ComScore Says Panama Increases Yahoo! Search Performance

ComScore Networks has found that Yahoo’s new ranking model has increased click through rates on its ads, at least initially. The study, based on the online behavior of comScore’s U.S. sample of 1 million Internet users, compared the first two weeks after the launch of the ranking model to the previous week, and found a 5-pecent lift the first week, and a 9-percent lift in CTR the second week.

ComScore also found that Yahoo’s search ads are gaining ground as a percentage of total clicks. Prior to the Panama launch, ads held 10.1 percent of clicks, which increased to 10.6 percent of total click volume in the week ending February 11 and 11.1 percent in the week ending February 18.

via SearchEngineWatch.com

Yahoo! Local goes after classifieds market

Yahoo! Local, the portal's local search and mapping site, will not infuse the results with a classifieds section. Businesses who want to make themselves stand out can pay monthly fees to have a listing at the top or bottom of a page that arrise when a relevant search is querried; flat fees are based on the popularity of the product category and the georgraphic location. As Google and Yahoo! local search becomes more popular, especially with the slow rolling out of mobile features, advertising through these means becomes more powerful. Additionally, this will be more pressure on the slow decline of newspaper and magazine classified ads. For pricing on this and other advertising opportunities, Yahoo! has a "small business" center.

Yahoo shortens paid search ads

Yahoo has announced that they will be shortening the majority of their paid search ads from 190 characters to 70 chartacters, in an effort to fit to industry standards (i.e. Google’s methods).
Most feedback from SEO marketers has been positive, as this will enable people to manage keyword buys across engines more easily, and fits with truncated way people are more and more consuming information online.
Some Yahoo partners will continue to display longer text ads, conforming with the belief that longer copy generates more qualified leads.
[via ClickZ]