The Yahoo search firehose

Yahoo search might not sound like the sexiest place to target, but I've learned of an insider secret that is having a huge impact for those who are ranking high within Y!.

Yahoo's homepage features a rotating billboard of stories that, by their nature, are keyed to popular new events. Tonight's topic, for instance, is a "fears for filet o fish source." The links on that billboard for content typically go to Yahoo's story about the event. But recently, perhaps in an attempt to spike usage of their search product, Yahoo includes a secondary link to that term within their search engine. Why is this important? Because it sends an INORDINATE amount of traffic to a keyword search that typically doesn't see that much traffic. Case in point: the filet o fish history keyword that is being highlighted on the home page now.



See where it says "Search for Filet o Fish history?" That's the important part. If you scroll through all of Y!'s stories tonight, you'll find an interesting trend: very, very specific keyword searches to things that typically don't see that much traffic. This sort of traffic firehose to Yahoo keyword searches is unlike any other sort of traffic surge happening on the major portals.