Yahoo’s New Rules
Ian Lurie Mar 22 2004
With Yahoo’s new search engine comes a new set of rules. In case you didn’t know, Yahoo no longer uses Google to drive web search results. They’re using their own search engine, and they’ve combined it with their anti-spam technology to really crack down on sites that use anything resembling questionable tactics.
If you:
- Duplicate the same content across multiple sites.
- Use a lot of flamboyant language on your site (like ‘Great deals here!’).
- Use other tricks like hidden frames or content.
Then you will likely run afoul of their new rules. Be especially aware of duplicate content, or anything that even resembles duped content. Rumor has it that Yahoo is now inspecting all top-10 results sites, by hand, for duped or almost-duped content. That means that just changing a few words here and there won’t help you stay legit.
You can read this article to learn a bit more. A lot of this is conjecture, but beware – Yahoo is now a sizable chunk of Internet search traffic. Can you afford to gamble?
Ian Lurie
CEO
Ian Lurie is CEO and founder of Portent Inc. He's recorded training for Lynda.com, writes regularly for the Portent Blog and has been published on AllThingsD, Forbes.com and TechCrunch. Ian speaks at conferences around the world, including SearchLove, MozCon, SIC and ad:Tech. Follow him on Twitter at portentint. He also just published a book about strategy for services businesses: One Trick Ponies Get Shot, available on Kindle. Read More