The Wisdom of the Old Master

Yahoo has been implementing some very major changes on its search architecture starting this week — Yahoo search in North America is now powered by Bing. This is in part of Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance 10 year deal which was closed last July 29, 2010 to take on search giant Google.

Yahoo Linkdomain query not working

I havent heard any news lately about Yahoo and Bing partnership, until one of my search queries which I mainly depended on for gathering prospect edu/gov links where not working in Yahoo! Search US just of today.

1. linkdomain:competingsite.com +site:.edu -site:.com -site:competingsite.com
2. linkdomain:competingsite.com +site:.gov -site:.com -site:competingsite.com

If you enter the above queries in http://search.yahoo.com and http://ca.search.yahoo.com, no results will be found. Take notice of the “Powered By Bing” text on the footer section for each result page.

Yahoo! — Powered by Bing

After some quick research for some explanation, here’s what I found out in Yahoo Search Blog:

Later this week, we will begin transitioning the back-end technology for Yahoo! Search in the U.S. and Canada (English) over to the Microsoft platform, and will post an update when the organic search transition is complete for both Web and mobile searches. Keep an eye out for the “Powered by Bing” indicator at the bottom of our search results page, which will indicate that you are viewing listings from Microsoft

Voila! So this is why my top gun edu & gov link finder is not working in Yahoo! Search. Bing apparently does not support the Yahoo! linkdomain query in which most of the SEO tools are dependent upon such as Firefox plugin SEOQuake and keyword research tool Market Samurai among few others.

Linkdomain Command Alternatives

Well, for the time-being, only Yahoo! US and Canada searches are powered by Bing. This means, that you can still the old Yahoo! search commands in other Yahoo TLD’s such as UK, India, Philippines and etc. We expect Bing to move on other countries sooner, but though this is temporary, it is the best alternative.

Another linkdomain replacement would be Yahoo Siteexplorer, export link data, then filter for edu/gov pages. Downside for this would is that the exported data is only be limited to 1,000 links, in which, compared to linkdomain command, is the overall number of crawled backlinks.

Google and Bing Webmaster Tools also report a more comprehensive link data compared to what is shown in link query search results. But it requires site owner authentication which becomes useless if you are conducting a link competitor analysis.

Lastly, tools such as OpenSiteExplorer and Majestic SEO would cost extra dollars for full features, but its as close as you can get if you want find quality edu/gov backlinks from your competitors.

In order of priority

1. Use emails listed in “Link page” , or follow any links for contact forms or links which the site admin suggested for link suggestions.
   • For link suggestions, email admin@web.com.
   • Contact admin@web.com for comments and feedbacks.
   • admin@web.com (even any email ad which the ADMIN listed in link page)
   • For more information, e-mail admin@web.com
   • Use contact form(with link to http://www.web.com/contact-link-request) for link recommendations
   • Email found in sidebar of link page
     E) sbdc@tcnj.edu
   • Found in footer section of Link Page
     “Suggest links, articles or ideas to include on this site”
     Note: Following this will lead to https://jedi.tcnj.edu/webteam/cgi-bin/formgenie/formgenie.pl?form=11520 which is a form for link request

Link pages which are placed with more detail regarding link enquiries.
Samples:

Actual Sample: http://www.tcnj.edu/~sbdc/resources.html

This type of page for link request have the best chance of receiving a reply regarding link request since this shows that site owner is mainly interested in adding related links in this page.

Following links which the site owner suggested for link suggestions/queries
Actual Sample: http://www.tcnj.edu/~sbdc/resources.html

Conclusion:
Using the form https://jedi.tcnj.edu/webteam/cgi-bin/formgenie/formgenie.pl?form=11520 must be given more priority in contacting for link request since the form is spefically catered for link suggestions per compared to email sbdc@tcnj.edu which is intended for more general queries.

Reason:
Sending emails from the addresses in link page will get the highest probabablity of receiving replies from the site admin regarding your link request since these emails, link to contact forms are especially catered for link request and suggestions. If the site admin adds contact(email address, links to forms) in link pages, this shows interest in adding quality links for his site, thus giving the higher chance of approval.

Probabilty of Receiving a Reply: 7/10

2. Use the email ad listed in “Contact US” page.
   • Standard websites usually have a “Contact Us” page.
     • link to this page is usually found in top main navigation, sidebar, or footer section.
   • Intended for general enquiries.
     • contacts placed in this page are intended for general enquiries, such as “reporting of broken links”, “follow-up questions about blog post”, “personal questions or invitations about blog author”, and site suggestions including quality link recommendations.
   • Lesser chance of receiving a reply compared to “#1″
     • since the contact is usually meant for general enquiries, most of the site admin would ignore emails regarding link recommendations probably due to quite a number of spam emails regarding link exchanges.
     • Advice:
       • This is where the construction of good link email request should play in. You should cite relevant and unique info what you think about their site, this way, the site owner will know that your email is not SPAM or auto-Generated.
   • Contact through emails
     • By emailing the site owner i.e., john@web.com, this will help me keep in touch with the site owner at a personal level.
   • Using contact forms
     • This is a more profession al approach of contacting the owner.

Use emails or contact forms?
Since for my end, I usually can emails for each link resource page I find after link competition analysis, I then prefer to email the site owner over using the site’s contact forms.

Probability of Receiving a Reply: 2-5/10 (depending on email construction)

3. Find contact details listed in “About Us” page:
   • If the site does not have a “Conctact Us” page, mostly, the contact details about the site is listed in “About Us” page.
     • link to this page is also usually found in top main navigation, sidebar, or footer section
   • Similar process details in using the “Contact US” page.

Probabilty of Receiving a Reply: 2-4/10 (depending on email construction )

4. Browse other pages in site for possible contact email
   • If there is no “Contact Us” and “About” page, then try to browse other pages for possible site admin contacts.
     • some site owners only list out there contact in Homepage

     Sample: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/uic/ (root page of user domain)

     http://businesslibrary.uflib.ufl.edu/china

   • Some site owners also list there contacts in other form of pages such online CV’s, portfolios
     • using our common sense in finding admin/owner emails within site pages would definitely help!

Probability of Receiving a Reply: 2/10

5. Use WHOIS details of site.
   • If you can’t find any contact details in site, then you have to try your luck out in sending your link request through the contact listed in Whois. This address does not ensure a return of your message but at least there is a slight chance that your email will be forwarded to site owner/editor.

   Probability of Receiving a Reply: 0.5/10

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