Yahoo, a web services provider that offers a search engine, email, news, finance, sports, and other online services, has been around for over two decades. Yahoo Search, one of its core services, has undergone several Yahoo algorithm updates over the years, with the aim of delivering relevant search results to users.
In this article, we will explore how Yahoo’s algorithm works and the factors that influence search rankings.
Before delving into the algorithm, it is essential to understand how Yahoo crawls and indexes web pages. Yahoo’s web crawler, called Slurp, visits web pages and reads their content to create an index of the pages.
Yahoo! Algorithm Runs Basis On Theses Following Steps:
Here are simple illustrations of the Yahoo algorithm running process.
1. Crawling
The Slurp crawler of the Yahoo algorithm visits web pages and follows links to other pages on the site. It also looks for sitemaps, which help it discover all the pages on a website.
2. Parsing
Slurp extracts information from the HTML code of the pages it crawls, including the page title, meta description, and text content.
3. Indexing
The information extracted from the pages is stored in Yahoo’s index, which is a massive database of web pages and their content.
4. Ranking
When a user enters a query, the Yahoo algorithm searches its index and retrieves the pages that match the query. The pages are then ranked according to their relevance to the query.
Yahoo’s algorithm uses several factors to determine the relevance of a page to a search query. Here are some of the factors that influence search rankings:
1. Keyword Relevance
The Yahoo algorithm looks for pages that contain the keywords entered by the user in the search query. Pages that contain the exact keyword phrase or variations of it are considered more relevant.
2. Page Content
The Yahoo algorithm examines the content of the page to determine its relevance to the query. Pages that contain the search terms in the title, headings, and body text are considered more relevant.
3. Page Structure
The Yahoo algorithm looks at the structure of the page, including the use of headings, paragraphs, and lists. Pages that use proper structure to organize their content are considered more relevant.
4. Inbound Links
The Yahoo algorithm considers the number and quality of links pointing to a page. Pages that have a higher number of high-quality links pointing to them are considered more relevant.
5. Social Signals
The Yahoo algorithm looks at the social signals associated with a page, such as likes, shares, and comments. Pages that have a higher number of social signals are considered more relevant.
6. User Behaviour
The Yahoo algorithm considers user behavior, such as click-through rates, bounce rates, and time spent on a page. Pages that have a higher click-through rate and lower bounce rate are considered more relevant.
7. Freshness
The Yahoo algorithm looks at the freshness of the content on a page. Pages that have fresh content, such as news articles, are considered more relevant.
8. Location
The Yahoo algorithm considers the location of the user and the pages they are searching for. Pages that are geographically relevant to the user’s location are considered more relevant.
Yahoo’s algorithm also takes into account user preferences and search history. For example, if a user frequently searches for news articles, the algorithm will prioritize news articles in the search results.
Over the years, Yahoo has made several updates to its algorithm to improve the quality of search results. Here are some of the major algorithm updates:
Yahoo! Directory
The Yahoo! Directory was a manually curated directory of websites that was launched in 1994. It was Yahoo’s original search engine before the algorithm was developed.
Yahoo! Search Technology (YST)
1. 2002 Yahoo Search Technology Update
Yahoo launched a new Yahoo algorithm called YST. It was designed to provide more relevant search results and included features such as query expansion and clustering.
Query expansion is a technique that involves adding additional keywords to a search query to improve its relevance. YST used query expansion to identify related keywords and concepts and added them to the user’s search query to deliver more relevant results.
Clustering is another technique used by YST to group similar search results together. For example, if a user searched for “apple,” the search results would be clustered into different categories, such as “apple computers,” “apple fruit,” and “apple recipes.”
YST also introduced a new ranking system called Inktomi Ranking Algorithm (IRA). IRA was designed to provide a more comprehensive analysis of web pages and improve the relevance of search results. IRA used several factors to rank pages, including keyword relevance, content quality, and user behavior.
2. 2003 Yahoo Search Technology Update
Yahoo acquired Inktomi, the company that developed IRA, and incorporated it into its search technology. The integration of IRA enabled Yahoo’s algorithm to provide more relevant search results and compete with other search engines such as Google.
3. 2004 Yahoo Search Technology Update
In 2004, Yahoo launched Yahoo Search Marketing, a pay-per-click advertising platform that allowed businesses to bid on keywords and display their ads in search results.
The introduction of Yahoo Search Marketing marked a significant shift in Yahoo’s business strategy, as it started to focus on generating revenue from advertising rather than its core search engine service.
4. 2005 Yahoo Search Technology Update
In 2005, Yahoo introduced Yahoo Search Assist, a feature that provided users with real-time suggestions as they typed their search queries. Yahoo Search Assist used advanced algorithms to identify the user’s intent and suggest relevant keywords and phrases.
5. 2009 Yahoo Search Technology Update
In 2009, Yahoo launched Search Monkey, a platform that allowed developers to create enhanced search results using structured data. Search Monkey enabled webmasters to provide more detailed information about their web pages, such as ratings, prices, and reviews, directly in search results.
6. 2011 Yahoo Search Technology Update
In 2011, Yahoo partnered with Microsoft and started using Bing’s search technology to power its search results for the Yahoo algorithm. The partnership allowed Yahoo to focus on other areas of its business, such as content and advertising, while still providing high-quality search results to users.
7. 2016 Yahoo Search Technology Update
In 2016, Yahoo experienced a massive data breach that compromised the personal information of over 1 billion user accounts. The data breach severely impacted Yahoo’s algorithm reputation and led to a decline in its search engine market share.
8. 2017 Yahoo Search Technology Update
In 2017, Verizon acquired Yahoo for $4.48 billion and merged it with AOL to create a new company called Oath. The acquisition marked the end of an era for Yahoo, which had been one of the pioneers of the internet and search engine technology.
Conclusion
Yahoo’s algorithm has undergone several updates over the years, with the aim of providing more relevant search results to users. YST, which was launched in 2002, introduced advanced techniques such as query expansion and clustering to improve the relevance of search results.
The introduction of IRA, Yahoo Search Marketing, Yahoo Search Assist, and Search Monkey further enhanced the search experience for users. However, the data breach in 2016 and subsequent acquisition by Verizon marked the end of Yahoo’s dominance in the search engine market.
Read Also
- How Does Google’s Algorithm Work?
- How Does The Bing Algorithm Work?
- How To Choose A Link-Building Agency?
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