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Yahoo Keyword Density Analysis Comparison to Google

Low Traffic Single Word Keywords


(Research Compiled 2/17/2004 by goRank.com)


Research Overview

Following months of testing their search engine results, Yahoo has now launched their search algorithm and replaced the Google results they had been using. We were all prepared to compare Inktomi pure search results with Google this month, but the Yahoo switch happened right as we were finishing up our report. We decided to go ahead and analyze the new Yahoo results. We figured there would be many search engine optimization professionals interested in seeing what keyword density differences exist between Google and Yahoo's new algorithm. We hope you find the research below useful. Please keep in mind that keyword density is just one part of an overall optimization strategy. There are many other elements we do not address here, but we hope we can help discover secrets to the keyword density component of the SEO toolbox.

The goal of this analysis is to compare the keyword density elements of Yahoo's new algorithm with Google's algorithm. The top 10 results for over 2000 keywords were analyzed from both Yahoo and Google to create this report data covering over 40,000 data points. We decided to use single word keywords that have a small number of searches per month. These keywords are low traffic and likely non-competitive which should help to achieve a more accurate picture of how each engine ranks pages. Each result URL was analyzed to produce a keyword density report. The results in this report have been compiled from this keyword density data.

Note: Data can be interpreted in many ways, our goal is currently not to try to interpret the data, but rather we want to publish it and let others interpret the results. If you publish an interpretation please let us know as we may present it on our site. Any works that use the data presented here must give credit to goRank.com as the source and provide a link back to our site.

Averages

Average values for the number of words, repeats, and keyword density are interesting statistics and are presented in the tables below. The tables display the breakout for several important page elements. Google is presented in the first chart followed by the Yahoo results in the second.


 Google Keyword Density Results
W=Words, R=Repeats, D=Density
Rank
All Words
Title
Link Text
Alt Text
Meta Keywords
Meta Description
Bold
H1 Tags

 
W
R
D
W
R
D
W
R
D
W
R
D
W
R
D
W
R
D
W
R
D
W
R
D
1
1001
5.1
2.4%
6.1
0.8
19.5%
179
1.0
1.2%
21.5
0.3
1.9%
18.5
0.3
2.1%
9.8
0.3
2.4%
61.9
0.6
2.7%
1.6
0.2
4.8%
2
995
5.2
2.1%
6.8
0.8
16.7%
213
1.1
1.1%
22.0
0.3
1.1%
14.4
0.3
1.7%
9.5
0.2
2.0%
70.0
0.7
3.4%
3.3
0.2
3.9%
3
1002
5.2
2.0%
6.9
0.8
16.2%
201
1.1
1.1%
21.9
0.2
1.4%
14.9
0.3
2.4%
10.5
0.3
2.1%
65.1
0.7
3.5%
2.1
0.2
5.5%
4
953
5.3
2.1%
7.0
0.9
16.6%
208
1.0
1.3%
20.7
0.2
1.3%
14.2
0.3
2.3%
10.3
0.3
2.2%
67.5
0.7
3.4%
1.3
0.2
6.1%
5
922
5.7
2.0%
6.9
0.8
16.8%
207
1.3
1.2%
20.1
0.2
1.0%
13.9
0.3
2.4%
10.1
0.3
2.7%
61.9
0.8
3.7%
3.1
0.2
5.9%
6
934
5.4
2.1%
6.9
0.8
16.8%
214
1.2
1.2%
20.9
0.4
1.2%
14.6
0.3
2.2%
10.3
0.2
2.4%
73.9
0.8
4.2%
1.5
0.2
5.2%
7
933
5.4
2.0%
6.9
0.9
17.2%
190
1.0
1.1%
17.7
0.2
1.1%
13.9
0.3
2.2%
9.6
0.2
2.3%
58.5
0.7
3.8%
1.7
0.2
5.7%
8
897
5.2
1.7%
7.1
0.8
16.1%
194
1.1
1.0%
20.5
0.2
1.2%
13.5
0.4
2.3%
10.8
0.3
2.7%
67.1
0.7
3.6%
8.2
0.2
6.1%
9
929
5.1
1.9%
7.0
0.9
17.0%
211
1.1
1.0%
21.3
0.2
0.9%
13.9
0.3
2.3%
9.4
0.2
2.4%
63.2
0.6
4.4%
3.0
0.2
5.7%
10
841
5.4
1.8%
7.4
0.9
16.1%
207
1.1
1.1%
22.0
0.4
1.3%
15.6
0.3
2.6%
9.3
0.2
2.5%
58.6
0.7
3.2%
5.6
0.2
6.4%
All
943
5.3
2.0%
6.9
0.8
16.9%
202
1.1
1.1%
20.8
0.3
1.2%
14.7
0.3
2.3%
10.0
0.3
2.4%
64.9
0.7
3.6%
3.1
0.2
5.5%

Yahoo Keyword Density Results
W=Words, R=Repeats, D=Density
Rank
All Words
Title
Link Text
Alt Text
Meta Keywords
Meta Description
Bold
H1 Tags

