Speculation on dishonesty

[Robert Paulson]

I've been closely watching some local serps on the three SEs, and I've consistently noticed something from Yahoo that looks, well, underhanded.

A major competitor of mine is very spendy with PPC, and their PPC ads are usually dead-on in terms of content relative to search terms. But their site's pages are not. Coincidentally, they also appear as one of the top serp positions . However, the text that appears as the title to the link in the Serp has nothing to do with the content on the page it links to. In other words, the link is titles KW1 KW2, but there is nothing on the linking page that also says KW1 KW2. They aren't using meta keywords and descriptions on the page, it's not in the headlines, it's not in the content.

The links in the serps are all yahoo redirects that are 500 characters long (I counted), and include "ads.trafficleader.com/track.htm" in the url. The link to my site, sitting a few places lower, is only 179 characters long and does not contain the trafficleader info in it.

My speculation? Not only is Yahoo placing ads in well-defined places (so as not to be confused with serp results), they are also including them in the serps, disguised as normal links. If this is true, then it can be assumed that their serps have bias and can be bought directly.

Not illegal, to be sure. But unbelievably deceptive.

[dazzlindonna]

And this is only when searching via Yahoo?

[Robert Paulson]

Yup. I didn't make that very clear, did I. Yes, Yahoo only. I should also mention that the title of the link, KW1 KW2 is identical to the title of the ad for the same company in the blue ad box at the top of the page.

I can send you the source code from the page if you'd like.

[mvandemar]

I can send you the source code from the page if you'd like.

Me too please.

-Michael

[Spaggie]

Did someone mention a conspiracy ?

count me in!

me too please

[dazzlindonna]

Yes, I'd like. Let's blow this puppy wide open!

[pops]

Yahevil! ?

[eKstreme]

Me me me too too too (or three or four)

You know I love to bash the SEs!

Pierre

[Robert Paulson]

Let me start by sending the source code to Donna, as the code reveals info about one of my sites, and I'm not usually real excited about doing that.

[mvandemar]

Ok, I know what this is. I knew I remembered seeing it somewhere else before.

Yahoo has a paid inclusion for their serps, iirc. It is a flat fee, and doesn't affect your rankings. It guarantees your site will be looked at, but forevermore afterwards you have to pay per click, something like $0.10 each. I'll see if I can find the details again.

Here it is:

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/srchsb/sse_pr.php

It is guaranteed inclusion, but rankings are your own problem. A complete ripoff on Yahoo's part, designed to snag the unwary.

I just found another site with the same tracking, but at position #63 (honestly, I grabbed this search at random from my keywords, so if it is your site please forgive me, I have no way of knowing that). Here is the header redirect trace:

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geusjkKdtFjYMB069XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEwNHM5N2ltBGNvbG8DZQRsA1dTMQRwb3MDNjMEc2VjA3NyBHZ0aWQD/SIG=1cldsv2k0/EXP=1172077412/**http%3a//rdre1.yahoo.com/click%3fu=http%3a//ads.trafficleader.com/track.htm%253Fpid%253D870835%2526tech%253Dink%2526kid%253D6307581%26y=04A582B513170BF092%26i=482%26c=20641%26q=02%255ESSHPM%255BL7yspmv%257B%7e%253Frpmkx%7exz6%26e=utf-8%26r=62%26d=wow%7eYHOO-en-us%26n=01SKK1II4NDKBJKR%26s=20%26t=%26m=45DB29E5%26o=011A3F40294AD9F491F230AA01EF73501C%26x=0588DCBF31DFD3C155FB89D5778D006238

301 to:

http://rds.yahoo.com/SIG=1cldsv2k0/EXP=1172077412/**http%3a//rdre1.yahoo.com/click%3fu=http%3a//ads.trafficleader.com/track.htm%253Fpid%253D870835%2526tech%253Dink%2526kid%253D6307581%26y=04A582B513170BF092%26i=482%26c=20641%26q=02%255ESSHPM%255BL7yspmv%257B%7e%253Frpmkx%7exz6%26e=utf-8%26r=62%26d=wow%7eYHOO-en-us%26n=01SKK1II4NDKBJKR%26s=20%26t=%26m=45DB29E5%26o=011A3F40294AD9F491F230AA01EF73501C%26x=0588DCBF31DFD3C155FB89D5778D006238

301 to:

http://rdre1.yahoo.com/click?u=http://ads.trafficleader.com/track.htm%3Fpid%3D870835%26tech%3Dink%26kid%3D6307581&y=04A582B513170BF092&i=482&c=20641&q=02%5ESSHPM%5BL7yspmv%7B~%3Frpmkx~xz6&e=utf-8&r=62&d=wow~YHOO-en-us&n=01SKK1II4NDKBJKR&s=20&t=&m=45DB29E5&o=011A3F40294AD9F491F230AA01EF73501C&x=0588DCBF31DFD3C155FB89D5778D006238 

302 to:

http://ads.trafficleader.com/track.htm?pid=870835&tech=ink&kid=6307581 

which finally is a 302 to:

http://www.bestratedirect.com/mortgage_loans.php

TrafficLeader is a SEM company, so I am guessing that in addition to Yahoo suckering people into paying PPC for life, TrafficLeader in turn convincing people into paying acting as the middle man in it.

Without knowing what site you are talking about, I can't say for sure, but I am guessing that the actual rankings are organically obtained. And yes, you can rank for a term without ever mentioning it in your page on Yahoo.

-Michael