Yahoo Places Obtrusive Ads in Middle of Local Knowledge Panels

When someone searches for your business on Yahoo, Yahoo serves up the standard local knowledge panel we are all familiar with.  But they are also placing a pretty obtrusive ad right in the middle of the knowledge panel.

Here is an example:

You can see that Yahoo is running ad extensions in the ads to make them more noticeable and detract from the business featured in the knowledge panel.  I spotted favicons, sitelinks and ratings.

Another example:

Here is how they show within the search results.

They are definitely showing competing ads for the business shown in the knowledge panel, and for competitive market areas – such as for the insurance listing above, sites could definitely be losing traffic to them.  And I can see how many of those who skim would blindly click the ad, thinking it leads to the website for the business featured in the knowledge panel, especially since many of them don’t have a link to the business, such as the Nordstrom example.

They also display ads in the same position when you click through to the expanded map listings, again with competitors, as you see a Macy’s ad on a Nordstrom result.

These ads are displayed directly below the information of the business, but on top of the reviews Yahoo is displaying.

This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise though.  Yahoo is extremely ad heavy in their search results, so it is only natural that ads would be here as well.

Neither Google nor Bing have ads displayed in the local knowledge panels of businesses.

Ads within the local knowledge panel in Yahoo seems to be displayed for all users in all locations.

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Jennifer Slegg

Founder & Editor at The SEM Post

Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing, working in the industry for almost 20 years. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, State of Search, Brighton SEO and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.

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