Any similarity between Yahoo/MSN and Google?

[fluke]

here is something i have been wondering about for a couple of days now - sometimes when i have read about the sandbox effect (for google) i have noticed that it will be said something along the lines of " the sites in question can be enjoying great rankings on Yahoo/MSN and other engines - for particular keywords - but are buried deep in the rankings in Google.

Now i have always thought about Yahoo being quite fundamentally different to google - in terms of a) Yahoo's bias towards a higher keyword density and b) Googles heavy weighting of incoming links - these two things being what i consider as the main differences, and differences that will very often give very different results.

Are Google and Yahoo sufficently similar to be able to say - "if you are in the sandbox in google, and are no.1 in Yahoo for the same term then if you just wait - (and maybe get a few links while doing so - sooner or later you will be no.1 (or close) on Google?

Or are the similarities between Yahoo/MSN and Google too different to be able to make any sort of prediction such as that?

[Spyware Remover]

To (somewhat) answer your question...........

There are some basic similarities. I have found that if you optimize for Google, IN GENERAL, you will do well in the others.


With that being said, fundamentaly, your assumption about Yahoo anf Google are true, but only if you get enough decent quality links.

AJ
Spyware Remover
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[schlottke]

I'd say Yahoo! and MSN are hundreds of times easier to place well in then Google.

[nadlay]

Because the volume of traffic from Yahoo and MSN is so low, I never bother about them.

[ImVickieB]

I've found that the ability to rank well for the terms associated with my sites is pretty even across all three sites. Having said that, MSN and Yahoo are still pretty plagued by the super spammers with javascript redirects like google used to be.

[schlottke]

"Because the volume of traffic from Yahoo and MSN is so low, I never bother about them."

Yahoo and MSN combine for around 20-50% of search traffic- depending upon where you get your information.

[TopSpin]

Promotion is promotion - whether it's in print, broadcast, SEO, or word-of-mouth advertising. Ultimately, the success of any promotional campaign is the combined 'mix' - Google AND Yahoo AND MSN AND .... etc...

There was another post on Digital Point where someone mentioned the 'addiction' of SEO - that (as webmasters) we become so focused on the competition for winning that 'spot'. I would agree and can see where so much time and energy is spent on achieving those positions, but I can only imagine that being #4 in Google, Yahoo and MSN is better than being #1 in Google and being burried in the other two.

[fluke]

yes i agree that yahoo/msn is many times easier to get better rankings than google -
currently i am ranking really well for my 5 main keywords on MSN and Yahoo (top ten for all) and have many no.1s in Yahoo.co.uk/MSN.co.uk.

as i am currently ranking 250th in google for my main keyword - 95% of my SE traffic comes from MSN/Yahoo.

[david_sakh]

google puts more of an emphasis on the bulk of backlinks than Yahoo does.

That's one fundamental difference I can think of.

[SENewbie]

Although I get the most traffic from Google, Yahoo and MSN have really sent me a lot more over the past couple months then they ever did before. I used to get hardly any from Yahoo/MSN and honestly I don't know what the difference is now then what it was then. I would say just stick to building backlinks and the rankings will come, one way or another.