 
W
R
D
W
R
D
W
R
D
W
R
D
W
R
D
W
R
D
W
R
D
W
R
D
1
1206
12.0
3.0%
5.6
0.8
21.7%
192
2.2
1.9%
22.1
0.5
2.1%
17.8
0.4
2.6%
10.1
0.4
3.6%
84.9
1.7
3.7%
3.9
0.2
4.4%
2
1249
12.2
3.0%
6.0
0.8
21.8%
159
2.3
2.1%
23.7
0.4
1.6%
16.9
0.4
2.8%
9.5
0.4
3.9%
82.8
1.4
3.7%
3.4
0.2
4.8%
3
1306
13.3
2.9%
6.3
0.8
19.1%
183
2.4
1.9%
23.2
0.5
1.6%
16.2
0.4
2.9%
10.1
0.3
3.2%
109.7
1.8
3.1%
2.4
0.2
4.8%
4
1300
13.9
3.0%
6.3
0.8
19.0%
153
1.9
1.7%
22.6
0.3
1.1%
16.0
0.3
2.8%
10.0
0.3
3.1%
75.4
1.8
3.3%
2.0
0.1
4.1%
5
1270
13.3
2.9%
6.1
0.8
20.1%
156
2.2
1.9%
21.1
0.4
1.1%
14.3
0.3
2.9%
9.1
0.3
3.1%
89.1
1.5
3.4%
1.8
0.2
4.6%
6
1319
13.5
2.6%
8.4
0.8
19.2%
152
2.2
2.0%
21.3
0.3
1.3%
14.4
0.3
2.7%
10.8
0.3
2.8%
108.3
2.0
3.9%
8.4
0.3
4.5%
7
1375
14.5
2.7%
6.6
0.8
19.4%
156
2.2
2.1%
21.3
0.3
1.4%
13.1
0.3
2.9%
9.7
0.3
3.1%
79.7
1.7
3.3%
5.1
0.2
4.7%
8
1318
13.2
2.7%
6.3
0.8
19.5%
160
2.3
1.9%
24.3
0.5
1.2%
12.5
0.3
2.7%
8.9
0.3
2.7%
102.1
1.9
3.2%
5.1
0.2
4.9%
9
1323
14.2
2.8%
6.3
0.8
18.2%
151
2.3
2.0%
20.2
0.3
1.2%
14.4
0.3
2.6%
9.7
0.3
2.5%
95.4
1.8
3.2%
3.3
0.2
4.3%
10
1390
14.1
2.6%
6.3
0.8
17.5%
148
1.6
1.6%
20.7
0.3
1.2%
12.7
0.3
2.4%
9.9
0.3
2.5%
91.5
1.7
3.0%
7.0
0.2
4.3%
All
1305
13.4
2.8%
6.4
0.8
19.6%
161
2.2
1.9%
22.0
0.4
1.4%
14.8
0.3
2.7%
9.8
0.3
3.0%
91.9
1.7
3.4%
4.2
0.2
4.5%

 

Comparison of major elements

The charts above provide the raw data to make a comparison of the Yahoo and Google results. In this section we are highlighting a few of the elements for comparison.

All Words

The first major difference that jumps out in the Yahoo results is the preference Yahoo's algorithm seems to have for more words on a page. The average number of words on a page for Google was 943 while Yahoo's average words per page in the top 10 results was 1305. Yahoo also seems to prefer many more occurrences of the exact keyword by a factor of 13.4 to Google's 5.3 repeats per page. We should mention that this could be due in part to Google's reliance on semantically similar words. We hope to include semantically similar words in our next analysis. The overall average keyword density of the keywords in the page was 2.8% for Yahoo compared to 2.0% for Google.


Title

As you might expect, the keyword density of the page title plays a major role in rankings. The title has the largest keyword density average of all of the page elements evaluated for both Yahoo and Google. The results were close. Yahoo had an average keyword density of 19.6% while Google's title keyword density is 16.9% for the results compiled.

Link Text

Link text results show that Yahoo prefers less link text words on a page and more keyword occurrences within those words. Google results show an average of 202 link text words, while Yahoo had an average of 161. The Yahoo repeats was 2.2, double the 1.1 average of Google. The overall keyword density of Yahoo link text results was 1.9% compared to Google's 1.1%.

Other Page Elements

Of the other page elements analyzed, Alt Text, Meta Keywords, Meta Description, and H1 Tags were all fairly consistent between the two search engines as shown in the charts above. The bold results were the only remaining page element that showed some significant differences. While the keyword density is almost identical, Yahoo's is 3.4% compared to Google's 3.6%, Yahoo definitely seems to have a preference for pages with more bold text (92 words compared to 65 words) and more occurrences (1.7 repeats for Yahoo compared to Google's 0.7).


Conclusion

Well, we planned to do a completely different report this month, but figured Yahoo is probably what is on the mind of many SEO experts at the moment. Hopefully this research provides some useful data you might be able to incorporate into your SEO efforts.We have plans for our next report but it will probably change in the coming weeks. If you have any ideas please let us know. You can email us at info at gorank.com. We plan to do many more reports. If you would like to join our mailing list to be notified when we issue a new report please enter your email address below.

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