Conference notes from the Yahoo! breakfast presentation at Search Engine Strategies New York '07. Got there a bit late, so notes aren't as complete as they are for other sessions...

Generally people seem to think that Panama is a big step forward for Yahoo! (one presenter called it a "quantum leap", another called it a "vast improvement"). However, a few things have changed. For one long-tail keywords can be problematic because Panama is a bit ruthless about relevancy (quality score). If your long-tail keywords are perceived as not being relevant, then things won't go well, so you'll want to deploy slowly. The good news is Panama shows you your quality score, so you can manage the process. People using Yahoo! are moving away from the long tail.

"Group your keywords in a way that connects with consumers."

GeoTargeting is now possible in Canada, but it has a few glitches.

The bulk upload process is also buggy at the moment, but Yahoo! reps have been good at supporting some of the big customers (like Razorfish).

Big name brands continue to do really well on Yahoo!

All in all Panama is still a work in progress, so your feedback is critical.

Yahoo! still isn't as good as Google editorially. They've improved, but not enough. Microsoft is even worse.

Content match still has a way to go, but it's better. None of the platforms have a great system. Best to use highly targeted keywords.

One of the presenters saw organic go up when they implemented a PPC campaign on the same keyword.

With Panama, Yahoo! is now in line with the performance of Google and Microsoft.

Tags: online-advertising, paid-search, Panama, SES-NY, Yahoo!
Categories: Advertising, Yahoo!