Say what! regarding the news of Yahoo and Microsoft's search deal. From a Search Engine Optimization standpoint, here are the main takeaways:
The "search merger" is going to take some time, and involve some technology integration, so people should follow web design and optimization best practices in the meantime. All search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing) follow the same general set of rules.
Bing will be handling advertising and search results. Therefore, the MSN Adcenter platform will likely be the default way of buying PPC ads.
Bing prefers fresh content and a slightly higher keyword density, so people who want to skew toward Bing results may consider these factors. Normally we try to keep keyword density in line with Google standards.Items like Yahoo paid inclusion are still up in the air.
The deal has to be approved (or scrutinized) by regulators, so it may be altered in one way or another.
In the meantime, we are advising all of our SEO customers to continue with their current site optimization processes, which are standard for all search algorithm types. Part of the search deal involves technology sharing, so hopefully the finished search product will have the best aspects of Yahoo and MSN/Bing's engines
