Yahoo Update – Search Assist

Yahoo is joining the party with its new “Search Assist“. Google’s Universal Search and to an extent the new Microsoft Live Search have been intermixing the SERP’s with more than just web page results. There are two ways to look at this trend, from a user standpoint and from a SEO standpoint. For the most part as a user I like Universal Search, especially with the added functionality of personalized searching through iGoogle. From an SEO viewpoint I like all this because it validates what I have been telling my clients for years “get with Web 2.0, Social Network Marketing, multimedia and not just SEO”. Read Search Engine Optimization and Social Network Marketing for my philosophy on Web 2.0 and SEO.

How Yahoo’s Search Assist Will Change The SERP’s

By following in the footsteps of Google’s Universal Search, Yahoo is giving more credence to Social Network Marketing and multimedia content, as well as giving more weight to user generated content than it ever has before. Read my post The Changing Face Of Google – Universal Search Explained for more details on what Universal Search is.

While I do cover usability in this blog, it is from the webmaster standpoint. How to best get your site set up for users and lead conversion. That being said, this post is going to cover how Yahoo’s Search Assist is going to effect your placement, and what you can do to take advantage of it. Like I said with Universal Search, if you do things like me, in other words you blog and have multimedia going on like videos and podcasts you will be fine. These new Web 2.0 centered searches are looking for fresh content sources, and reward sites that put out fresh content with increased weight in Yahoo and PR in Google (if they ever get around to updating page rank that is).

OK so what is Search Assist and why should you care? I think the biggest effect Search Assist will have is on how users search on Yahoo. When using Yahoo’s Search Assist, the top row of advertisements or sponsored results are in some cases gone! The natural SERP’s are at the top and the ads are on the right. This is going to appeal to a lot of experienced searchers who will avoid paid listings like the plague. I have found that drilling down into the concepts or links within the Search Assist will eliminate the top ads. My feeling is this is a glitch and they will get those ads back in. My beef with Yahoo has always been the prominence of paid or sponsor links in the SERP’s. I personally don’t trust sites that are either so new that they aren’t in the organic SERP’s, or that are older but don’t have any links to them. That doesn’t give me a warm and fuzzy feeling especially when I’m looking to exchange money online.

The graphic below is a search for “data recovery” without the Search Assist activated:

The red arrows show the tab that you use to activate Search Assist as well as the non-paid organic SERP’s location without the Search Assist. The tab opens the window which supposedly helps figure out your “intent”. That is what all the search engine people are calling their intuitive search updates. They think they can glean a users intent by certain keywords and possible search history like Google does in the Personalized Search.

If Yahoo feels that you are having problems finding what you are looking for, the Search Assist box will “automagically” appear. That isn’t my term, blame Tim Mayer on the Yahoo Search Blog where they talk about Search Assist. Below is a screenshot of the Search Assist in action for “hard drive data recovery”:

Where the link finger is, that’s the new Yahoo Search Assist. The fact that it is “exploring concepts” and placing media related and user written content in its search matrix, is very good for sites that embrace Web 2.0 and SEO. Also note that the organic content is at the top and no ads appear, except on the right hand side. There are usually at least 4 prominent ads for that term, so the organic listings are now in full view!

Using Search Assist Output when Your Blog Is Part Of A Website And Not A Stand Alone Site

If your blog is part of an existing domain then you have an opportunity to really take advantage of these changes and use them to your advantage. The key is to plan your content properly so your posts are linking in to the home page of your primary site with your top keywords in the anchor text. When you are blogging about a subject covered by sub pages to your home page, then link to them in your posts. If you are unsure of what I mean by sub pages, read my post on Website Linking Strategies which explains links and pass through ratio (now called “link juice” by the masses).

By using a foundation of marketing pages on your core website, you can use the blog to promote those pages with posts. In return you can also link to your posts from the website pages. The best solution is to actually have your blogs feed appear on your foundation pages. I use CaRP Evolution to turn RSS to HTML as well as adding XML-RPC and ping services into the header of static non-blog pages. I have been testing these tactics on a couple of websites and so far the results have been excellent.

By incorporating dynamic content into static pages, and using your blog as a promotional tool, your site will stand a much better chance of appearing in SERP’s that are flavored with Yahoo’s Search Assist and on Google’s Universal Search.

Using Search Assist Output when Your Blog Is A Stand Alone Website

If a blog is your entire website, read my article WordPress SEO Promoting WordPress Pages with Posts for more insight on using solid SEO strategies for building foundation pages within your blog for promotion. These tactics along with the inherent RSS, ping and XML-RPC in WordPress will insure that your site gets the exposure within these assisted search tools from Live, Yahoo and Google. Obviously you will still need incoming links and content to keep the spiders coming to your site and ranking it high in the SERP’s.

Looking at Yahoo Search Assist from a site owner standpoint, there isn’t a lot you can do other than maintain good practices to offset the changing search engine indexes. By using all the tools that WordPress has to offer, or keeping your static site updated and fresh, you will at least have a fighting chance to gain more exposure. Embrace social network marketing so all your traffic source eggs are not in one basket!