Nowadays, Yahoo Looks Better than Google for Real Estate Searches...

I used to hate Yahoo. I would try to search for data and just find misleading links to porn sites. So then I used Google religiously for a few years. When my husband put together my first website, and I began writing content for it, I was elated at how fast we went to the top of Google searches and not surprised at my lack of visibility on Yahoo and other search engines. Whenever I'd get sales calls from people who promised that I could buy my way to the top of Google, I'd tell them that we didn't need them because we're content-driven, and my husband isn't selling his know-how to everybody and their cousin.

Then it all changed. Google changed their algorithms, and our site quickly fell. Regular updates and new content did little to help. Then, to my horror, someone in my office showed me that an agent who is very high in Google was using my site to boost their standing. My husband tried to put up blocks and complained to Google, but to no avail.

Then this afternoon, when looking for my blog in Google, I discovered that references to my blog show up very quickly when searching for "riverside real estate blog". And in fact, the same agent who has been using my website also pops up, and the description comes word for word from my blog! But my blog doesn't actually get onto the first page of the Google search. Funny, huh?

Yahoo, on the other hand, has my blog and our first site showing up immediately under several different search terms. And the annoying site jumper is below us when he shows up at all. So now I'm beginning to use Yahoo for other searches, and I'm finding them much improved from 5 years ago. I've located real sites with information.

Yes, this is merely a personal experience. Let me know what you've noticed!