The three major search engines—Google, Yahoo and MSN—react very differently to the main search engine optimization techniques, according to a new study from Covario Inc., a provider of search marketing analytics software.

In a seven-month study released late last month, Covario found that Google is 15 times as sensitive to technical issues (i.e., tags and web page addresses) than Yahoo and twice as sensitive as MSN. Google also is 50% more sensitive to link strategy—the context in which the site is viewed by the engines—than MSN. However, Google is approximately 25% less sensitive to content issues than the other engines.

There are two rules to remember in managing natural search programs, according to the Covario study. First, placing key terms in specific strategic locations on a web site or page makes a large difference in rank performance. Second, there is no correlation between the raw number of links to a site or page, but there is a highly significant correlation between the quality of links and rank.

Covario conducted the study using its Organic Search Insight solution on 300 large brand web sites belonging to 25 large advertisers. The automated software crawled each of the major brand sites two times per month, performing 46 checks on each page on the site.

Covario, formerly known as SEMDirector, conducted the study between March 1 and Oct. 15, 2007.

Article source - http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=25937

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