Optimizing for Yahoo: The Next Big Thing - Yahoo and Google SERPs: Keywords and Link Text
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Although Inktomi has not digressed much from the existing Google algorithm in formulating their own, the new Yahoo/Inktomi algorithm is not exactly a canned version of the Google’s, so the niceties that draw the wedge between the two algorithms need to be pinpointed to decipher exactly what works and what doesn’t for great rankings at Yahoo.
Keyword Density
When it comes to the significance of keyword density, it appears that Yahoo has a marked affinity for more keywords on the page when compared to Google. The analysis brings out the trend that most high-ranking pages generally have a larger number of keywords--primarily in the body text and title--than the pages that trail behind in SERPs. And interestingly, while the most high-ranking pages have an average overall keyword density of 9-10%, not all the high-ranking pages have that much keyword density; some have only 2-3%. This, in fact, is the upshot of the role played by backlinks, as will be explained later. Below is the breakup of various on-page factors and their respective keyword densities that make up the overall keyword density of a page:
- Title - 15 to 20%. (This is one of the most momentous factors in the current Yahoo algorithm.)
- Body Text - 2.5-3%
- Meta Tags - 2-3%
Keywords in the Link Text
Link/Anchor Text still remains the buzzword, even for Yahoo optimization, though Yahoo apparently treats backlinks and link text in a different manner than Google. The statistics gathered reveal that most pages ranking well for an ‘allinanchor:keyword’ search don’t always top the charts on doing a generic keyword search. This demonstrates that Yahoo doesn’t give exceeding importance to link text, contrary to Google, where ‘allinanchor:keyword’ and generic searches still yield somewhat identical results with a little change in the order. As stated earlier, good link building and appropriate link text need to be further supplemented with copious keywords in title and body text.
Next: Yahoo and Google SERPs: Subpages, Main Domain, and PageRank >>
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