The Top 16 SEO Tips From A Yahoo Insider
Recently in the private forums Rich Schefren provides for his Strategic Profits clients there was a discussion started about search engine optimization.
The topic initially began with two questions. The first was about whether non-Google search engines penalize sites that advertise with Google AdWords (false) and the importance of having an “aged domain” and how it relates to number one rankings.
I became interested when Darryl Peddle, who claimed employment at Yahoo!, entered the discussion and offered some great SEO advice. I asked Darryl for permission to republish the tips from the discussion, which I provide below interspersed with my own opinions based on my SEO studies and experiments. Darryl also has a site called Rank Study.
SEO Advice From A Yahoo Insider
This from Darryl regarding the first question about advertising on AdWords and the possibility of penalties from other search engines as a result:
As an employee at Yahoo I can tell you that advertising on Google will in no way affect your rankings in Yahoo… that’s completely inaccurate. Why would we reduce our quality by dropping relevant sites and advertisers?
This regarding aged domains:
Regarding the aging domain. This is information that is available from the latest Google patent. And yes domain aging is becoming a solid way of determining a sites long term value and quality score. It is just one of many (100+ factors), but it’s becoming more important nowadays.
Top 16 SEO Tips
Here are some tips from Darryl, followed by my own opinion and feedback.
Conducting Competitive Intelligence Using Search Status: A Search Extension for Firefox
If you read Rich Schefren’s latest free e-book – The Final Chapter (aff) – you will have come across a link he provided to a great tool called Search Status for the Firefox browser.
You can download Search Status here
It’s a neat little Firefox extension that provides you with some handy shortcuts for things like PageRank, AlexaRank, backlinks, keyword density, link reports, whois and a bunch of other search engine marketing related tools.
Rich mentions this tool in his section of the Final Chapter as a resource for conducting competitive intelligence. You can use it to find which sites are linking to competitor sites so you can find out their likely JV partners, affiliates and traffic sources, which is valuable information. Rich had discussed some great points in the e-book about performing research on your competitors and I have to admit he takes it to a new level, I never thought to do some of things he suggests.
Personally I very often use backlink checks and the various tools provided by Search Status when I am evaluating a site I am thinking of buying or monitoring my own sites. Having all the tools available from my browser window makes these jobs just that little bit more efficient.
If you are obsessed with backlinks, PageRank, AlexaRank, and all the other search engine metrics, this tool is a must. Thanks to Rich for bringing it to me attention.
