As I remember it, the "highly relevant" results on Google were almost exclusively determined by a $299 Yahoo! Directory listing or a DMOZ directory listing. If you could get the Yahoo Directory or DMOZ to link to you with your preferred anchor text - you were all but guaranteed the #1 spot on Google. Of course it didn't mean as much back then, but boy was it easy.
This brings back a lot of memories. Like you said, Yahoo! was referring all of the traffic. For those of you that weren't around or don't remember - the Yahoo Directory was based on the alphabet, like the phone book. I had to beat out AAAUsedLaptops.com with exclamation-point-used-laptops.com (listed as "! Used Laptops"). No wonder Google won.
There were plenty of good websites in those days that had (and still have) DMOZ listings absolutely for free. That's even more so for the earliest sites listed on Yahoo back in its human-curated days.
This brings back a lot of memories. Like you said, Yahoo! was referring all of the traffic. For those of you that weren't around or don't remember - the Yahoo Directory was based on the alphabet, like the phone book. I had to beat out AAAUsedLaptops.com with exclamation-point-used-laptops.com (listed as "! Used Laptops"). No wonder Google won.