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Posts Tagged ‘yahoo’
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
It’s not often that you get to see data collected from a major search engine’s toolbar. But Bill Slawski at SEO By The Sea shares some insights into some Yahoo! toolbar data.
The results indicate that about 10% of all pageviews online were as a result of a Web search. Furthermore, another 21% of the pages viewed online were as a result of searches indirectly. And, get this, of all the pages viewed as a result of a Web search, it resulted in a total of 21.4% of all pageviews.
So where are all the other pageviews coming from? Various sources that include multimedia websites like Hulu, Youtube, Flickr, etc. and site searches like Amazon.com, eBay and Craigslist.
Here’s the breakdown of searches by category and percentage:
* Event – 2.31
* Games – 1.15
* Notable person – 13.08
* Ordinary person – 4.42
* Specific product – 11.35
* General product – 8.56
* Places – 4.90
* Business Categories/Services – 7.69
* Health Issues – 1.35
* Real estate – 1.15
* Media title (names of movies, ED albums, etc.) – 10.10
* Organization (businesses, nonprofits, government) – 33.94
If you can learn anything from this data that can help you be a better marketer online then I highly recommend that you go over it. It’s rather telling.
Tags: search, yahoo
Posted in search engines | No Comments »
Friday, February 19th, 2010
If you’ve been on the Web since the beginning then you likely remember a lot about Yahoo!’s history. You know how it started as a Web directory and was one of the first really prominent websites that allowed users to find websites they like. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin tried to sell Yahoo! their back link technology, called BackRub back then, but Yahoo! refused to buy it. So Page and Brin started Google instead.
Yahoo! was late to the search game, but purchased important technology including Alta Vista, Overture and others, that would get them into the search engine game early in the 21st century. The company branched out into other areas as well.
But, as you know, Yahoo! just couldn’t keep up with Google. Then they started experiencing internal problems. Since the new CEO, Carol Bartz, has taken the helm, Yahoo! has been selling assets left and right. And they accepted an offer from Microsoft to enter an agreement that many people think is going to be bad for consumers. One of those people is Michael Martinez.
Martinez sounds a rather grim death knell for Yahoo! I tend to agree. I think this could be the beginning of the end for Yahoo! The question is, if he’s right then what does that really mean for small businesses who want to make the most of their online marketing efforts?
Tags: google, search marketing, yahoo
Posted in search engines | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
Yahoo! explains on its website how, and why, they are now adding local shortcuts for certain types of business searches even when the searcher hasn’t included a location in the search query. I find this a little bit intriguing.
Suppose you search for “set of tires” but you have not designated a geographic location. You could be interested in the best deal on tires that you can find and maybe you’re willing to have those tires shipped to you if you can get them at a good enough price. But Yahoo! offers you some local search options anyway. That’s not necessarily bad. After all, you have a choice.
My question is, does this help you? If you are conducting a search and you get an automatic local search option even if you have not specified a location, are you being forced to search local? I mean, you aren’t being coerced, but does the search engine giving you the local search choices make you want to perform a local search when you had no plans to do so?
I do believe this is going to be a good development for local businesses. But, truth be known, Yahoo! wasn’t the first to do this. Google and Bing have already tried it. Will you use it? Will it help your local small business?
Tags: local business, local search, small business, yahoo
Posted in search engines | 2 Comments »
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
Yahoo! announced today that it is incorporating Facebook Connect into its properties to allow users of its features the opportunity to share them with their friends on Facebook. This is actually a smart move.
Yahoo! failed to capitalize on search and spent the better part of the last 10 years smelling Google’s fumes. Earlier this year they announced a partnership with Microsoft that will allow Bing to run its search while Yahoo! runs the advertising department. Or something like that.
Partnering with the largest social network online could possibly put Yahoo! back in the game. Not the search game, but THE game. The big game. Traffic.
