Monthly Archives: December 2006

Yahoo’s Panama – Converting Worse than Old System?


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Posted by Jim Gilbert

Is it possible for Panama to actually perform/convert worse than the old system? What could cause that, since it just displays the same ads as the old system?

D I S T R I B U T I O N… D I S T R I B U T I O N… D I S T R I B U T I O N…

From Webmasterworld
“I have switched one of my accounts to the new interface. The conversions and cost per conversion is very bad. Its almost 30% of what we were getting previously. We have seen 80% of the traffic from Bogus sites.”

Dear Yahoo: If we are wrong here, please feel free to correct us. Discussions with Yahoo reps have yielded no clarification on this, so we are left with nothing but deduction from analytical research to formulate these answers.

 

Let’s not waste any time here and get right to the answer. Yahoo has at least 3 distribution networks:

 

1. Yahoo search
2. Yahoo search partners
3. Content networks (YPN – Yahoo Publisher Network)

It’s #2 the Yahoo search partners distribution that is causing the problem. Entities that own a lot of Internet real estate (“domains”) get to partner with Yahoo for an XML feed of Yahoo’s sponsored search results — this is NOT part of the content network.

So, what is being called “bogus” sites are sites displaying sponsored Yahoo ads from XML search feeds NOT YPN — turning off content network will not help stop it!

 

An example will show you what is happening. Just follow the screen shots below.

Recently I did a “Google” search (did not even use Yahoo) for one of my favorite local Italian restaurants — Paesanos in Plano, TX — And got this result:

Following the link, we found this (if you know much about the “black hat” world you will immediately recognize this as a “parked domain” (Monitized Internet real estate):

Following the Italian link, we found a continuation of the same underlying theme — “Monetize the heck out of parked domains”.

So What? Pay attention to the final image below! It shows that the monitization of this domain (and millions of others) is being done using Yahoo Search Partner XML Feeds! Yahoo ads on “bogus” sites (as the webmasterworld poster called them). It’s NOT from the Content Network and advertisers can’t stop it!

Google Devalue Social Links Like Digg.com?


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First noticed at at SeoRoundtable where they are pointing to a Webmasterworld thread — slow but very interesting WebmasterWorld thread asks, “Is Googe Devaluing “Social Content” Links?”

It appears many are missing the whole social point here — it’s not the links from the social sites that the smart guys are after, it’s the natural linking from non social sites that social linkbaiting generates that’s important long term!

Google, Yahoo and MSN can devaluate the links from social sites all they want, but it’ll be darn hard for them to determine which natural links were produced because of the social linkbait!… Jim Gilbert

Register Your Domains with Google?


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Picked this up via Threadwatch and Seobook and felt a comment was necessary.

Goggle analytics worried the heck out of me in that I thought our log files was our last line of defense from Google’s prying eyes. We were aware that Google had become a registrar, but didn’t give it much thought since the only thing they could see was what domain owners provided for public viewing — which included privacy options.

But wait… now they want you to register your domains with them. Then they have EVERYTHING! Including your domain billing information — the one piece of information that we thought Google couldn’t get hold of.

We have a prediction… Registering your domain with Google may eventually raise the level of trust they have with your site (if they choose to include it in the algorithm)! Why? Because it’s a given that the “blackhat” world would not dare register domains with Google! … Jim Gilbert

Yahoo’s Panama – Ripe with Malaria


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First, consider the hype surronding Panama’s release (keep in mind these are statements right from the “horse’s mouth”): “More like Google”, “Easy Transition of Overture DTC accounts to Panama” and “if necessary, just import your Google account into Panama”.

That’s the hype… Now this is the truth:

  • Google like — not hardly… But it IS VERY MSN like. Why the heck did Yahoo pattern Panama after MSN? Did they have Microsoft’s help? Did they hire Microsoft people to help? If you are forced to pattern a product after an existing one seems Google would be a better (and more proven) platform to copy than MSN’s Adcenter. Really makes one wonder who is making technology related decisions at Yahoo
  • Accounts are transitioned with “categories” mapped as “campaigns”. WRONG! For years agencies have been building Yahoo accounts from Google accounts and equating “categories” to “adgroups” — NOT campaigns. So if you have 28 categories you will end up with 28 campaigns EACH with its own adgroup! Fixing this mess is a monsterous manual task.
  • Yahoo is right about “importing your Google account may be the easiest way to make the transition”. BUT, as it turns out, only Gold and Platinum level accounts are allowed to use the import function! Where the hell did this rule come from?

For years Yahoo didn’t get it — appears they still don’t. … Jim Gilbert

 

If you want more comments on Panama, you may want to see this Search Engine Watch thread: Panama is LIVE – for some!