Cross Engine SEO: Who are you SEOing For?
Posted on by Ryan Deiss in Search Engine Optimization
I think it’s safe to say that most of us have our SEO targets set on Google (and PPC for that matter). And it’s pretty appropriate seeing that Google owns such a vast majority of the search engine market. But if we want to be truly savvy Internet marketers, we can’t ignore the fact that the Microsoft/Yahoo merger has finally come.
Is there anything we can be doing to SEO for both Google and Yahoo?
A recent report done by SEO Chat revealed quite clearly how the two search engines differ in ranking. They compared 2 domains and how they indexed in each search engine. Domain A ranked #1 in Yahoo, but it didn’t make the top 200 in Google. Domain B ranked #1 in Google, but was #135 in Yahoo.
Based on these results, it’s obvious that Google and Yahoo are doing something different.
The report was pretty lengthy, but I’ll sum up the important stuff for you.
1- Both sites had similar domain ages and similar keyword use in their title tags, homepage, and internal links. So both search engines worked pretty similar on that front.
2- Domain B had many more root domain links and a much higher link quality profile, which is highly favored by Google, thus it ranked #1 in Google.
3- Domain A had a much higher total count of links, most of which were only counted by Yahoo, thus it ranked #1 in Yahoo.
But WHY?
The site that Yahoo ranked #1 had a much higher total count of links because Yahoo counts the overall links pointing to the website and not just the unique count of root domains as Google does.
In fact, many of the links that Yahoo was counting came from 7 other mirrored domains owned by the same person. So the reason they aren’t ranking in Google is because Google bans that kind of activity in creating redundant content.
Our Repsonse?
Well, you could easily mirror a few domains and build a very large amount of interconnected links to impress Yahoo and get a top ranking, but doing this would most likely get you banned by Google. That’s not a very good idea considering Google is the leader in search engines.
At this point, it’s still in our best interest to cater to Google’s need by focusing on link quality, content quality and root domains (and much more). And I’m sure in some cases, doing these things will get some good rankings in Yahoo as well.
Do you have any tactics that help you rank well in both search engines? OR Do you think ranking #1 in yahoo with ease is worth getting banned in Google? Comment Below!
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Jay Gumbs
08. Aug, 2010
Nothing is worth getting banned in Google. I’d rather be ranking poorly in both search engines (which gives me a chance to improve), than to rank highly in one and be banned the other.
Kenneth Holland
22. Jul, 2010
I see very similar results for the last year or so Ryan. I think Yinghoo (Like that??) will be changing their algorithm in the near future because it’s too easy to game…just a prediction.
Ryan Deiss
22. Jul, 2010
@Kenneth Holland, Yinghoo, nicely done
I think that’s a safe precition, it’s one thing they need to step it up on.
Mirroring sites and like activity is actually against Yahoo policy, but they aren’t too tight on it apparently.