Yahoo users search much differently than Google users?

[Anita]

I have about 30 keywords/phrases that all list me at or near #1 on both Google and Yahoo for my humor site (Say No to Crack (http://www.saynotocrack.com/)). However, both Yahoo and Google return a huge difference in # of visitors.

For example, if you type my site name into Google or Yahoo, I come up #1 (shouldn't be surprising). From Google, I get ~30 people per week who type this in. From Yahoo ~1. Since both Yahoo and Google receive about the same # of users per day, my only guess is that the average Googler searches much different than the average Yahoo user.

Any thoughts? And if they are vastly different, any ideas on how to get more traffic from Yahoo?

Thanks,
Anita

[mad4]

Google Search gets 10x more traffic that Yahoo Search. Most people on Yahoo don't search.

[Anita]

Google Search gets 10x more traffic that Yahoo Search. Most people on Yahoo don't search.

Ah, didn't realize that ... my #s show a 10-20X difference, so I guess that makes sense. If this is the case, why do people even spend time optimizing for Yahoo or MSN?

[letsjoy]

yes there's less alot traffic from yahoo on same keyword...also a have that experince

[mad4]

If this is the case, why do people even spend time optimizing for Yahoo or MSN?

Because they give results in 3 months and google takes 12 months + for a new site. :)

Essentially all 3 are the same except Google can judge and weight natural links higher and MSN likes a few sitewide links.

[Anita]

Because they give results in 3 months and google takes 12 months + for a new site. :)

Really? Google crawled my site within 4 hours of me posting it, and I was getting 10-20 visits from Google searchers within a day of launch. There was no landing page before this either, it was a completely new URL/site.

Yahoo, on the other hand, took close to 2 weeks to crawl my site (didn't touch it until I was listed on slashdot and fark). Even then, I didn't see many visits until just the past week or so (3 months after launch).

[mad4]

If you want to rank for something like "car insurance" it takes over 12 months.

[ravianz]

Google no doubt takes longer than MSN or Yahoo in most of case atleast according to my own experience!

[Hiops]

Why is that difference?

[sqeeze]

Why is that difference?

Because Google has more complicated ranking mechanism and more demanding conditions that must be reached before site gets to high position in SERPs.