How the Microsoft/Yahoo! Deal Affects SEO Efforts

July 30, 2009.

Now that the deal is official it's bound to shake up a few things in the SEM/SEO world. The main fact is that Bing will now power Yahoo! search and will gain access to their search technology

So what, in plain English, does this mean for your search marketing efforts?

For starters, Bing is now - without a doubt - worth your SEO team's time. ComScore estimates that Bing will now have around a 28% market share when combined with Yahoo! Even if that estimate is high, 10-15% of the search market should not be ignored. If you haven't been already, it's time to start paying attention to the Bing algorithm and how it differs from Google's. There are a few differences obvious at this point: Bing currently only surfaces the top 5 results for many searches, resulting in better click rates and conversions if you make it there; the results are 'richer'; and Bing's traffic is more likely to convert, whether this is due to demographics or how the engine works is still unclear. This deal will result in more SEO focus on Bing, providing more insight on how exactly the search engine ranks results.

The deal may also affect PPC behavior. Many companies are exclusively using Google AdWords - now, with only two major search engines, the level of complexity and time commitment involved in having PPC campaigns across multiple search platforms has decreased. It is a compelling reason to participate in both. This may mean better quality ads and more competition (read higher costs) in the traditionally lower cost AdCenter (Microsoft) and Yahoo!

Another consequence of the deal may be that we lose some of the Yahoo! properties that have become important tools for webmasters and SEOs alike. Yahoo! Directory, Delicious, Yahoo! Maps and a host of other frequently used tools may disappear. Yahoo! Site Explorer, one of the most reliable sources of link data, may also hit the chopping block (Microsoft & Google both removed the link query operator's functionality years ago). What stays and goes is completely speculative at this point, it will most likely become more obvious in the coming months.

There are bound to be many more important changes that effect SEO strategy to come out of this deal and we'd love to hear your questions, concerns, or insights in the comments. Keep in mind that full implementation of the deal could take as long as 2 years after regulatory approval - so SEOs have some time to get up to speed on any changes and prepare for their effects.