Yahoo is currently testing Bing powered ads, on paid search amounting to about 3% of all searches made on the Yahoo network.  Yahoo has been kind enough to provide a PDF document that outlines the key differences between the adCenter platform and the Yahoo platform.  This was released in a effort to transition advertisers smoothly to the new Microsoft adCenter, which currently is the least used of the 3 largest search engines (Google, Yahoo, & Bing).

Here are some key differences between the ad networks that you’ll need to know:

• Distributing is done on the ad group level with adCenter, but account level with Yahoo.
• Microsoft will enable the same domain blocking capabilities by the time Yahoo is transitioned over.
• Microsoft offers more (better) match types than Yahoo does, giving more control to advertisers.  Yahoo has been know to have very liberal match types which some advertisers don’t like.
• Microsoft’s keyword mapping is more normalized, so you will likely need to add more keywords to your adCenter campaigns, but it does give you more control.
• Geo-targeting isn’t very robust in adCenter, whereas Yahoo works well with this.
• Microsoft will add more negative keywords to adCenter, matching Yahoo’s current limits.
• Ad title copy length is 25 characters on adCenter, from 40 characters on Yahoo.  Titles will take a drastic cut in characters.
• Minimum bids are 5 cents on Microsoft and 1 cent on Yahoo.  This most likely won’t affect many people.

*Information found at – http://seroundtable.s3.amazonaws.com/Search-Alliance-Feature-Comparison-Guide_Premium.pdf

Do you… Yahoo?  Are you using the “decision engine“?  If you answered “yes” to either of these questions, then listen up.  If you’re like me and you use Google exclusively, but have clients that are interested in showing on Yahoo, and bing, the details below will more than likely be of much interest, and provide you with knowledge needed to stay updated on the newest developments between Yahoo and Microsoft (bing).

Here is the low down on the changes -

Organic Changes

Bing began testing search results on Yahoo in late July 2010.  Reports say as much as 25% of organic search results on Yahoo are actually powered by bing.  This means that SEO tactics targeting bing is becoming more important than ever, so while focusing on Google, don’t forget the up and coming alliance microsoft is creating.

Here are some tips for what I’ve found that bing is responsive to as far as SEO is concerned – If you have found something that bing responds well to, please comment, I’m always interested in learning more.

Title Tag: Title is the single most important piece of SEO – Every search engine uses them heavily.

Internal Linking: Bing absolutely loves internal linking, especially when the link goes to a page that has a keyword rich Title Tag.  Internal linking is often overlooked, but very important, and user friendly.

Popularity of a Link: Bing does not focus as much as other search engines on the “popularity contest” – Although bing does not currently heavily weight link popularity, it is wise to keep this within your SEO strategy to keep Google’s attention, and to keep yourself ready for any change that bing makes to their algorithm.

Domain Age: Bing seems to really put a lot of weight on domain age, this means the older you are, the higher you’ll show!

Content is King: I’ve noticed that the decision engine is very content driven, they feed like a pack of piranhas on new content (to their detriment in my opinion).  Once your content becomes “stale” you can say goodbye to your number one ranking – Remember, content really is king.

Outgoing Links: Linking out used to be something that SEO gurus didn’t want to do because you would lose your PageRank.  Worrying about PageRank is a thing of the past, so linking out (as long as it is relevant) is encouraged – Especially by bing!

In a future post I will outline some of the changes that will be made to paid search with the Microsoft-Yahoo search alliance.

Branding is something that has been around for a long time, but only recently have I consciously thought about what companies are trying to do with their product.  I think there are some key reasons why a company would need and want to effectively brand their products.

1. Branding can Deliver a Message with little effort – If its effective

2. With an effective branding campaign it can set you on top of the competition even if you product is no better than the competition – The word I’m looking for here is Credibility.

3. Motivation to buy is a key factor when a consumer chooses a product.  Why do consumers buy a Mac over a PC? Why do people purchase the Air Jordan shoe that comes out every year?

4. Emotional Attachments to the particular product being branded form, and the consumer can’t see themselves buying anything else.

5. Consumers form a certain Loyalty towards the product.  When someone attaches themself to an ipod, they can’t help but buy the iphone, ipad, & the newest mac pro.

One of the most recent branding campaigns that has caught the eye almost 4 million Americans is the swagger wagon.

Recently I have decided to create my own personal brand for Tyler Brown.  Maybe I’ll start manufacturing my own shoe, and people will pay hundreds of dollars for it!