having significantly different search results.

Some people are quick to ask how their sites are being penalized in one search engine because they rank well in others. While many sites do get penalized for aggressive spamming techniques, most sites that do not rank well usually just fail to satisfy the specific ranking algorithm for that specific engine in question.
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Yahoo! filed a patent application on May 12, 2005 for using My Yahoo! data to help improve search relevancy. Bill Slawski links to the patent and reviews it at:
http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=24500

The major search engines are working hard to get a large enough collection of user data to be able to use it to augment link analysis in determining search relevancy.

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Yahoo! supports a robots-nocontent attribute, which you can wrap around the unimportant parts of a page to tell Yahoo! to ignore it. The code could be applied like so:

<p class="robots-nocontent"> This is a boilerplate legal disclaimer required on each page of the site</p>

I wouldn't recommend using the robots-nocontent attribute on site navigation as well structured local navigation tends to be rather rich in keywords that help support the current document. Rather than using robots-nocontent I would be more inclined to add more original useful content to the page and limit boilerplate code as best you can.

Yahoo! offers tips on using the robots-nocontent attribute here: http://www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000444.html

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Some searches are commercial in nature, and some are informational in nature. Major search engines have the ability to distinguish which search queries are more likely to be commercial and which search queries are more likely to be informational.

Search engines can also classify whether they think a particular result is commercial or informational in nature. In the search results, search engines like to show a mix of result types so that they have a greater chance of solving the searchers needs. Yahoo! Mindset is a beta test tool that allows Yahoo! searchers to bias the results toward commercial or informational type resources.

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Since Yahoo! actively edits their search results, they will be forced to edit them over and over.

After they remove a site for spam, it is very easy for someone to duplicate that site (and maybe even use a slightly altered version) at another location.

Yahoo! could also use a bit of coaching on determining the difference between editorial votes and spammy links. Some of my clients outrank their own manufacturers for their manufacturer's brand name in Yahoo!. That is just flat out bad relevancy to make it that easy to manipulate.

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Yahoo! tries to edit out many of the "site in a box"-type affiliate sites as well as any content that does not add value to your search experience. Yahoo! does not hate affiliate websites, they hate unoriginal, replicated content, as it degrades the quality of their search results if a searcher sees the same things over and over again.

It does not hurt you to have affiliate links on your website as long as you also have some original content. It is also worth noting that some search engines may also have custom algorithms designed to detect and demote thin affiliate sites.

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Yahoo! actively edits spam out of their search results. If someone with whom you are competing is not complying with Yahoo!'s guidelines, you may want to point that out to Yahoo!. There is a chance that Yahoo! will remove your competitor's site if they deem it as spam. Again, most of the time it is recommended that you do not use spam reports unless you are prepared for webmasters to play hardball.
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Yahoo! has a paid inclusion program that allows them to generate revenue from people who join their paid inclusion program. By relying on page content, Yahoo! makes it easier for its paid inclusion members (or other editorially reviewed content participants) to improve their rankings.
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……continued from PART 1

At the 2004 Las Vegas WebmasterWorld World of Search Conference, Yahoo! stated that they prefer if you have somewhat shallow directory paths of three or so levels deep or less.

example 1:
www.mysite.com/cheese/cheddar/sharp/yummie.html = good

example 2:
www.mysite.com/chs/chd/shrp/eat/now/today/yummie.html = bad
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Popularity: 11%