YAHOO Update Delivers Jagger Black Eye?

[greeneagle]

YAHOO Update Delivers Jagger Black Eye?

IMO -YAHOO compounded the Jagger update last night by delivering a serious blow. If Yahoo got scent that GOOGLE was demoting Sites listed in the YAHOO Directory in the Jagger update…

Our Jagger casualty Site suddenly jumped in YAHOO, in last night’s update:

Perforating Guns from #10 to #1
Laser Machining Houston from #2 to #2 (stayed the same)
Metal Machining from #74 to #6
Laser Machining from #4 to #2

A Yahoo update during Jagger is interesting… The divergence between the 2 SE’s algs make it even more interesting.

Anyone else seeing similar changes?

Ken

[crankydave]

Just checked my Yahoo SERP's. Dropped for almost all terms. Spanked again.

Dave

[Blayne]

I dropped a bit on some search terms but not on others. Used to be top ten for most all terms but page 2 and 3 for some now. Could be the panic changes I made for google affecting yahoo or it was just going to happen. (?) Not a real bad adjustment however. The biggest thing I notice is my main competitors are high up in Yahoo and have been which is how it should be ,while with jagger there are many irrelevant sites mixed in the results. On one search for wholesale silver companies there is 4 retail at the top and a metaphysical massage company??? on page 2 and you can't find some of the actual heavy hitters. :) Things are still changing daily on different data centers however so it may still settle back to normallcy.

Blayne
http://wholesalesilver.safeshopper.com[/url]

[spiceboy]

Not sure about this theory.

My site went from 18 to 7 on Google.com and from 11 to 1 Google.co.uk for my most competitive keywords "indian food", "indian spices" etc. and has stayed there.

My Yahoo directory listing has always been in the top 5 for these and similar keywords and still is - No 2 on Yahoo.com and No 1 on Yahoo.co.uk.

Hardly seems like Google is penalising sites with Yahoo directory listings does It?

[greeneagle]

I don't know what to think about the apparent divergence in 2 simultaneous leading SE alg changes/updates.

Anyone want their turn at prophecy?

Ken

[emils]

Originally Posted by greeneagle

I don't know what to think about the apparent divergence in 2 simultaneous leading SE alg changes/updates.

Anyone want their turn at prophecy?

Ken

Hell I don't know what's going on, but on all the sites we have that were getting good yahoo listings, traffic from yahoo has suddenly dropped 20-25% in the last two days. This is too much of a coincidence... all of them at once?

(scratching head)

[aaron2005]

greed?

corruption?

world domination?

he who owns the data-stream owns you and me?

cold

hard

steel

without

emotion

[nipplecharms1]

Originally Posted by crankydave

Just checked my Yahoo SERP's. Dropped for almost all terms. Spanked again.

Dave

Sorry to hear that. Can I ask where you check for Yahoozille?

Thanks

Michael

[crankydave]

Originally Posted by nipplecharms1

Sorry to hear that. Can I ask where you check for Yahoozille?

Thanks

Michael

Oh well... you win some, you lose some. Need a bigger hammer!

You can check Yahoozala HERE

Dave

[nipplecharms1]

Originally Posted by crankydave

Oh well... you win some, you lose some. Need a bigger hammer!

You can check Yahoozala
HERE

Dave

Thanks. Note to self... spell your keywords correctly before you panic. Jeez!

m

[aaron2005]

HAHA!!! @ Nipplecharms! ;-)

[crankydave]

Originally Posted by nipplecharms1

Thanks. Note to self... spell your keywords correctly before you panic. Jeez!

m

ROFL! For some of my KW's I rank much higher for the plural than the singular. Like page #1 for the plural and page #5 for the singular. Have to remember that when doing some individual checks. Prevents brain from exploding. :)

Dave

[DrTandem1]

Yes, an e-commerce site I manage that was dropped from #3 to #23 to #17 to #21 and currently at #19 on Google since this update, has bounced from #5 to #1 on Yahoo.

