How Do Yahoo and Bing Differ From Google?
First of all, let me prioritize all the data below by saying Google gets 88.21% of all search volume in the United States. Bing, Yahoo,
DuckDuckGo, MSN and
Baidu collectively share the 11.79% of the action!
Needless to say, all search engine SEO targeting is to Google! So commentary below is of primary value to the party searching, not so much the marketer.
A little Web History!
The first real browser, back in the 90's, was
Mosaic,
and the first serious search devise was Yahoo.
Mosaic was revamped and renamed, with
Marc Andreesen
on board - and became Netscape. Why did I say "search devise" instead of "search engine"? Because "search engines" hadn't been invented yet - Yahoo was a web "directory". Like a phone book, web sites had to be found and entered manually.
Also, web users back in 1996 had to pay $49.95 for Netscape Navigator - it was the only browser worth a damn.
You could "download a trial version and use it free for up to 90 days; also, most Internet service providers threw in a free version of Navigator when you signed up with them."
Google is the best, but don't forget the rest!
- DuckDuckGo
- DuckDuckGo is a very small, pretty much unknown outfit that has been online for 11 years. What do they offer that Google doesn not? Privacy!
"At DuckDuckGo, we don't think the Internet should feel so creepy, and getting the privacy you deserve online should be as simple as closing the blinds."
- Bing
- Bing is not so new as it is rebranded. It started out as MSN Search. In July 2009 an agreement was reached in which Yahoo! would use Bing to power search on its portal site.
So, basically, searching on Bing or Yahoo would Yeild pretty much the same ranking for a subject. In February 2010, Facebook started using Bing to search within its network.
- Yahoo!
- Yahoo didn't start out a "Search Engine" as we know it now - it was a directory.
Yahoo was initially ike an online Yellow Pages - just for web sites. Back then I used to call Yahoo up and phone in new web sites - I ain't lyin!
For those of you who take Yahoo lightly, "the global network of Yahoo! websites once received 3.4 billion page views per day on average as of October 2007. It is the second most visited website in the world in May 2009"
- Yahoo! Mail email service was launched in 1997. Yahoo Mail had 281 million users, it was the third largest web-based email service in the world
- Each time Yahoo Mail users access their eMail - the Yahoo search engine is likewise there at the ready!
Since the only thing of value to a web bot is live text characters,
All search engines go about their job of searching text in their own way and all are valuable tools in their own way.
Many site owners and their web contractors are of the assumption that since Google is on top you can forget about anything Google doesn't prioritize. That is wrong. Yahoo and Bing are a single entity, and since Google gets secondary search results there, poor performance in Yahoo/Bing can reflect in poor performance in this scenario.
My goal here is to draw your attention to something you may have overlooked - you need Yahoo and Bing.
So - How Do Yahoo and Bing Differ From Google?
- Yahoo Actually Reads the Keywords in Your Metafiles!
- They have refined the process to thwart keyword spamming. You are limited to a smaller number (I use no more than 25) and they must also occur in the visible text to be of any use.
Keywords in metafiles are not separate entities anymore. When you write or otherwise obtain your site copy, you are picking your keywords. The metafile keywords are just snippets from the page itself.
Unlike Google, stopped recognizing keyword metafiles, Yahoo/Bing addressed the abuse and refined keyword metafiles - streamlining their workload.
For a more in-depth explanation of how they work, on and in the page, see the KEYWORDS page.
The title tag is something Google, Yahoo! and Bing have in common.
- The Page title is Super Important to Yahoo
- In fact, the page title is the most important object on your page for Yahoo. It is also the headline for a SERP. Limit your characters to about 80 - or the rest will be cut off.
If you go over 80 characters, this could leave your title with half a sentence.
- Google, Bing and Yahoo Like Keywords In the Domain Name
- If you're searching for Barbie Dolls, what more logical place than barbie.com?
I love a fresh start. There is not much you can do for a bad domain name - that is also a poor performer year after year. SEO here is like CPR on a manequin. New domain, new ISP - new start. It is my belief that keywords in the domain name will help you anywhere
- Keywords in the Description?
- Keywords anywhere help - but - the meta description is waht displays right under yoyr title on a search result.
Think of the title as a headline on the front page of a newspaper and the description as the paragraph below it.
Limit your descriptions, in the metafile, to between 150 and 230 characters. If you go beyond the character limit you are cut off.
The recommended character limit is about 250, including spaces. You can use the MS Word "Word Count Tool". If you do not include a description in your meta section Yahoo, and the others, will grab random copy from your page.
- What About Links and "Page Rank"
- All search engines have some kind of ranking system, Yahoo ranks mainly according to relevancy to the topic. However, it is believed by many that your Google Page Rank also has influence on your ranking with Yahoo.
Google does provide secondary page results for Yahoo. And though not officially published, parts of Google's algorithm are likely utilized to rank Web Sites indexed in Yahoo. And some of us know that a vote from PC World is worth 100 from Suzy's Dog grooming site.
Here is Yahoo's official statement - "Yahoo! Search ranks results according to their relevance to a particular query by analyzing the web page text, title, and description as well as its source, associated links, and other unique document characteristics. Please understand that web result rankings are by no means static, and are always subject to change."
In the world of search engine optimization you must rely more on what you see than what your hear. However, if you hear the same thing over and over from credible sources - watch it, then decide for yourself.
By it's very nature, a web network joins all participants together.
- Put Your meta Together correctly From The Git-Go
- Get it right before you submit to Yahoo, as they are very slow to re-index pages. It could take many months to un-do a dumb mistake in spelling or a thoughtless description that you now hate. That is just the way Yahoo works. Remember, they started out as a directory, submitting each site by hand.
How Do Yahoo and Bing Differ From Google?
