Do you see search results changes on Yahoo?

My sites are jumping around on Yahoo

[itisgene]

Anyone see the samething on your area?
I have been tracking this quite a few weeks on Yahoo, (since there has been no Google changes lately.. :) )

My sites are up a few rankings across the board for most target keywords. I am seeing the increased traffic from Yahoo.

Also One of my newest sites(Lauched on March) has been ranked decently. The results seem to change (like Google's update) depending on when I check the results.

Any comment?

[jpell]

Was just about to post the same thing. This morning a particular page was #1 placement in SERP and now it's gone. Not even 5 pages in. Makes me wonder if they're not using CTR too. Also another wierd thing. site:www.mydomain.com brings up 13 of my pages. site:mydomain.com gives me 32 of my pages. mydomain then clicking the "more pages from this site" next to one of my results lists 14 of my pages. So what does that mean? How many pages do they really have indexed? Also, the page that has now gone missing is not listed in any of their results for indexed pages of my site. Just a bug or what? I swear I'll go nuts trying to figure G and Y! out. :)
JPell

[randle]

I am experiencing the same thing. Had some high positions with multiple sites that were very stable for a long time, no changes. This morning a bunch of them are gone, past 1,000.

Doesn't seem to be a penalty as I can bring the site up using the url, but it's awfully harsh just the same.

The Yahoo results have been interesting.

[atlrus]

For the past 2 months actually my website goes from #8 to disappearing from the top 200.
The weird thing is that this happens a few times a day, every day!
I have no idea why...

[seanpecor]

Part of the problem may be Yahoo's bizarro style of using what seems to be the search user's IP or account information to determine geography?

I monitor this potential issue every few days. For example, I'll get a geographic search referral like <twoword phrase boston> and I'll immediately bring up that Yahoo search page my site will be NOWHERE on that page. This isn't an isolated incident; it's become the rule lately. It's really lame.

I wonder if Yahoo is toying with the idea of using geolocation to, for example, change a search for <realtor> to <realtor boston> if they determine the search user is in Boston? And/or the geographic term <boston> would also weight your web server's geolocation (based on the netblock owner's location)? That would oh so unhelpful, especially if they're not notifying people that their search is being modified. It would also really hurt the value of Yahoo Search from a research and educational standpoint.

Oh well, something to keep monitoring anyhoo.

Sean.

[MrOwen]

I too had the same thing happen... Site launched first week of March with top 10 rankings in 3.5 weeks, then they just dissapeared. I don't know what to think of it.

[vega123]

I think Sean might be on to something. We had a site with lots of targeted geographically based pages that all disappeared from the rankings.

The pages are still indexed, but they are just not ranking at all anymore.

Has anyone else seen that same issue with geographically targeted pages?

Marc

[seanpecor]

vega123, what is unusual to me is that these geographic referrals from Yahoo are ongoing. However, when I visit the referring url to verify that my site is in the SERP - it isn't. It's baffling. That's what led me to my conclusion that these search users are being given search results different than mine because the Yahoo system has established that I'm at a different geographic location, and tailor their results accordingly.

Sean.

[edited by: DaveAtIFG at 12:18 am (utc) on May 9, 2004]
[edit reason] URL removed [/edit]

[rankme]

Something's definitely changing.

One of my sites was absent from Yahoo...2 or 3 pages in index. NO rankings.

Today I spot Yahoo traffic, click back, and find the site in the top of the SERPs.

Haven't investigated the reasons, or depth of changes, but it's very noticeable in the logs.

[Lippsy]

Just to verify others observations.

I am seeing the same thing here. From #1 yesterday to not in the top 200 today.

[cyberfyber]

Exactly the same thing here ever since my sites were included back into Yahoo's SERPs...going back about 2 months.

The numbers of visitors I get from Yahoo SERPs comes in waves by the way. During some instances, it'll seem that Yahoo will actually outdo Google which has always comprised about 75-80% of all my traffic.

[quantobasta]

After I have noticed changing serps within the same day I starting pinging search.yahoo.com after the search and found different ips corresponding to the different results. Here are the ips I have seen:

m3.search.vip.scd.yahoo.com 66.218.71.233
search-east-vip2.yahoo.com 216.109.117.133

[crobb305]

I saw major changes yesterday, but today it seems to have reverted back. My imagination?

