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Another thread is discussing Google's 3 databases: [webmasterworld.com...] - Could this be affecting my rankings in Yahoo? We had been ranking 1-3 in keyword searches, but now not showing up in first 2-3 pages.
The site uses frames. I've read this is not a good thing. Could this be the problem? We had good ranking (with frames) but within the last month have steadily been losing position.
Could we have been banned? We have a corporate listing in Yahoo, which shows up in a search of the company name, but keyword searches are dismal at best.
The company has several divisions and from what I've read in the forums I'm suggesting (in my report) that we change to theme-based sites. (Will also do away with frames.)
Anxiously awaiting replies...
The search facility on this site (at the top of the screen) is a powerful tool and I suggest you make it your best buddy. There are lots of threads to catch up on and study.
I'll rally some of the troops here to help give you some pointers. Sometimes, one focused question at a time will tend to illicit a good response from the many hundreds of WmW members.
You just need to optimize the site to show up under keywords, you aren't banned. Take a read through at [searchengineworld.com...] and this site to get the basics down of what the engines are looking for. There is no hard and fast solution, but I think you have a good starting point. Whenever you can include good content on your site related to your industry and target keywords, that is a good thing.
Yahoo ranks by title, description, what category you are in and click through data. If searches on your primary keywords don't bring up your site at all, I don't know what to tell you. If you show up low, a few clicks a day will help :)
A listing in the Yahoo db is powered by humans, and only when their directory fails, you get to see the google.yahoo results, which I believe is a subset of the google db, or less total documents.
Frames could be the problem with the Google side of things, but that won't effect your Yahoo listing, because people don't have (many) issues with framed sites. Spiders, however, have historically had problems.
Could we have been banned? We have a corporate listing in Yahoo, which shows up in a search of the company name, but keyword searches are dismal at best.
Banning might occur with Google, but usually if they find you doing something contrary to their view of indexing, eg, spamdexing, keyword stuffing, or spamming. Something like this wouldn't have an impact on Yahoo...only the portion powered by google.
Um...does that help?
I'm not good with directories, and since this post is here, I'm thinking you are more interested in the Yahoo side of things than the google one...if that's not the case, I'd recommend popping in over at the google forum here:
[webmasterworld.com...]
I hope this helps.
Jeremy
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And thank you, JamesR. I was most concerned about the prospect of being banned. Good to know I'm on the right track with my optimization strategy.
Now, it's time to put what I've learned into practice!
"The company has several divisions and from what I've read in the forums I'm suggesting (in my report) that we change to theme-based sites. (Will also do away with frames.) "
This is a great idea. If possible, try to set up an alternate domain that is more "keyword" focused and submit that to yahoo. Unless your company is large and relies on branding, being found by company name doesn't help much for traffic.
If you set up another domain for Yahoo, then you could "theme" and optimize it and either use this as the main company site, or if this is not possible, use it as a smaller site pointing to the main site.
Obviously, this is very subjective but if you want to rank well in Yahoo you have to really focus on the keyword (wherever possible: yahoo category, title and description).
Good luck!
