XcellenceIT team has a question and I decided I should help them by posting the question. Here goes:
Everybody knows that Google is a leader in search engines. But Yahoo! search engine comes right behind him.
Besides my natural question: since all my acquaintances use Google, who are those using Yahoo! search engine after all? , I have another question:
Is it worth it putting efforts in improving for Yahoo! search engine? Google has Sitemaps, Yahoo! has Site Explorer, but is it worth the time to have your web site inserted in both?
OK, you have to make your web site as much W3C-friendly as you can. But Yahoo! search engine friendly?

Frankly, I don't think it's worth the time, but I'm looking for a second opinion.

Any feed-back on this will be greatly appreciated.

It really isn't worth the time to pander to any search engine. Ideally they should be sending less than 1/4 of your traffic to you; since search rankings aren't stable, and can disappear at any moment, you really don't want to rely on them.

The things that get you ranked in one engine will more or less get you ranked in another. Basically ... that's pointing with a really broad stroke. But they all tend to count links, look at keywords in your title, url, anchor text, and finally on the page. If you build a site that people enjoy using, or see value in, they'll link to it, and you'll float up in all search engines.

Yahoo tends to be #2, at least if you count the different parts of Google as one big conglomerate, but in that case, Yahoo sends less than 10 % of the traffic Google sends me. Either my site ranks terribly with them, or they're a distant second.

I think it is worth putting time on Yahoo.

My Website gets more hits from Google but more Conversions from Yahoo! Hits.

There are so many people who use Google just as informative search, but not Yahoo! so much. Yahoo still has several loyal users who are pretty serious.

Just my 2 cents based on what is working for me

Concentrate on good solid content and decent SEO friendly navigation is my advice.
You shouldn't worry about any specific search engine, just make sure they all know about you.

Forrest is absolutely right, and there's a test all of you can do for yourselves to reveal this.

Pick a keyword that has some searches for it, but not a lot of competition (if all else fails, your name is usually a safe bet as long as you're not John Smith). If you're a good enough SEO, you should be able to get it to rank #1 (not first page, #1) on both Yahoo! and Google. Then measure the traffic you get for each phrase. I usually find it's about a 10:1 to 15:1 ratio.

Side note: if you're really feeling froggy, you can extend this experiment to MSN, but the traffic you'll see from MSN will probably make you very sad and force you to eat bonbons and sit on the couch watching Oprah.

Not only that, relying on SEs as a primary source of traffic is, as Forrest again pointed out quite rightly, a dangerous exercise. You never know when an algorithm shakeup or a DC issue will occur, and it's "free traffic". Spread out your traffic sources with good content and organic referrals, and all the SEO issues go away in time.

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

Not only that, relying on SEs as a primary source of traffic is, as Forrest again pointed out quite rightly, a dangerous exercise. You never know when an algorithm shakeup or a DC issue will occur, and it's "free traffic". Spread out your traffic sources with good content and organic referrals, and all the SEO issues go away in time.

When I first came to this site, I thought people liked to talk like this to confuse people. You know, it's all about speaking in riddles so no one will understand you. Like that little green dude from Star Wars.

Then after about a month, I learned it was because I had a pretty minor case of cranial rectal syndrome. For anyone reading this, it's not that Adam is speaking in riddles, it's that he's speaking the plain truth, and we're all convinced there's some secret 20 minutes of work we can put in to outsmart everybody else, if we just find it. Adam isn't being simple, he's being truthful. There's no silver bullet but real work producing real quality.

Simple? Well gee golly whiz! That's a jim-dandy of a thing not to be! Hyukhyukhyuk!

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

Pick a keyword that has some searches for it, but not a lot of competition (if all else fails, your name is usually a safe bet as long as you're not John Smith). If you're a good enough SEO, you should be able to get it to rank #1 (not first page, #1) on both Yahoo! and Google. Then measure the traffic you get for each phrase. I usually find it's about a 10:1 to 15:1 ratio.

This is a really interesting test. If I still used Yahoo, I'd make a point to find a phrase I rank #1 for in both engines. And if they sent much traffic, I'd be curious at the differences between pages that rank in each engine. But, it's just not worth that much time ...

And when I say you really don't want more than 1/4 of your traffic from search, it's not that search engine traffic is bad. Actually, it tends to be better traffic in general, if you have a quality site, because it's what people are looking for. But no matter how much people love SEO, the SEs are out of our control; you don't want to depend on them. For every new visitor you get from organic search, you want to find three new visitors from other sources.

There's an upward spiral there ... as I connect with other photographers, travelers, hikers, and people who like one of my photos link to the pages it's on, it sends some traffic, and helps a little with SEO. Even better, it helps diversify your stream of visitors.

But no matter how much people love SEO, the SEs are out of our control; you don't want to depend on them. For every new visitor you get from organic search, you want to find three new visitors from other sources.

That was so well said, Forest!