The Microsoft-Yahoo Alliance Explained
One year ago, Yahoo and Microsoft announced an alliance where Microsoft/Bing’s search results would be used across both engines. We wanted to take a moment to discuss the impact in the world of search as well as how the changes will affect your SEO and PPC programs.
1. Impact on Search
The partnership allows Yahoo to focus on developing itself as a portal while providing the Yahoo/MSN alliance with a more significant piece of the search marketing pie in an effort to compete with Google, the dominant player in search. All Yahoo search results (both paid and natural) will be MSN-driven, meaning Microsoft’s Bing engine will generate the results seen on the portal.
The new alliance is expected to control 30% of the United States search market, and it positions the partners well to be more competitive players in the search engine industry. New competition for Google can only mean one thing—both search engines will want to improve. This is great news for users and advertisers, as the two dominant search engines will be driven to become more effective and user-friendly in the face of the new circumstances.
2. Changes to SEO
Since the new, merged search engine will hold a greater percentage of the market share than either Yahoo or Bing did individually, it will become more important than ever to ensure you’re monitoring Bing positions and conversion data —not just Google. Maintaining high-quality content with keywords, clean coding, and optimized tags are all important for Bing as they are for Google. However, some changes brought about by the merger could have a more significant impact on SEO efforts. We will provide updates on how you should alter your SEO strategies as the effects become clear.
3. Changes to Your Paid Search Program
Once the shift to a Yahoo-MSN alliance takes effect, Yahoo’s Paid Search system will become obsolete. Instead, Microsoft’s adCenter will become the sole search advertising service used by both companies. This means that any PPC campaigns previously running in Yahoo will have to be integrated into adCenter instead. Yahoo’s Search Marketing system will offer assistance in moving your PPC campaigns to MSN, but you’ll need to familiarize yourself with adCenter in order to fine-tune certain aspects of your campaigns within the new advertising platform.
Major changes to consider during this transition include:
-Titles for paid search ads will be reduced from 40 characters (on Yahoo) to 25. Ads not meeting this requirement will be paused upon transition.
-Keyword match types will change from “standard” and “advanced” to exact, broad and phrase matching
-Bing will offer demographic targeting
-Number of negative keywords expanded from 250 to thousands per campaign
4. Getting Started with the Transition.
Yahoo and Bing have simplified the process for transitioning to the new alliance. Below, we’ve outlined our recommended steps for advertisers currently advertising on one, both or neither platforms:
Get started with adCenter. If you’re currently only advertising with Yahoo’s Paid Search, it’s advisable to get an adCenter account and learn the ropes of search advertising with MSN as quickly as possible. Launching a few ads with adCenter sooner rather than later ensures you’ll be familiar with the new system before the merger is complete and all your information will need to be transferred to MSN.
Complete the transition. If you already hold an adCenter account in addition to your Yahoo account, it’s important to transition all of your advertising to adCenter soon—once the migration is complete, your ads in Yahoo’s Paid Search system will gradually stop appearing on Yahoo results pages and will be replaced by Bing’s results. A tool to facilitate your transition will be available until January 2011, and adCenter will start delivering paid search results on Yahoo early this fall. Agencies should work with their Yahoo account representatives to ensure the transition goes as smoothly as possible.
Get on Board with Paid Search. If you’re not currently implementing any paid Yahoo or Bing paid search campaigns for your site, now is a great time to get started. The new merger will encompass 30% of the market share—a good enough reason as any to implement paid search with adCenter.
The Yahoo/Bing alliance may cause uneasiness for many managers of SEO and paid search programs, but by following the steps outlined above, you can ensure your program continues to operate normally during and after the transition.
More From RiseInteractive
- Quality Score – The Key to Ranking First in Paid Search
- The Yahoo Search, Bing Partnership – Rise Interactive’s Perspective
- Google Sitelinks: The Adwords Version
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Tags: Microsoft Yahoo Alliance, sem, seo, Yahoo Bing Transition
