Yahoo algo decision maker

all other being equal

[poet22]

In the most competetive industry on the web lets look at this fact
50 sites all submitted by seo experts all 50 have the exact 2 word search term in the title and the domain name none have the search term in the desc. spread across 25 2nd level categories. What is the decisive factor for 1st page listing. Click popularity? or maybe link pop within the yahoo dir. itself? Which would mean spidering the page and I dont think I have seen any evidence of a Yahoo spider.

[skibum]

My guess would be click pop. I tend to think any site can beat any other site based on click pop. A initial placement with title and domain keywords help to get that click pop going.

[2_much]

I'm with skibum, I think click pop becomes the determining factor, all things being equal. However, the extent of this will depend on how competitive a category is, rankings vary depending on competitiveness.