[severin]

(this is my first post but I've been lurking for a while now)

No question about it. My main site took a major hit with 'Jagger' (nowhere to be found in a search for our main keywords) but as of this morning we've moved up in Yahoo AND MSN. On Yahoo we've been languishing on #23 but are now #9. On MSN we've moved from #30+ to #3 and seemed to have settled at #7.

[aaron2005]

A well done website should get #1 for all it's keywords on MSN.

Yahoo is a little harder.

Google currently sucks major ass but I am keeping the faith.

[espectations]

Hi,

I see no difference except for internet texting where I am now no.10 vs nowhere yesterday:

3/11/05
streaming sms = 1
internet texting
bar code sms = 5
sending wap bookmarks = 9
bulk websms = 2
bulk sms =19
bulksms = 5
unicode sms = 7

4/11/05
streaming sms = 1
internet texting = 10
bar code sms = 5
sending wap bookmarks = 9
bulk websms = 2
bulk sms =19
bulksms = 5
unicode sms = 7

If anything this update did me a bit of a favor.

[Blayne]

Yahoo! No pun intended but this is my first 3 way :)

Yahoo,google and MSN all updating at once?


Blayne

[jaydilla]

I noticed this change right away. ranked top 10 for the term hiv on yahoo for a little while now roughly #7 and bam dropped to #26. My taco bell site went from #8 to #4. My hiv sight more heavily seod than the taco bell one but also had more of the same anchor text on inbound links, as my taco bell one had more of a mix to them. but my pr on the hiv site jumped this week from 0 to 5.

[magic_majax]

first check #6 & #7 of 12,000,000
second check #2 & #8 of 72,400,000
third check #3 of 29,200,000
fourth check #7 of 8,590,000
fifth check #2 & #3 of 760,000 <-- pet search
sixth check nowhere much of 134,000 <-- pet :(
seventh check #5 of 12,400 <--- pet :)
eighth check #1 of 1,720,000
ninth check #3 and #5 of 17,100,000
tenth check nowhere much of 33,300,000
eleventh check #20 10,700,000
twelth check nowhere of ????
thirteenth (page specific check for twelth) #1 of 1,060,000
fourteenth check (genre specific check for twelth) #3 & #4 of 1,070,000
------

The twelth check still contains a 404 in its <link> tags I expect but the valid page linking to it comes up #1, or #3 & #4

these tell me it's likely yahoo has spidered my site in the past 36 hours, since I corrected 404 is <link> tags

Disclaimer: these are all "niche" searches - they are only to practice SEO and try to get people in the arts to read my stuff - it's not exactly high commerce, though I am competing with amazon, etc. on some.

They are all really pet searches since I do it for fun.

I'm really happy with the results.

[magic_majax]

Originally Posted by crankydave

Oh well... you win some, you lose some. Need a bigger hammer!

You can check Yahoozala HERE

Dave

Thanks for the link, I've never seen that before.

[dburdon]

I have a client with a one word keyword search term which generates 2,500 searches per month.

The client's web site is No.1 on MSN, No.3 on Yahoo and until 2 weeks ago was ranked No.8 on Google. Today its ranked at No. 95. This has only happened to one of the key search terms. All the other search terms are rock solid - even post Jagger.

The client's second most important term is a two word search term, that is an appendage to the one word keyword term. This generates 1,200 searches per month and is slightly more focused on the client's core business. The client is ranked No.3 on MSN, No.4 on Yahoo and No.4 on Google. A similar story can be told about the 3rd most important term. Etc, etc.

Strange, but only the largest term seems affected.Yet that search term forms combinations with other search terms that haven't moved.

