At the end of last month Yahoo pulled the plug on its site explorer tool which was a tool that could be used completely free of charge by many search marketing companies all around the world. Initially launched back in September 2005, Yahoo Site Explorer allowed SEO professionals and digital marketer’s access to a wealth of incredibly useful information including the ability to check the external and internal linking of any website. The tool will now be combined with the Bing Webmaster Tools. However unlike Yahoo Site Explorer, the Bing Webmaster Tools will not have the competitor analysis function, as a consequence of this any data about rival sites will be lost.

This will end a very simple way for search marketing professionals to check on the progress of link building projects they are working on. It is still possible to check links on one’s own sites by means of Google Webmaster and Bing Webmaster tools, but neither of these have the full range of information available. The attractiveness of the Yahoo tool was that it permitted for an honest cross check of Google quantified linking. The basic Google link search of link:www.forexample.com allows one a black box glimpse of a few Google links to a site. These are always the weakest links and represent a tiny fraction of all inbound linking present.  An alternative to the now lost Yahoo Site Explorer is a tool named SEO Moz Open Site Explorer which can be purchased on a small budget.

Search marketing can be a difficult job without the correct tools available, tools such as the ones that were offered by Yahoo Site Explorer are essential in checking the progress of on-going projects. When we are faced with problems such as the closing of this site, search engine marketing companies have to adapt and find new tools to fill the void such as SEO Moz Open Site Explorer. At the Search Marketing Group we can offer a range of digital marketing solutions to help you develop your website in a number of different ways such as pay per click campaigns, link building projects as well as initial web design and search engine optimisation.

According to sources at the Wall Street Journal, Google, the search engine that search engine marketing companies focus on, has been working with at least two private equity firms to secure financing for a Yahoo bid. The source has stated that it is currently in early stages and a formal proposal is yet to be put together.

If Google does not go ahead and make a bid for Yahoo, it is more than likely that other competition will go ahead. The likes of Microsoft and Alibaba are on the list of potential bidders.

Google already holds stakes with Yahoo in Yahoo Japan. This already creates significant revenue to the search engine giant as it is one of the only regional search engines in Japan.

As we already know, Google is the main search engine that a search marketing company looks to optimise websites on. With it taking up to 80% of the search market in the UK, it is essential that websites are fully SEO optimised for the Google search algorithms. If Google is to take over Yahoo, it will have a significant market share. This could possibly benefit those who optimise on Google as it could make the algorithms on Yahoo the same as those on Google; making an improvement on their Yahoo search positioning effortlessly.

Google has many motives for the bid; one major factor is that they aren’t currently a market leader in the Asia-Pacific region. Yahoo’s dominance there would provide Google with an ever growing world market share of the search engines. This can only be advantageous to those wanting to expand online business globally using Google and search engine marketing techniques.

Other additional bonuses with a takeover would be Yahoo’s booming ad presence. This would improve Google’s adwords campaigns. Adwords campaigns are a handy tool to make your website visible on the search engines and at The Search Marketing Group we generally advise businesses to start search engine marketing campaigns with adwords, mainly to quickly promote your brand, whilst optimising keywords naturally. For more information on ethical Google adwords campaigns contact one of our Adwords specialists now by using our contact us page.

Another prime factor in a takeover for Yahoo would ultimately be the amount of website hits. Yahoo remains an extremely popular search engine with over 700 million monthly unique visitors which would create a lucrative portal to advertise Google and its various services.

So, will Google’s bid be successful? Google will have an excruciatingly hard time buying Yahoo due to the competition and other various reasons. All we can say is watch this space! If you would like more information on how to start an ethical search marketing campaign, contact our search engine marketing specialists on 01229 484290 now to have a no obligatory chat about your requirements.