[crobb305]

Has anyone else noticed the serp changes from May 6 are gone?

[jilla]

I see changes. A site I think was banned (though has pages in yahoo) was showing up for keywords on May 6th but now isn't... why do they include in index and yet not have results for these sites? Why not just exclude?

[zeus]

Mostly the sites are not moving so much around like on Google, but today I see some permanet changes like a update.

zeus

[crobb305]

On May 6, a site I also thought was banned reappeared for major keywords, now doesn't. In fact, today it looks just like the old index from 3 days ago. I don't know if they were testing something or if there is a very slow changeover to a new index.

[helenp]

All day yesterday in spain I saw results with more info to click on, today thatīs gone.
4th may I had an click from USA for a mayor keyword from yahoo search.

[quantobasta]

I believe the appearance of serps jumping around is a result of multiple yahoo databases. I have noticed different sets of serps correspond to the ip that search.yahoo.com is forwarding to. One way to see what ip you are currently accessing is to ping search.yahoo.com after your search. So far I have only seen two ips, 66.218.71.233 and 216.109.117.133 but I imagine there are more. The serps I get from each are different and one is not a subset of the other.

[helenp]

from spain this moment pinging www.yahoo.com: 216.109.117.108

there are severals.........

[recksul]

I have been waiting since March for Yahoo to spider pages other than my main page. My main page is all that they heve been showing with a few high keyword placements for terms included on that page. Now in the last few days I am not showing up for any search terms at all. If I take a positive approach, maybe it means they are going to finally include all my pages soon. Negatively, maybe they have dropped me altogether. What the hay-nonny-nonny.

[Marcia]

To be perfectly honest, I have no conception of what's going on or what people are seeing. For my own sites I'm not having a problem in the world with Yahoo. Everything is completely stable, right there in the same place every time I look. Sorry, I'd love to know what's happening but I just don't have a clue.

[helenp]

>>>I'd love to know what's happening but I just don't have a clue<<<<<

Most confusing thing in yahoo is their google backup or whatever,
pages seems to be indexed but are not to be showed in serps....ever been spidered by slurp.

I would like to know, why some sites have google backupfill, i e, pages not to be shown in serps, and when are they going to drop that......

[Marcia]

I haven't yet seen anything at Yahoo that even barely resembles Google. Maybe it's ISP or geographically dependent, that could be a possibility.

[helenp]

>>>I haven't yet seen anything at Yahoo that even barely resembles Google.<<<<

I mean pages indexed when you do search site: or more pages from... or http:www......

penalized sites have pages indexed that ever been spidered.......

These are not shown in serps, though serps is Inktomi,

this is confusing for webmasters that believe their sites is indexed...

[NLightN]

One of my sites moved from 114 in Google to #13. From #118 in Yahoo to no longer found in Yahoo. I'm not sure why, can't figure out what Yahoo is looking for these days.

Nothing used to trick engines, solid back links from topical sites. All pages cached by Yahoo.

Index page from this site has bounced around 100-140 for the past month, gone now...

[Jon_King]

A complete reshuffle in Y for several of our serps.

One serp points to an internal page. I've never had that with this site.

Another has some strange lower case company name as title, that seems from nowhere.

Yet in another we are not listed and the serps are really poor i.e. one page sites with little content.

Each of the above terms held the same poisition for over 6 months something is happening from here.

[bbonline]

Hi

I have had some strange problems with Yahoo.

First index pages disappeared and then all the websites. All websites can be found using www.prefix or exact domain name match but nowhere in serps. I had some great positions but all gone.

The only pages now in the index are pages that were in Inktomi in the year 2002 and 2003. Maybe Yahoo crashed and reverted to some old stuff.

I have some questions and it would great if some can help.

Does Yahoo penalize sites with the same IP address if one is considered bad?

Does Yahoo penalize sites with link partners?

Does Yahoo penalize sites that are performing too well with them?

[atlrus]

Yahoo is using the exact same results Google shows...
amin

[2_much]

I have yet to see Google on Yahoo, they might be testing something or displaying different results by IP, they are known for doing this.