[aaron2005]

Originally Posted by jaydilla

I noticed this change right away. ranked top 10 for the term hiv on yahoo for a little while now roughly #7 and bam dropped to #26. My taco bell site went from #8 to #4. My hiv sight more heavily seod than the taco bell one but also had more of the same anchor text on inbound links, as my taco bell one had more of a mix to them. but my pr on the hiv site jumped this week from 0 to 5.

hiv and tacos? what are you a major spammer? lol!

[crankydave]

Originally Posted by dburdon

I have a client with a one word keyword search term which generates 2,500 searches per month.

The client's web site is No.1 on MSN, No.3 on Yahoo and until 2 weeks ago was ranked No.8 on Google. Today its ranked at No. 95. This has only happened to one of the key search terms. All the other search terms are rock solid - even post Jagger.

The client's second most important term is a two word search term, that is an appendage to the one word keyword term. This generates 1,200 searches per month and is slightly more focused on the client's core business. The client is ranked No.3 on MSN, No.4 on Yahoo and No.4 on Google. A similar story can be told about the 3rd most important term. Etc, etc.

Strange, but only the largest term seems affected.Yet that search term forms combinations with other search terms that haven't moved.

This is what I have been watching as well. My more heavily searched terms were hit the hardest (although they appear to be rebounding a bit) regardless of the number of results that are returned. If there was some sort of advertising tie-in (I'm of the belief at this point there isn't) this makes perfect sense as it would likely generate the most revenue.

Was "Joker/Jagger/Dagger" some sort of "experiment" to see what "upsetting" the most heavily searched terms would generate in ad revenue?

Dave

[infowizards]

We have a strange situation. Our PR dropped on Google (we had way too many outboundlinks) but surprisingly we increased dramatically for many of our keywords.

We went from page 3 to page one on yahoo and google for link exchange (yahoo) and free link exchange (google) etc.

We've reworked the site some and I think it's helped but I'm not sure if this is the reason for this increase.

[Feydakin]

Originally Posted by crankydave

Was "Joker/Jagger/Dagger" some sort of "experiment" to see what "upsetting" the most heavily searched terms would generate in ad revenue?

Dave

Could it be put in the same category as Amazon's targetted dynamic pricing from a few years ago where they used past buying history to adjust the prices of items on the fly because you would most likely still buy them even if they were a couple of dollars more??

I would hope not, but anymore I wouldn't out it past any public company to try anything to make more money..

Steve

[kgun]

nipplecharms1 wrote:

Thanks. Note to self... spell your keywords correctly before you panic. Jeez!

m


ROFL! For some of my KW's I rank much higher for the plural than the singular. Like page #1 for the plural and page #5 for the singular. Have to remember that when doing some individual checks. Prevents brain from exploding. :)

Dave

There is a niche for wrongly spelled KW's, with low competition and relatively high usage. Kw's are according to the rumours much more important for Yahoo than for Google.

[crankydave]

Originally Posted by kgun

nipplecharms1 wrote:

Thanks. Note to self... spell your keywords correctly before you panic. Jeez!

m


ROFL! For some of my KW's I rank much higher for the plural than the singular. Like page #1 for the plural and page #5 for the singular. Have to remember that when doing some individual checks. Prevents brain from exploding. :)

Dave

There is a niche for wrongly spelled KW's, with low competition and relatively high usage. Kw's are according to the rumours much more important for Yahoo than for Google.

Good point.

As well as alternately spelled KW's such as "jewelry" and "jewellery".

Dave

[kgun]

edited to KW's are.

[greeneagle]

Is the "Dust" settling on the YAHOO update:

Update:

Original:

Perforating Guns from #10 to #1
Laser Machining Houston from #2 to #2 (stayed the same)
Metal Machining from #74 to #6
Laser Machining from #4 to #2

Current:

Perforating Guns from #10 to #1 - dropped to #2
Laser Machining Houston from #2 to #2 (stayed the same) - rose to #1
Metal Machining from #74 to #6 - dropped to #8
Laser Machining from #4 to #2 - Now #s 2&4

That still works for me! - Even though still wielding the Jagger Dagger. Most of our SE traffic on this Site has always been from YAHOO.

