SEO Report – Google VS Yahoo VS Bing

When it comes to optimizing websites, many webmasters concentrate on Google optimization – and for all the right reasons, as Google is the most used search engine in the world.. However, Bing and Yahoo can also send a considerable amount of traffic to you, and therefore it is important that you make your website attractive to and in synch with other search engine algorithms as well.  By making your website friendly to both search engines you will be able to get better rankings across the board, and snag traffic form multiple sources.

Google in general has the most comprehensive set of guidelines for SEO. They are looked to as the standard, so when you optimize your websites for Google you automatically satisfy many of the requirements of most of the other search engines. However, each search engine will have their own unique approach to rating websites despite the common elements between them, so learning the quirks can help you rank the very best in as many engines as possible.

Yahoo has both free listing as well as paid listing. According to the Yahoo guidelines:

In Yahoo! Search, paid Sponsor Results are visually differentiated, clearly labeled, and presented separately from other search results… Web Results might also include listings submitted via “pay-for-review” or “pay-for-inclusion” programs… The Yahoo! Directory also includes sites that have paid Yahoo! for an expedited review and consideration for inclusion in the Yahoo! Directory. These sites have been submitted via the Yahoo! Directory Submit program. The sites are required to comply with the same editorial quality standards as any other Directory submission… The Directory Sponsor Listings is a program that lets commercial web sites that are already listed in certain Yahoo! Directory commercial categories be featured in the “Sponsor Listings” module in that Directory category. These sites are also highlighted in the regular alphabetic list of sites.

Google  is a completely free search engine. It does not have any paid inclusions – they offer paid sponsored listings in the form of Google Adwords, but these have nothing to do with the algorithm or rankings; indexing and placements depends on the quality of your website.

Google uses the concept of pagerank to assess the importance of websites, which is unique among search engines. Pagerank is assigned based on various factors and one of the deciding factors is the number of links a website has; if your website is well linked and has a good number of one-way links, then the chances are that you will secure a good pagerank and in turn a good search ranking. Optimizing your website for Google should include both on-page optimization, and off-page optimization through a solid  link building strategy.

Yahoo and as far as can be seen Bing,  emphasize on-page optimization and don’t regard links as important as Google, so don’t neglect on page optimization. Another area of variance between search engines is the meta tags. Google has moved away from the concept of meta tags long time ago, but many think that Bing and Yahoo still pay attention to meta tags so stay on the safe side and pay attention to meta tags as well, optimizing them correctly.

Google  is content oriented search engine. Your website content plays a tremendous role in making your website relevant for a search that is made. Not only do you need good links, you must make sure you have keyword rich content and regularly update your website’s content so that Google bot will regularly visit your site and update your listing so you can keep moving up the rankings.

In summary, you should attempt to to cover all possible areas of SEO so that you can satisfy all search engines, from Google to Yahoo and Bing and beyond – there are plenty of even smaller engines that can give you good traffic!  When you use total optimization on all fronts, you will automatically perform well with these search engines as well.