Yahoo Yang Interview Exclusive Avi File
The most highly-anticipated webcast in the search engine world: Yahoo’s Q4 and full year 2007 earnings conference call (Jan. 29, 5 pm Eastern; 2 pm Pacific). Jerry Yang will outline his vision for Yahoo. We’ll hear how Yahoo Panama is performing. We may even learn what Yahoo’s global search engine strategy is.
Vertical search engines (Yahoo Real Estate, Shopping, Finance, Games etc) will drive one of the most important metrics for Yahoo: share of search.
Yahoo Real Estate traffic increased by 80% year-over-year, according to Michael Yang, General Manager at Yahoo Real Estate. I asked Avi Wilensky, CEO of Promediacorp search marketing firm to get the lowdown on rising real estate traffic and search marketing competition.
Avi, who specializes in SEO for real estate sites, asked Yang (in NYC for the Real Estate Connect NYC 2008 conference) about the competitive nature of the real estate market, the distinguishing characteristics that make Yahoo Real Estate stand out, and Yahoo search engine marketing strategies.
Avi Wilensky: What are your plans to overtake the tough competition in the real estate vertical?
Michael Yang: In November, we became the #1 most visited real estate site, surpassing Realtor.com … We have a good aggregation of listings; homes for sale, rentals, for sale by owners, foreclosures and new construction. Our goal is to be the best research site for people in the market for new homes.
AVI: How do you stand out from other Real Estate vertical search sites?
MY: We integrate news and info from Yahoo News and Yahoo Answers. We recently launched a “How To” on home buying and we’re also heavily integrated with Yahoo Maps and Yahoo Local.
We also show you home evaluations online. Based on where you’re searching from, we provide a list of offline appraisers as well.
AVI: What marketing strategies is Yahoo Real Estate engaging in?
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MY: Well, first off, we’ve grown 80% year to year because we have new products coming out all the time such as guides and educational centers. We’re also open to feedback. At any time when we release new features, people comment on it. Further, we index everything everywhere within our other properties.
(After the jump: Yahoo’s secret search engine strategy)
AVI: Does Yahoo! Real Estate advertise with PPC on any other search engine?
MY: No, most of our traffic comes from organic search, press releases, and is product-based. We don’t advertise Yahoo! Real Estate via PPC on any other search engine.