I really appreciate the "cleanliness" of the YAHOO update compared to GOOGLES Jagger (Dagger). That bodes well for a company that seems to respect everyone in the community, and their time!

Ken

Ken

[Blayne]

I am still moving up and down but only slightly in Yahoo for most. I got killed on one of my main search terms but I believe I know why and will fix.

Not to change the subject and this may have been brought up in another thread but on google I noticed that alot of the backlinks we had have switched to supplemental result. Many are the directories. Anyone notice this?

Hey post number 50 :)

Blayne

[laurynsmith]

While I noticed the Jagger update helped many of our search terms, this Yahoo update really put the hurt on us. Page 1 to Page ? on our top 5 search terms. Even a blog that isn't updated regularly beat out ours, which is #1 on google and msn.

Is Yahoo blacklisting websites? That is what it looks like to me, because I couldn't find us. We do not do any optimization that is not completely "white hat."

[greeneagle]

Hello laurynsmith,

Nice of you to post.
I see you are relatively new to WPW - Welcome!

Your post indicates that you are seeing the adverse to what many are seeing. You may hold a good "study" in hand that could help us all discern what's happening, since you experienced somewhat opposite in the updates.

Would you be willing to cite examples?

Ken

[incrediblehelp]

What is the most common thing everyone is seeing from the websites that are doing well in this latest Yahoo update?

I see many of them in the Yahoo directory.

[greeneagle]

Incredible,

My take is, and I do need to investigate further, is:

1) paid inclusion in the directory
2) clean, and even validated code

In that order!

After all, both when coupled together could indicate that a client/participant/webmaster/siteowner is more serious than the general public, hinting at more relativity.

Ken

[laurynsmith]

Hi Ken,

Thanks for your interest!

Specifically, we saw our two huge keywords move from #17 on Yahoo (and moving up very slowly) to a dramatic drop to #40 and #50.

As far as our page 1 keywords on Yahoo, they made moves such as #7 to #15, #2 to #14, #5 to #10 and #3 to #13.

Our page 1 Google words have remained the same, with our PR ranking going up from a 5 to a 6 after the Jagger change. We had about 25 pretty random search terms go up from page 3 or higher to page 1.

Sorry that I don't want to be too specific, if I can do more without airing all my laundry, please let me know how!!

Lauryn

[incrediblehelp]

green that is a good point. Is anyone here part of the Yahoo Ambassador Paid Inclusion program?

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/af/amb_sse.php

I am partnered with a larger agency that is in this program and I am going to dig into it further in the coming months. I am sure some great benefits and serp results can be seen by using it.

[laurynsmith]

We recently updated our code/content ratio to clean things up.

Don't know if that helps.

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by laurynsmith

We recently updated our code/content ratio to clean things up.
We are part of the paid inclusion program.
Don't know if that helps.

LOL, well are you seeing the rankings you want or not?

[laurynsmith]

"Specifically, we saw our two huge keywords move from #17 on Yahoo (and moving up very slowly) to a dramatic drop to #40 and #50.

As far as our page 1 keywords on Yahoo, they made moves such as #7 to #15, #2 to #14, #5 to #10 and #3 to #13.

Our page 1 Google words have remained the same, with our PR ranking going up from a 5 to a 6 after the Jagger change. We had about 25 pretty random search terms go up from page 3 or higher to page 1.

Sorry that I don't want to be too specific, if I can do more without airing all my laundry, please let me know how!!"

And on second thought, I do not participate in paid inclusion, just in Sponsored Search.....

Lauryn

[greeneagle]

Laury,

How often are you found by visitors seeking "Lodging Activities"?

Ken

[laurynsmith]

Ken-

I guess I didn't do a terribly good job disguising my business.

