linkster - 9:41 pm on Jan 13, 2006 (gmt 0)

I would like to discuss what some of you see as factors that contribute to what specific ads Yahoo displays on a page. I have been testing for about 3 days not. Here a few things I have noticed in my few days of testing.

*Note - Of course your experience will vary I am sure…let’s hear about it though. Nailing down some factors could help us all improve relevancy.

Yahoo does use Meta tags in determining what ads to display on your page. Simply try loading a blank page with nothing but one keyword phrase used in the keyword and description tag. This will almost always show relevant ads for the keyword phrase you type in after you refresh a few times. (Whish it were that easy for a real page)

I have also tried uploading a blank page with just a keyword phrase in the title tag. This usually results in RON ads showing up. I was really surprised by this; I assumed the title tag would carry more weight. I even tried using one keyword phrase in the title tag, and an unrelated phrase in the other Meta tags. The phrase in the keyword and description tag win out and Yahoo displays ads for them over the title tag. Maybe it is because there are two instances of the phrase as apposed to the one instance of the phrase in the title tag.

*Note - I am using random file names like 173sbs9.html when testing

A few other things that I have noticed:
Sometimes Yahoo will pick out a word or phrase that does not have a very high density, less than 1%, and display ads for that page. This tends to happen if the word or phrase is in a link. I have seen examples of it pulling things out of my news feeds. Like on an attorney page it shows MCI ads because a news link mentions some case about it, even thought the density for MCI is very low and it’s the only phone related content on the page. All the other data is law related…sub domain name, content, title tags etc and yahoo gets the ads right on similarly created pages on the same domain.

I am thinking you need 5 to 10% density for your main phrase without another phrase being real close to that, for the ads to display for the exact phrase you want….still testing of course. I have also noticed that content blocks of 400 words or more seem to really help their bot figure out the right ads to display as long as the density is high.

Lastly, I have noticed that if I get the ads displaying for say “chocolate candy” and then completely change the page by loading up a new page or even new site, as long as I keep the filename the same I will get “chocolate candy” ads. Now this is expected but the issue is, I have seen this stick for 2 days or so and not change. They need to revisit the page more, maybe add a button for automatic review request for specific pages…so you don’t have to wait so long especially when their relevancy is not very good right now. They should revisit more often to get it right.

This is about as far as I have gotten, when I started out the ads would change in a few minutes. With my latest round of testing though it’s been about 24 hours and no changes. I called yahoo (nice feature) to ask them if maybe I upset their bot by so many new ads and false impressions. The rep. assured me that nothing like that was in place and it was fine to test the ads as long as they are not being clicked, no harm is being done.

The rep also told me that if I block the RON ads that more would ads would just take their place in all likelihood. I was asking if I blocked them, if I could force the bot into reading the page quicker and more accurately. He said that would not happen.

Please leave some of the things you’re doing to receive more relevant ads and some of the factors you see influencing the ads your pages display.

Thanks
Linkster
First Time Poster