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Sunday, February 20, 2011

How To Use Yahoo! Search Assistance for SEO

That helpful drop down list that appears as you type on Yahoo web search is called the Yahoo! Search Assistance. This ingenious tool is every web searcher’s happy helper as it offers words and phrases that help you expand and define your search. Yahoo! Search Assistance provides additional terms and topics that are related to the keywords and phrases you type into the main search box. For example, from the simple word “apple”, Yahoo! Search Assistance can suggest a dozen entries like, “apple a day,” “apple iPod,” “apple tree” and many more. It provides suggestions that are deemed most useful and most popular by other users.

The Yahoo! Search Assistance works by automatically pulling up sites from cyberspace that contain the key words and phrases you typed. Yahoo! Search Assistance also compares the keywords/ phrases to previous searches that were made by you and other users. It pulls out websites that are the “most popular” in terms of the number of hits/ clicks/ views the site has had in relation to the keywords. Here’s how to use Yahoo! Search Assistance for SEO.

This particular service that is offered at Yahoo is absolutely free and you don’t even need a Yahoo account. Simply go to the Yahoo home and use their search engine. Type the keywords or key phrases of your search and wait for the drop down list that automatically pops up. If it does not appear, click on the small tab with the grey arrow to expand the Yahoo! Search Assistance box. At the right hand corner of the tab you can check whether the Yahoo! Search Assistance is on or not. If not, click to activate.

When using the Yahoo! Search Assistance, two columns will appear. On the left hand side are searches that include entries which Yahoo! Search Assistance thinks will answer your search queries exactly. On the right are topics that are related to your keywords or key phrases.

If you will notice, every time you select a search suggestion on the list, a new set of suggestions will be made available to you. If you do not like the direction your search is going, try using other words. For example, instead of using “orange,” try typing “tangerine.”

* Edit Settings. You may edit the Yahoo! Search Assistance settings by logging into the settings menu in the Yahoo! Search preference. Then under the “Show me the Assist” layer, choose from the following options: “Always,” “Never” and “Default.” The “Always” option shows Yahoo! Search Assistance suggestions when suggestions are available. The “Never” option will not automatically display the search assistance suggestions, but you may click the gray Yahoo! Search Assistance tab when you need the help. Lastly, the “Default” option will display suggestions only when you request assistance.

* Disable feature. Disable your Yahoo! Search Assistance feature by going to the search assistance on the Yahoo! Homepage and click on the gray tab to expand the search assistance dropdown menu. On the right hand corner of the menu select the “off” button.


Make life easier and allow Yahoo to help you in your search by having them choose the most relevant and most popular sights. Optimize your search with Yahoo! Search Assistance! Good luck.

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