Search Engine Optimization Techniques

Yahoo top 10 Searches for 2004

Yahoo (QUOTE: YHOO) is one of the top three search engines on internet. Yahoo started up in 1994 and is the oldest of the "directory" based search engines. In the past Yahoo directories and content were organized and listed by human editors. But starting in late 2002 Yahoo made a major shift into a crawler based content indexing. Yahoo does still offer users a "classic" way of searching for content by using the "category" links, these links are to content that has been reviewed by a human editor. Knowing who and where to place your targeting marketing is critical to effectively placing your website in the top page of a search engine. Below is a listing of the top 10 searches or queries that were done on Yahoo in 2004.

1. American Idol
2. Paris Hilton
3. Jessica Simpson
4. Britney Spears
5. Harry Potter
6. WWE
7. Usher
8. NASCAR
9. NBA
10. NFL

There are some pretty broad categories there. A quick search for "American Idol" yields almost 2.5 million results (as of January 2005). Breaking into the top 10 for a top category like that is going take some serious work and most likely the help of a professional Search engine optimization firm like Premiere Digital as well as a significant bankroll to finance your marketing effort.

One misconceptino that a lot of website owners have is that once you get to the top page for a specific keyword is that they will stay there. The Internet is constantly evolving and content is always being refreshed. If you are not refreshing your content and making sure that your site gets reindexed often, you won't be listed on the top page very long.

Advertising through Yahoo is done via a company which Yahoo aquired in 2003 called Overture (Overture was previously known as GoTo.com). Yahoo operates what it calls a paid inclusion service. Companies who are selling commercial products and services pay a fee in order to be listed in its commercial crawler based results. Non-commercial content does not require a fee to be included.