Yahoo SEO - Search Engine Optimization

Yahoo Optimization

Optimizing your site for Yahoo isn't as difficult as Google but it still poses a challenge due to how yahoo ranks their results. Yahoo results are largely determined by $$$$. Paid inclusion, the newest money maker in Yahoo's eyes. Deceitful to the public? Yes. The results that you think are natural or organic are actually being paid for. That being said you can't just deny them based on pure philosophy, they can send a large amount of traffic and sales.

Yahoo's algorithm, we believe, is largely thought to be more language based than Google and therefore rewards variety. Off-page factors are important, but yahoo seems to rely heavily (more than google at least) on on-page factors to rank their results. So here are the things to remember for yahoo. Also see our On-Page Optimization guide.

H1 Tags - The main topic of your page should be your H1 tag, the closer to the top of the page, the better.
Title Tags - 2-3 of your main keywords should appear in your Title Tag per page. Make sure each page has unique title tags. The first words of your page title count the most.
Bold, Underlined, and Italic Text - Don't overdue it, but try and utilize these features throughout your website. One of each will suffice per page.
Keywords in the URL - Yahoo seems to like hyphenated URL's, for now at least.
Keywords in the filename - Yahoo also loves keywords in the filename of the interior pages of your site.
Meta Keywords - Almost a non-existent dinosaur of search ranking factors. Meta tags are still used mostly by MSN and Yahoo. Don't expect much from them, but you can still use them to adjust your keyword density.
Alt Image Tags - Mainly used for the visually impaired. Alt tags can be used to increase or decrease the keyword density of a page. Some say it carries a lower weight in Yahoo's algorithm.
Keyword Density - Yahoo likes keyword rich content. Don't pack it in. Keep it at reasonable levels. 7%-10% is great. A good rule of thumb. Write the content naturally and then use the tags above to adjust the density.
Keyword Stemming - Yahoo's algorithm is more sensitive to stemming than that of Google's. Stemming is the use of different forms of a word. This can give webmasters more freedom when writing their content.
Link Anchor Text - Just like all other search engines, Yahoo will rank you higher for a specific keyword if you have those keywords in the link or anchor text of the inbound link. Probably the most important ranking factor for all search engines. If you have a choice. Try to get as many variations as possible.
Inbound Links from Varying IP's - Get as many as you can but make sure the links you get aren't largely based on one set of IP addresses. In other words, if you have a bunch of sites only link them together where it makes sense. Yahoo is notorious for taking down sets of IP's at a time. Themed related links seem to get the most value.
Strong Internal Link Structure - Yahoo loves sites that are easy to crawl and thematically related to the content of the receiving page. So create a site that allows SE spiders to jump in and out easily. Internal links can become very powerful with the right amount of inbound links.
Smaller Sites - Google loves large established sites. With yahoo you can get away with a smaller site just remember to use the tips above.
Yahoo Directory - Yahoo gives a good amount of weight to a site if it's listed in its directory. So pay the $300, but don't expect much traffic from it. Most people will never see it.
Original Content - Don't copy text from other sites. Take a look at the competition for ideas but stay away from copying even whole sentences. SE's are cracking down on duplicate content and you'll be penalized severely.
Note - Yahoo is always a step or two behind google. It won't be long before their algorithm converges and becomes similar. Don't take it as a fact, just looking ahead.

Submitting Your Site To Yahoo

Not necessary. It takes from 6-8 weeks for this to work. A faster way to get your site indexed is to get an inbound link from another site. A simple email will do.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization Main