Gone from Yahoo

RHunt · #1 (**permalink**) 09-01-2006, 06:49 PM

Hi all!

Our website has been on the first page of results for a popular search term in Yahoo for well over a year...most of the time at No. 6. Four - five days ago it fell to number 45 where it still remains. I've seen small hiccups do similar things over the past months, but they straightened out in 24 hours or less. Still on page one in Google and MSN, though. No substantial changes in site content, but regular updating (changing or removing listings) approx. every two weeks. I've read the theory about Yahoo removing stale content, but feel we update often enough for this to not be a factor.

Does anyone have any ideas on what's happening and how to get back to old page one? Thanks!

pcm535 · #2 (**permalink**) 09-07-2006, 11:00 PM

We have had a similar problem - help!!

RHunt · #3 (**permalink**) 09-08-2006, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pcm535

We have had a similar problem - help!!

I wish I had some type of a handle on what was going on. Still bouncing between number 42 and 45 after years at number 6...

Chicago? I miss Geno's Pizza in the cellar on Rush Street.

murphypj · #4 (**permalink**) 09-08-2006, 07:13 PM

Yeah, not sure what they're up to, but I'm experiencing similar results.

As a guitar songs site, I've featured 1-5 for a few 'generic' phrases, like 'guitar chords', 'chords and lyrics', 'song chord' - even #1 for 'chords' ( a fairly ambiguous term ) for several years.

While some terms have held their position, others have dropped to mid-20's spots. Looking at the current top 10 SERPs, there seems to be a pattern of 'niche' chord sites - either genre-specific, like 'Nepali song chords', artist-specific ( 'chords and lyrics' shows a Neil Diamond page at #1 ), and in some cases a top 10 result points to an individual song on a site.

I do update my site fairly regularly, but it seems to be smaller sites ( where adding say 10 songs would be a significant % increase in content ) which are benefitting from this update.

While I regularly roll up my sleeves and do battle with old adversaries and 'new kids on the block' ( no, not the crappy band! ) Y has generally thrown up top 10 SERPs which are very relevant to the search term - this doesn't seem to be the case right now.

There was a similar 'blip' about 5-6 months ago, which only lasted a few weeks, so I guess I'll just hang fire before taking any action.

Anyone else see any patterns in the sites usurping their hard-won SERPs?

PJ

fctoma · #5 (**permalink**) 09-08-2006, 07:18 PM

we've remained stable in Yahoo... haven't noticed any differences. We do software and I've been in SEO for almost 10 years now and haven't really had problems with them, ever. I have quite a few #1-3 rankings with them for our key KWs.

I also read about "fresh content". Not sure I buy into that "claim" by the search engines. I've had many, many pages come up #1-10 for 5 years plus... some of them haven't been updated in a year, and most of them have 100,000 competing results.

Have a great weekend!

RHunt · #6 (**permalink**) 09-08-2006, 07:39 PM

Thanks murphypj and fctoma.

It really helps to hear others experiences with the same sort of thing!

craigmn3 · #7 (**permalink**) 09-08-2006, 08:09 PM

Maybe Yahoo has learned from Google and did an update. On my main key word I have been in the top ten for years. But there is someone who has ALWAYS been above me and he vanished. Yahoo did an update. The tweaked the algorithm and we get to find out how

Craig Web Geek
Edited by mod Webnauts. You may have links to your web site only in your signature.

amazonian · #8 (**permalink**) 09-08-2006, 08:34 PM

I had used my blog and a MyYahoo page to get websites indexed quickly in Yahoo. But when I tried it yesterday (blogging about a new website I'm building), the MyYahoo page says there have been no updates to the blog in the past seven days.

Following the MyYahoo 'set automatic update frequency' help instructions didn't help either...I couldn't find them where the help file said the controls were.

I've ranked #2 for the phrase "solar home site" for awhile...probably within three days of blogging the site and adding the blog to MyYahoo. I see I also rank at #4, and my articles are referred to on sites ranked at #6 and #10.

Perhaps, however, it is Google who is sleeping. Clicking the Blog links on the MyYahoo page returns a Server Error 500 (though I can login to the blog). Those should pull up blogspot.com.

This same site, www.solarhomesite.com, had a page rank of 4 on Google awhile back. When Google cleaned house the last time, the site was "deindexed." In other words, someplace where you can check on whether or not a site has been crawled, www.solarhomesite.com was not found. (where is that indexing checker?) Anyway, no page rank whatsoever.

So, someone's sleeping! ;-)

murphypj · #9 (**permalink**) 09-08-2006, 09:21 PM

Amazonian said:

Quote:

I've ranked #2 for the phrase "solar home site" for awhile

My issue here is with 'relevance'. If there has been a sudden surge of great new sites offering global ( or at least US ) solar home site services, that's just competition. If the #1 Yahoo position shows a site offering solar home services in Kuala Lumpur ( ok, it doesn't, but there are some questionable top 10 rankings ), then something has gone wrong.

