What the Bing & Yahoo Search Alliance Means for Your SEO & PPC

Microsoft and Yahoo have begun rolling out the next phase of their Search Alliance: the paid search transition. By the end of October, they plan to have transitioned all Yahoo advertisers to Microsoft’s adCenter and for all Yahoo paid search to be Bing-powered. This follows their recent organic search transition on August 17, 2010 to Bing-powered organic search results for all Yahoo users.

What does the Bing & Yahoo paid search transition mean for you?

• Your PPC ads will appear across two search engines, but you’ll only have to develop campaigns for one ad platform, Microsoft’s adCenter.
• All Yahoo advertisers must transition their accounts to Microsoft’s adCenter.
• Yahoo will support both companies’ premium advertisers.
• Microsoft will support both companies’ self-service advertisers and AdCenter’s automated auction process will continue to determine all PPC rates.
• There’s no change to your display ads, whether you’re advertising through Yahoo or Microsoft.

So, what does this all mean?

Are you going to show up on both Yahoo and Bing with one campaign? Yes, you’ll manage all your campaigns from AdCenter, yet your reach will be across two search engines: Yahoo & Bing, for both organic and paid search. You only have to focus on developing PPC campaigns for one ad platform.

What does the Bing-Yahoo organic search transition mean for you?

• Bing’s algorithm will determine your search engine optimization rankings across Bing’s and Yahoo’s SERPs.
• While Yahoo’s SERPs are now using Bing-powered results, they’re owned and enhanced by Yahoo.

What does the Bing & Yahoo search deal mean for your SEO and paid search strategy?

1. Do I need to pay attention to Yahoo and Bing, or should I just focus on Google? By joining efforts, Bing and Yahoo now have a nearly 28% combined search market share. As both companies grow in the search marketing arena, marketers can’t afford not to pay attention to both.
2. Do I need to have a different SEO plan for Google and Bing? You should only be using one SEO strategy. Most businesses don’t have enough time or manpower to manage two different SEO strategies, and in terms of cost-benefit, you won’t gain a whole lot by separately optimizing for Google and Bing.
3. How different are Google’s and Bing’s algorithms? There are differences: Google focuses more on links and link authority; Yahoo and Bing tend to focus more on content. Google and Bing responds to basic SEO strategies. Following your basic SEO strategies is essential for ranking well. Focus on building a solid keyword strategy, getting links, etc.
4. How well does Yahoo and Bing convert compared to Google? As they announced in their SMX presentation at SMX East 2010, the Bing & Yahoo Search Alliance claims that they offer marketers two highly converting search engines. We’ve found no evidence in Optify’s marketing analytics data, however, that Yahoo or Bing convert better than Google. We will keep track of the data and update if we see any change.
5. What should I be tracking? Monitor your rankings from both Google and Bing. If you’re running a PPC campaign, you should be watching your conversions. Previously, businesses had to track their keyword rankings and PPC conversions across Google, Yahoo and Bing. Now, you just have to monitor Google and Bing.
6. How does the UI for Bing’s and Yahoo’s SERPs differ? Will this impact how I rank? The algorithm for both Bing and Yahoo is the same, but the enhanced search results (maps, news, images, video) on both search engines can change the ranking of your results. Note: In the example below, you’ll see how using the same search query “coffee seattle” in both Bing and Yahoo renders different map results and listings. The ranking of the regular search results below the maps section and aside from all other enhanced results, however, remains the same for both sets of SERPs.

• For example, Yahoo has started using an interactive display at the top of their SERPs (mainly for popular searches right now), which adjusts depending on your query with a range of panes you can expand and click-through, such as Twitter, Video, Images, Albums, Stories, Events, etc. Additionally, they’ve included a horizontal pane that you can click through to see different trending topics, which may be relevant to your search.

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7. What does this mean for my social media strategy? You need to use social media more and more and be versatile in the formats that you use throughout your content. Blog posts, for instance, should contain video and images. Once you’ve published to your blog, make sure to link to your post from your Twitter handle and Facebook brand page. As we demonstrated above, a good SEO strategy isn’t enough to rank well on SERPs anymore. Getting “Likes” on your content and links across social networks is becoming more important as the Web moves to a more social search. For tips on leveraging search through social media, check out our blog post on How the New Twitter Can Help You Generate More Business Leads.

Interested in more Optify content?

For more information on SEO and social media, be sure to check out our recent blog posts on Google’s Realtime Search, the launch of Google Instant and a look at how Google Instant has impacted users’ search behavior so far.