Of course, Yahoo! has never really suffered in the traffic department. I mean, lots of people go there to play Canasta. But what else do they do? Ask questions and answer them (Yahoo! Answers). Now just imagine all of Yahoo!s amenities being shared on Facebook. I think they make a good point when they say:
The content that consumers share with Facebook friends will then create a loop that drives visitors back to Yahoo!.
They may even pick up a few more new users. What do you think?
Tags: facebook, yahoo
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
The Microsoft-Yahoo! deal will change a lot of things for a lot people. One thing that will definitely change is SEO. Of course, performing SEO on your website for Google will still be the same, but SEO overall will be a little bit (not much, but a little bit) different.
Here are three ways I think SEO will change in the next few years:
- Link popularity will become more difficult to measure – MSN has not been reporting inbound links for some time now. Google doesn’t report them all. The only search engine that has consistently reported inbound links is Yahoo! and they’ve been somewhat inflated. I think that once the deal is complete, MSN will not report any links at all. It will be much more difficult for webmasters to know what their inbound link count is.
- Bing will become more competitive and begin to offer some of the same tools that Google has to make the lives of webmasters easier. Webmaster Tools is one of them. Imagine having one account at Google and one at Bing just so you can know how to present your information to both of the leading search engines. It will make SEO a little bit more time-intensive, but easier overall.
- Bing will become as much a haven for spam as Google is. Since Bing is much better now for SEO than MSN Live ever was and since they are acquiring even more market share, they will be a major player in the search market. That will attract more spammers. Soon you will start hearing people complain about Bing spam.
What do you think? How do you think the Microsoft-Yahoo! deal will impact SEO?
Tags: link popularity, microsoft, SEO, spam, yahoo
Posted in search engines | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
Yahoo! has always been big on small business. Now, with AT&Ts help, they’re getting even more serious. The question is, should we care?
There are a few reasons to be skeptical about this move by Yahoo! First among them is the brand new search engine Bing. While far from being the savior of search technology, Bing has proven that it has the mojo to be competitive and to keep the search market interesting. They’ve even managed to take a little bit of the search market from Yahoo!
But that’s not the only reason to be skeptical of Yahoo!s interest in small business. Here are a few others:
- Display advertising is the least effective form of online advertising
- Yahoo! doesn’t really care about search
- As Yahoo! continues to lose search market share, there will be fewer reasons to advertise there
- PPC advertising, dominated by Google, is far more effective
I’m sure we could think of a few more. Bottom line, if Yahoo! isn’t going to get serious about search then there won’t be many reasons for people to go there. Games and e-mail just won’t cut it. Am I the only one who is skeptical here, or am I off base?
Tags: bing, Display Advertising, local small business, search, yahoo
Posted in Local Internet Marketing | 7 Comments »
Monday, July 20th, 2009
It looks like Microsoft and Yahoo! are about to close a deal that may lead to Microsoft owning Yahoo!s search business and sharing the revenue with Yahoo! for a number of years. I have a few observations about this:
- Microsoft, with Bing, has already proven itself more adept at search as well as more interested in pursuing a real competitive stance in that arena.
- The partnership could mean close to 30% market share for Microsoft, which would put them in the competitive ballpark.
- Microsoft and Yahoo! seem to serve the same demographic so it may be a great match.
According to HitWise as reported by WebProNews, about 24% of Yahoo!s search business, and 20% of Bing’s, is in the small business/retail category. Here are the numbers:
- Yahoo! Computers/Internet 22.2%
- Yahoo! Entertainment 13.5%
- Yahoo! Shopping and Classifieds 13%
- Yahoo! Business and Finance 11%
- Yahoo! Education 6.1%
- Yahoo! News 5.9%
- Microsoft Computers/Internet 27.8%
- Microsoft Entertainment 13.4%
- Microsoft Shopping and Classifieds 11.7%
- Microsoft Business and Finance 9.6%
- Microsoft Education 5.1%
- Microsoft News 6.6%
Now do you think this will be a good partnership? Will be good for search?
Tags: microsoft, search, yahoo
Posted in search engines | 2 Comments »
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