Yahoo Search Results

Is Yahoo using rotating format?

[JoeHouse]

Hell All

I have been checking my stats on referral links on yahoo, and it appears lately that when I follow the link back to Yahoo it takes me to the keword result page where it came from but my URL is now gone!

Just wondering is Yahoo using rotating search results?

Very strange, my links are usually very reliable but lately when checking yahoo it appears very inconsistant. Is anybody else noticing this?

[soapystar]

yes. My site is penalised but i still get 20 or so odd yahoo referrals on keywords. When i try the same search my site is not to be found, very strange.

[helenp]

well I am penalized, and the yahoo clicks i get are all from my images, do a search on images and you proberly get results from your web.

[JoeHouse]

Is the revolving door of results always going to be handled this way by Yahoo?

[newwebster]

Cookies

For some reason Yahoo will send out random cookies that will present another set of serps than the most viewed for certain keywords. If you so happen to actually pick up one of these cookies, you will always be viewing a different set of serps for certain keywords until your cookie is deleted. My observation has been that these separate serps contain more directory listings. I believe that Tim had mentioned that they were working on integrating more directory listings to the serps. Maybe this is part of that project and these new serps are a sneak peak of what will be in the future. If my memory serves correctly, they did this for a month or two when they were converting over from Google. You would pick up a cookie that would display the Ink/Yahoo serps, but if you deleted the cookie, it would go back to Google results. I wish Tim or Mike could elaborate on this if possible.

[Tim]

I wouldnt say we are moving towards a more directory approach. What I said is that we are making sure that we are including all the valuable Yahoo Directory sites that abide by our content guidelines.

In response to the different results question: I said at pubcon, Yahoo is always testing many variations of our search.

[newwebster]

"What I said is that we are making sure that we are including all the valuable Yahoo Directory sites that abide by our content guidelines."

I did see more valuable directory listings in these test serps for my industry. So it troubles me that these do not stick around. Also, this is the only time when I will see my listing replaced by the directoy listing which was what was presented through the Google results before the switch over. I am assuming that if your site abides by the content guidelines and is in the directory as well, then your site's listing will be replaced by the directory listing. And I am assuming that if this has not happened yet, that it will eventually.

[Tim]

I think when you are referring to directory content you are referring to the title and descriptions rather than the URLs. I am referring to the URLs/sites. I think that is where the misunderstanding lies.
Tim

[walkman]

"My site is penalised but i still get 20 or so odd yahoo referrals on keywords. When i try the same search my site is not to be found"
do they still have Google backfill?

[Leosghost]

personally I think if "y" goes the way of "g" whereby a directory which claims to have info about my site ranks higher in the serps (for a search on my site )than my site itself ..

then "y" will have shot itself in the foot when barely out of the starting blocks .....

(even if "g" thinks thats the best way to generate revenue..)

and the only sound we'll hear will be moneysoft rolling around the floor and laughing out loud ....

[newwebster]

Leosghost

That is not what we are talking about here. When we are talking about directories it is reference to the Yahoo directory.

Tim,

Yes you are correct, this is what I have been talking about. Sorry for the misunderstanding. It is really a mess because when I get one of these cookies, I see my directory description for one keyword search and a regular listing for other keyword searches. I am seeing as many as 3 different title/descriptions for my index page: 1)mydomain.com 2)www.mydomain.com 3)directory listing. Mike said he was going to look into the mydomain and www.mydomain issue.
Even without the cookie, I can see other sites that will have a directory title/desc for one keyword search and have a regular title/desc for another keyword search. There just is not any consistency any the serps as of yet.

[Leosghost]

Sorry newwebster ..just that after months of what "g" serves up one gets a little jumpy ...

[cabos]

I find it amazing and disgusting, that Yahoo take a sites images for their image search results but not the content.

Its also amazing to me that a domain that I registered that only has a link to my site, comes up on Yahoo's serps as showing all the content from my site.

I have written to Yahoo numerous times to get rid of that page from their serps with no result.

Yahoo has plenty of cash and can afford to resolve problems that they consider to be major. It is obvious that Yahoo doesnt consider addressing the fact that many small commercial sites arent showing up in SERPS or some deviant form of the sites show a priority.

They are fooling us into believing that they give a damn.

[mfishy]

We have a few sites that have been rotating in and out of the serps for over a month now. Usually go top 5 or so to gone and then reappear in a few days. This happens at least once per week. Many, many other webmasters have noted the same thing.