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Is it really due to content guidelines or a matter of Yahoo Economics?
The sites that webmasters on WebmasterWorld.com have commented about being penalized all tend to be commercial sites, many in areas that Yahoo has their own commerical offerings.
The question this raises is whether these sites are being penalized because Yahoo has determined that certain categories of sites "compete" with Yahoo's own commercial interests?
Yahoo's feedback is read our content guidelines. Webmasters then run to change their sites based on what we think could have triggered a penalty when in fact, it has nothing to do with violating guidelines as many sites that are much more aggresive in link building, key word spamming, etc. show up in the SERPs.
Furthermore, what is the real reason Yahoo wont tell webmasters what guidline has been violated? Yahoo says it is that they will reveal their algo. Is their behind the scenes reasoning that if we say you violated guideline number 2, and you then fix the alleged problem, then they will "have to" include your site in their results - which goes against Yahoo Economics?
The fact is webmasters didn't react until they saw their traffic drop when Yahoo dropped the google results and kept Ink's penalties, myself included.
We could all have a complete ban in "Joe Schmoe's Search Engine" but you won't hear an uproar like what Yahoo has been getting until Joe Schmoe's starts controlling over 50% of search traffic. Next time an engine penalizes my site, no matter how small, I'm going to figure it out ahead of time.
That isnt true. Many larger sites have recently received penalties by Yahoo. These arent old Ink penalties.
I know of 2 great sites, rich with content, been on the web for years, probably receive 100,000 unique visitors per day between the two of them....and both just received penalties.
Yahoo, rightfully, is motivated by profit. What other reason is there for excluding quality sites from their index?
[edited by: WebGuerrilla at 1:58 am (utc) on April 22, 2004]
I'll take soapystars advice and contact Yahoo rather than rant.
[edited by: Symbios at 9:08 pm (utc) on April 20, 2004]
symbios
you have nothing to lose using the two emails given out by Tim.
webmasterworldfeedback@yahoo.com
reportsearchspam@yahoo-inc.com
i had replies from both.
<added>i never said dont rant :-)</added>
[edited by: soapystar at 9:14 pm (utc) on April 20, 2004]
one moment, the other domain is the biggest exchange converter site......... they are mixed up
should do an snapshot of this
<added>i never said dont rant :-)</added>
I didn't want those nice Yahoo people reading what I had written and taking revenge.
Ridiculous.
Like this:
www.another-big-company.com/cgi-bin/link?type=big-company&destination=http%3A//www.big-company.com
>>>
I know of 2 great sites, rich with content, been on the web for years, probably receive 100,000 unique visitors per day between the two of them....and both just received penalties.
>>>
Just to clarify, if we're talking about the same sites, these sites are in the SERPs but they have multiple domain names and are listed under at least one domain but not all of them. So they were mistaken thinking they weren't listed.
They are listed if you search for their company name. The listings though is what Yahoo I suppose considers "duplicate content".
The problem though is that their real sites arent listed and you wont find their websites showing up for any relevant key word searches.
Both these sites are considered to by many to be the best industry resources.
Why doesnt Yahoo penalize what it considers to be the "duplicate content", remove whatever search engine benefit that occurs because of a multiple domain and show the companies primary sites.
The natural progression of an online company is to expand and obtain links and share content. Why is Yahoo trying to dictate how others should conduct online business in the name of spam, when Yahoo itself is guilty of the same infractions?.
Today serp is diferent, from yesterday.
number 1 searching for their title is still the link from another PR9 site, totally diferent site content (not travel).
But the 3rd result.......... oh my god,
incredible their are 3 sites involved in an url. and if clicking goes to the site in question (the PR9)(the title belongs to them)
the url showed in yahoo is like this:
www.3rdsited.com/directory/http://thedomaininquestion.lycos.com
if you go to the 3rd site, and write directory.htm you redirectod to an afiliated site with complete diferent domain........
But this is the 301 problem yahoo seems have big troubbles to fix.
Yahoo/Overture has amended the content guidelines as follows: Prescription Drug
Sites: Prescription drug sites are those that sell prescription drug products,
as well as sites that offer information or links related primarily to the sale
of prescription drugs. If a site is a prescription drug site and either sells
prescription drugs or facilitates the sale of prescription drugs (via links),
these sites must take part in an Overture-approved qualification program.
SquareTrade, an independent third-party, manages Overture's approved
qualification program.
Its Absurd To Pay 200 For Review Plus 50 A month To Square Trade And Still Have To Deal With The slurpBot.
