Google, Yahoo and MSN are the top search engines but each uses vastly different criteria to compute algorithms and relevancy. What you do to rank well on one of these search engines may lead you to lose your ranking on another. Important factors that you can use to compare and contrast how these top search engines will judge your site include content and query processing.

Which is King – Quality Content or Keywords?

Yahoo tends to lean towards commerce-related sites more so than informational sites and has a paid-inclusion program that allows even newer websites to appear at the top of search engine results. To rank well with Yahoo, it helps to have very descriptive and keyword-rich content and titles for each page. The same goes for MSN search, which places high value on descriptive content.

However, MSN search currently drives little traffic so any website owner's goal should be to rank with Google and Yahoo first and foremost. To rank with Google, long-term efforts to improve organic ranking are your best bet while more aggressive SEO tactics fare better with Yahoo and MSN. Google is a bit trickier when it comes to ranking your website based on content. If your website is obviously targeting a particular keyword phrase, such as when that particular keyword phrase is used in internal links, inbound links, the page title, etc., Google may omit your website from search results for that particular keyword.

If you want to successfully rank on Google, you must make the content on your website appear as natural as possible. Avoid overuse of keyword phrases and make your content newsy and informational. Disperse semantically related text throughout the content on your website and be frugal with keywords if you want your website to have a better chance of ranking on Google.

Query Processing – Text vs. Concept

Yahoo places a lot of importance on the text of your website. If you search for a particular keyword phrase, you will notice that the top search engine rankings on Yahoo have the exact same phrase in the title. Even common words of lesser importance such as “how to” will show up in the text of the page titles. Yahoo values even such commonly used phrases, making them important to use in your page titles and text if you want to rank on Yahoo.

On the other hand, Google places little importance on common words and phrases and instead judges a page based on its educational value. In sum, Google values concept over text. If your website has a lot of informational content it is more likely to rank on Google, which judges content based on its meaning rather than merely taking it for its literal value. MSN is also better than Yahoo in this regard but it still pales in comparison to Google.

So there you have it. Query processing and content are just a couple of the important factors top search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN judge when ranking websites. Keep these points in mind when creating content and titles for your website's pages because your actions will have varying results from search engine to search engine. Decide which search engine you want to focus on ranking for and alter your approach based on that decision.