SEO Junkie

Today, RustyBrick wrote about a WMW thread titled Yahoo - Where to Start with Link SEO. The thread is focused on how to build links that Yahoo! would find important.

He further pointed out:

I’ll summarize some of the points, but the thread is worth a read…

Get ODP/Dmoz links
Get related directory links
Trade links with related but not competing businesses
Send out articles for other sites to syndicate (include links in them back to you)
Use Yahoo!’s Site Explorer Tool
Link bait!
Get on the good side of bloggers
KEY: Try to get the attention of local media

Now, don’t these all work at also Google & MSN? Or maybe not…

That’s very true. It is a known fact today that some of the links that works wonder in one search engine may not be as important in the eyes of the other. For example; site wide links still helps in achieving top rankings in MSN Search but Google discount them and they are useless.

According to TBO.com, Yahoo! has just had a major re-design that is available for beta-testing at http://www.yahoo.com/preview.

Yahoo Inc.’s Web site is unveiling a new look today as the Internet powerhouse strives to remain the world’s most popular online destination and strengthen its advertising appeal.

Dan Rosensweig, Yahoo’s chief operating officer said

Our goal is to have the best page on the Internet. We feel like this [redesign] does something great for everybody.

I think it is much better than the old design in terms of ‘look & feel’ and functionality as Richard MacManus says on his blog.

According to a WMW thread titled May 11, 2006: Yahoo Update?, some people are experiencing a yoyo effect in Yahoo! search results.

RustyBrick also mentioned on his blog

The deal is that not too many other forums are discussing this behavior, so it is hard to isolate if this is happening at a large scale or within a small niche of themes.

Yahoo! Official Search Blog hasn’t confirmed an update so far, it should be usual flux at the very most.

Over at WebmasterWorld forums, a member started a thread titled Yahoo having a problem with RSS handling? He pointed out that he no longer saw any sites with the “Add To My Yahoo” and “View As Xml” links in the SERPs.

As a test, do any random search, you will likely not see a single RSS feed listed in the serps. Furthermore, the sites that normally do have RSS feeds are not even listed (at least the sites that have previously been recognized by Yahoo as having a feed with the aforementioned “add to my yahoo” link by it’s listing). Absolutely incredible.

He further said:

Maybe Yahoo has decided to stop showing the “add to my yahoo” and “view as XML” links in the serps. The downside to this is that the page titles will now revert back to the Directory titles, which may affect CTR (if Yahoo displayed your RSS feed, your meta title was used, not the directory title).

If Yahoo has intentinally removed the listing enhancements, what remains inexplicable is why some pages that once had the enhancements have disappeared from the serps all together.

The discussion is still going on at WebmasterWorld forums.

According to a DigitalPoint thread titled New Feature From Yahoo Search, Yahoo is incorporating a new feature named Buzz Popular Searches into their search. When you do a search for anything, you will notice a little box in the upper right corner. It will constantly refresh with most popular searches ranked from 1 to 12.

It looks like one of those tests and currently works in all major browsers. For me, it is working on Internet Explorer and FireFox.

RustyBrick pointed out on his blog Search Engine Roundtable that

The Yahoo! Buzz Index “is the percentage of Yahoo! users searching for that subject on a given day, multiplied by a constant to make the number easier to read.” But what does the listed searches in the buzz index have to do with my search query on “yahoo?” I have no idea!

I sure hope this new feature will help SEOs in keyword research and analysis.