Yahoo is not the best, but is Google?

Um... I have been thinking this one for a long time.

Google seems to be a very strong search engine, however, the ranking you get depends hugely on the in-bound links you have and the anchor text you used (off page optimization?) What if there's someone who developed a really interesting site, user friendly, a lot of useful information, professional, but the web master simply can't market the site? I guess Yahoo and MSN will still pick up this site pretty quickly... However, not with Google... It looks to me like Google has been 'too perfect' to be fair to everyone, especially to those who can't do SEO at all...

I am actually quite thankful to MSN, Yahoo, and AltraVista, cuz all our traffic came from them. I spent a lot of time writing quality content instead of mucking around with link building, and the site got picked up by most search engines, except Google. I am thinking if I should still stick with quality content, or should I shift my focus to SEO... The later one might bring me more traffic, but perhaps not more customers... since the info quality won't be as good.

Just my humble opinion please correct me if I am wrong...

 

That is one of the problem now... webmasters now don't care the content of their site but focusing on SEO especially for google who's claiming the number one search engine on the planet, which i guess true.

 

It was always a problem - including before Google - when people would tune for Altavista or whoever.

It's a toughie. I have one quality site that is doing VERY well by Google, but I also have two more that aren't. It largely depends what field you're in and how long you've been out there, but if they can't find you, how are they to link to you?

I will say this for Google - regardless of linking, if you give them a year, you usually get a good listing for a good site. I can't say that for Yahoo's directory! or Dmoz! (Though Dmoz is probably better than Yahoo Directory in that regard.)

 

I share the frustration. There's time when a sudden change in algo sees quality content site goes down the drain, especialy new ones.
I am a firm believer in building quality sites, but when i see stupid pages rank higher because of artificial backlinks and very creative SEO optimization tricks, I decided to do optimise first and create quality content later.
Sad .. but that's the way the game is played .. i guess

 

Who ever said advertising should be free?

 

You should be careful about the number of IBLs........OBLs count VERY strongly and the balance is not where you think it might be....for example I have one site that I have never optimised [purposely] with anchor text, however, it has in excess of 8700 pages that all link mulitple OBLs, but, 66 IBLs with a little anchor. It ranks 110 for seo and if I was to up the IBL a little I think it would do much better.
It only has about 5 "real" pages the rest are dynamic....

 

Here you go... I think this is kind of the answer. Things are getting more and more commercial and it won't be as easy to promote a site as before by just writing good content. However, I doubt if this what Google was intending to do. For start, I guess they just tried to prevent people from getting high ranking by doing dirty tricks, since they believed 'links won't lie'. The consequence is, innocent people are also having trouble getting good ranks.

In another words, Google is helping the 'rich guys' indirectly, in some way

 

That's exactly what they ARE trying to do. Ever hear of Adwords?

They've said many times that they're trying to separate commercial and non-commercial listings when possible. They say that 85% (I think that's the %) of the searches they get are for "research" purposes.


Great news for good SEO's!!

 

MSN and Yahoo are playing catch up - I think MSN should buy yahoo now
to rival Google...

but for now Google is king and so I have to copy-cat those spammers to try to top them in my numero uno Keywords...

 

And this is exactly why I agree with the OP.

Several months ago I switched to using Yahoo for search (as an end user), and for at least my areas of interest, experiencing less spam site results.

For my web sites with my hand crafted content, Yahoo has rewarded me. Even after a year, Google has me buried DEEP down in the results to the point of uselessness.

What Google is telling me, is that I need to focusing on SEO rather than quality content. This is very bad imho.

Not saying any new here, just my experience.

 

Why can't you do both? 'Works for me!

 

What percentage of time do you recommend I take away from writing content do you suggest? And as you see I would be removing some of my focus on content in order to do seo - and that is my point.

I was comparing Yahoo and Google. As far as the concept of "creating good content and letting the seach engine do the rest" Yahoo has worked far better, at least in my case.

Not that I don't agree with you from a practicle point of view though

 

I will use google anyday over yahoo.

 

That is exactly what I am experiencing too. Because the product that we are trying to market are not those of fierce competition ones, I find Yahoo and MSN treat me very nice.

Also I am noticing the focus of Yahoo and Google are a bit different. For example, if you do a search on 'new zealand math private tutor auckland', which is very likely to be what a person enters when he/she wants to find a math tutor in his/her local area, the results that Google displays are very disappointing. It couldn't really help the person to find a math tutor at all!

However if you do that on Yahoo, the site came to the top is www.tutorshome.co.nz, which is a website that helps people finding tutors.

This example seems to be a very typical case where Yahoo is more helpful and more 'humanized' in helping people finding the websites they really want.

 

I personally believe it should be the contrary

 

I agree that G seems to return to the site with the most lousy links - as if the process was more about effort in appearing good than in actually being good. But on the other hand, the new msn is showing a lot number one rankings that are in no way an authority on the topic, and that was the original idea behind IBL weighting. I am confident that they will get better - I think they are headed down a very good road. But I think it is equally easy to be frustrated these days and each SE's results seem to lend credence to approach of the other. It depends what you're searching for, and it's too bad the vast majority of searchers don't know that.

 

I recently hear more and more people around me saying Yahoo returns better results than Google does. They are nowhere near SE gurus but these are the voices from normal internet users.

Yahoo sometimes shows some smart results... I was once thinking if Yahoo review each site manually and the reviewer simply gives a rating to each site just like Google PR. I know it sounds crazy but sometimes I do feel this way... Like Yahoo picked up some good and new sites very quickly and give them the 'fair' ranking even at the stage when these sites don't have a lot of inbound links. Isn't this great?

 

I must question what makes someone an authority? The amount of money they have to spend on their website (i.e. corporations) or the amount of time they have invested in placing the exact number of required keywords in the exact position required to display as an authority and then spend hours on end creating backlinks.

Do a search for any one word keyword and i'm sure the top 10 "authority" sites are exactly what you're looking for. NOT.

My homepage is Yahoo now. Sure it's not the best out there, but I'd rather support them than Google at this point in time. I have a big issue with companies trying to be GOD and deciding who gets to make money and who gets to lose money on the net.

 

I would rather not waste my time sorting through spam, even if I am supporting the company who supports me...speaking of that, by using Google I am furthering their profits when in turn will further my profits once they have competition...I knew there was a reason i loved Google

Brandon

 

Ahh the loyal adsense follower. I totally understand your stance. But you see... it's a monopoly... The program is not that good in actuallity... but there is nothing even close. Once we see Yahoo and MSN bring out their own offerings, I'm sure you will be jumping the big Google ship like everyone else. Who wants to deal with a company that has a god complex? Nobody. But if that's the only option you have.. then your stuck.