From my angle, I would expect that anyone in search of Nepali songs would use 'Nepali' in the search phrase, ditto for 'Neil Diamond' etc. I have only suffered a slight drop in searches for resources for particular artists ( greenday guitar chords went from #2 to #4, but at least the top 3 SERPs are sites providing Greenday chords ).

Surrendering positions on more general terms, where your site supplies a variety of matching pages, to a site providing a subset of these resources is a bit hard to swallow.

PJ

Seminole386 · #10 (**permalink**) 09-09-2006, 01:13 AM

My sites have retained a PR of 6 or higher. I did try building five sites around a community and linking all together; I now have PR 1 through 5. It appears back links are being given more weight.

amazonian · #11 (**permalink**) 09-09-2006, 07:06 PM

Seminole, Are you saying your site that once ranked 6 is now only 1-5? Or is it still a 6 and the spoke sites are 1-5? Which way are the 'backlinks' going?

wilderness · #12 (**permalink**) 09-09-2006, 08:54 PM

Funny you should mention Yahoo. I've just dropped from #4 spot that I've held for the keywords 'Nimpo Lake' and 'Anahim Lake' to #12 and #20 in Yahoo. It's only happened in the last few days and some less relevent pages have moved up above me. In Google I still hold my position but I lost page rank on all pages but the home page a couple of months ago and no one seems to be able to tell me why. Over the previous year all pages built up to 3 except for gallery pages which were at 2 and my older blog entries were gaining page rank. Now...zip. Lots of relevant content, blogs, no black hat. A little short on back links but it's a fairly new site and I thought that would come with time. Sure wish I knew what was going on and how to repair whatever it is I've done wrong.

clasione · #13 (**permalink**) 09-10-2006, 03:53 AM

I am beginning to really hate Yahoo...... Did you know that even their normal search results could be mixed with paid listings... What a mess....
More info:
http://clasione.blogspot.com/2006/09...t-express.html

Clint1 · #14 (**permalink**) 09-10-2006, 11:50 AM

After seeing this thread I thought I'd check, and I'm APPALLED at the BS I see in Y SERPS!! "Non-relevant" isn't the word for it, it's insane! My relevant pages have also dropped in favor of bull$h!t that has nothing to do with the search!

**ctabuk** · #15 (**permalink**) 09-11-2006, 05:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clasione

I am beginning to really hate Yahoo...... Did you know that even their normal search results could be mixed with paid listings... What a mess....
More info:
http://clasione.blogspot.com/2006/09...t-express.html

Correct, Yahoo is pro PPC advertisers and especially pro MIVA advertisers. This is NOT natural search results and I for one am no longer recommending paying Yahoo for their Directory submission scheme.

Clint1 · #16 (**permalink**) 09-11-2006, 05:18 AM

Well, I recommend we all send our comments to Y, and spread the word even more at other forums...(which are also showing a lot of Y topics such as this!) If enough people complain to them and STOP USING them, they'll have to do something about it.

**ctabuk** · #17 (**permalink**) 09-11-2006, 05:34 AM

Agreed, in fact I have posted this in my place and Warriors

shushus · #18 (**permalink**) 09-11-2006, 11:15 AM

Bad or good is Yahoo we cannot ignore the site position in its search. My opinion, that Yahoo likes the fresh content more than Google does in its position estimation as well as low PR links from many new directories, that are almost useless for Google. You can also add some simple cgi directory to your site to point to your own pages or use some other way to create new types of links inside your site, it seems to me, that Yahoo likes that.

**ctabuk** · #19 (**permalink**) 09-11-2006, 11:33 AM

If only that were true. Yes optimize for it, add new content, do everything you should. But the facts outweigh the logic. I have 5 sites above mine, all unchanged in ages, all lacking in depth of content, mine is updated all the time, its Yahoo Directory listed, but the others all advertise with MIVA.

**incrediblehelp** · #20 (**permalink**) 09-12-2006, 01:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RHunt

Does anyone have any ideas on what's happening and how to get back to old page one? Thanks!

OK I have seen clients and even my own websites have this happen in Yahoo and every time they pointed to me to cross linking of websites. So are you cross linking websites with similar content?

wilderness · #21 (**permalink**) 09-12-2006, 01:09 AM

OK I have seen clients and even my own websites have this happen in Yahoo and every time they pointed to me to cross linking of websites. So are you cross linking websites with similar content?[/quote]

Can you tell me what you mean by cross linking?
Thanks
J

**incrediblehelp** · #22 (**permalink**) 09-12-2006, 01:18 AM

You have 3-4-5 websites selling "bikes" all with very similar or same content. Somewhere within the content itself, in the navigation or even footer they all link to each other heavily. You do this because you think your visitors would want to see a related website, but the Yahoo editors feel that heavy promotion (cross linking) between websites you own is not a quality experience. So they yank you.