Two of our main keywords have to do with lodging and activities, of which we score #4 and #5 on google respectively. With Jagger, I saw a huge jump in specific activities like fly fishing and horseback riding. Individual types of lodging properties both rose and fell in rankings.

On Yahoo, we saw the reverse, the big drop in lodging and a moderate drop (from #9 to #14) in activities. Interestingly, a website that has been out of business for over a year is #10 (and I'm pretty sure that is a jump in rankings). Individual activities and properties also dropped.

Lauryn

[incrediblehelp]

hmmm, drops accross the board in Yahoo even with Paid Inclusion. That is strange.

[greeneagle]

I can't imagine that search string being utilized by potential visitors enough to place it prominently in a Title.

Think about it.

Ken

[paulmedema]

On the term: pressure washers, I went from #10 last month to #246 this month. Sux.

Paul

[greeneagle]

Hello Paul, Welcome to WPW!

Please post an URL or modify your "profile" to include "www" so we can find you.

Ken

[kkeim]

I am webmaster for www.websiteingredients.com.

Earlier I had more than 3000 pages indexed by yahoo. About 3 days back I searched in yahoo by "websiteingredients.com", to my surprise i just found 300 pages for which i used to get 3000+ listings.

Today I checked again and now i have at least 1200 pages listed. This really puzzles me.

[aaron2005]

Originally Posted by kgun

[b]nipplecharms1 wrote:
There is a niche for wrongly spelled KW's, with low competition and relatively high usage. Kw's are according to the rumours much more important for Yahoo than for Google.

I am very tempted to bot mispelled words. In my travels out here I have found a feeding frenzy going on and google obviously doesn't care.

You see what this update is doing to us? When you push someone into a corner and they are a fighter they will do what it takes for results to break free.

Tell me when the updates are over please, I have a major decision to make, there are people getting rich out here gaming the system and I need money support what I do for free. Pretty lame when you do something honest and get no results while those who game do, it's a fact still.

[swordfish-1]

My Google traffic for the month is about 1/6 what it was. My main keywords have plummeted almost out of sight. However, my traffic from MSN has trippled, and my main keywords are ranking from # 1 to #7 there.

My Yahoo traffic is also up quite a bit. Those same keywords have stayed about the same in the listings
between the #3 and #6 spots and one of the new ones
I recently added just made #2 after only about a week. I am not a paid inclusion member, but I do put
an ad in the classifieds once or twice a year.

Whats killing me, is that I used to rank at, or toward the top of all the SE's for the names of the products we sell. Now, all the bigger sites are getting the top spots.

I hope I won't have to become a "link slut" just adding links even if they have nothing to do with
our content. I would hate to have a fishing site
with office equipment and casino links in it.

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by swordfish-1

I hope I won't have to become a "link slut" just adding links even if they have nothing to do with our content. I would hate to have a fishing site with office equipment and casino links in it.

Dont do this. It will only hurt in the long run.

[espectations]

If you want to do something rather add pages with content to your site. A Fishing site should have a lot of stories - I am sure you can get those from your clients or start a series of fishing tips for your customers if you are not doing it already.

Jagger update, according to the experts, is a change in the way sites are indexed.

From what I have seen, information, content sites are getting preference unless you advertise with adwords.

Don't panic - do what you always do and do things that make sense. Add content for your customers which will bring eyeballs to your site, do not try to beat the search engines.

If you want to add a link make sure that it is highly relevant to your content. Things will settle down, it is just going to take a bit of time as always.

As an example - today I will upload a new section to my web site splitting the Bulk SMS from streaming SMS. It just so happened that my suppliers sent me the new coverage lists with features on Friday.

I am going to finish the pages and upload regardless of what the search engines do - why? - well it is important to my customers that they get this information.

I could give a hoot about these updates at all - the important people that should know about my site knows about it already because I did not just rely on the search engines to do the work for me.

I also networked in the industry - word-of-mouth advertising resulted and well, that is still the best form of advertising.

We will see where they dice falls by tomorrow.