Optimizing for Yahoo: The Next Big Thing - Yahoo and Google SERPs: Subpages, Main Domain, and PageRank

Sub-pages vs. Main Domain

Interestingly, while the index pages optimized for a certain keyword using link text and all other techniques sometimes fail to make it in the top 10 SERPs, the internal pages of the same domain still manage to make the grade and rank in at least in the top 20 positions. Here's how it works:

The algorithm first singles out the pages with most links pointing to them with appropriate link text (index pages in most cases). Next, it checks the keyword density (primarily in title and body text) of the pages filtered on the basis of the links and link text. Now, if the keyword density of the page is sufficient to satisfy a certain criteria, or if it can get the better of the other pages in terms of keyword density, then the page grabs a rank in line with the links and link text it has got. Otherwise, the algorithm locates another internal page of the same domain, which may not have been optimized using internal or external link text, but does have the sufficient keyword density in body text and title to appease Yahoo’s thirst for keywords on a page.

PageRank: The Old Recipe

PageRank being the exclusive Google trademark, it doesn’t now make much of a difference in Yahoo SERPs whether the PageRank of a web page is an impressive 8 or a paltry 3. Although the significance of PageRank in Google algo itself has stepped down significantly, it can still determine the fates of two pages at Google with strikingly different PageRank values. That’s no longer the case with Yahoo SERPs, and one can now comfortably overlook that green bar atop the browser window if the target is the Yahoo SERPs alone.

Conclusion

So the recipe to send a site rocketing high in Yahoo SERPs is this: get plenty of backlinks with appropriate link text, and then inundate the recipient page with keywords in the body text, title, alt tags, and wherever possible. Most probably, you’d have the feather in you cap of having your website thrive at Yahoo!