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My refers are down from Yahoo by 2/3.
Has there been a Florida style update at Yahoo while everyone was at Pubcon?
I couldn't find some pages ranked at Yahoo at all, and when I typed in the domain to pull up yahoo's listing and looked at the CACHE, the cache had NO HIGHLIGHTING of the keywords, no highlighting at all.
In last couple days, 2 domains that were ranked #1 for a keyword dropped out of sight. I checked Yahoo's cache on these two pages, and no highlighting in the Yahoo cache of these 2 pages now. Has anyone else noticed this? Looks like this is kinda hit and miss as I checked other pages and those pages are highlighted. Maybe Yahoo has a Glich?
I don't know whether this is common at Yahoo or whether this is new. I really never paid attention to the cache on my pages before.
This recent update was made (IMO) to address the number of SEO'd sites in their index.
My theory is that they have realised their only competitive advantage is their directory so this new update is heavily bias towards site listed in the Y! directory and consequently those sites linked to by Y! directory listed sites.
e.g. dating, casino, Viagra, credit card
Still looking good over here!
Anyone else "see" Y directory influencing listings more now?
Yes, most definitely.
And the problem with that is that in my keyword focus, two of the sites in the Y directory are 301 Redirects for having moved to new more relevant domains (e.g., a former subdirectory site moved to its own domain URL years ago). But the Y directory still links to the old domain URLs. Because those old URLs are not being linked anymore by any current sites, they do not get SERP placement. And because the new URLs are not in the Y directory (exactly), Y has now reduced their placement in these latest SERPs.
Y really needs to fix that aspect of the Y directory, especially if they are going to rely that much more extensively on it.
Plus, considering that Y charges way too much for new directory placement, the directory is a bit outdated, still having links from its old original directory from back in the 1990s.
So, now we are seeing sites in the top of SERPs simply because they are still in the Y directory, even though they are not as relevant anymore.
It is also ironic that it appears the Y might be using its directory MORE at the same time that G$ seems to have possibly taken the G directory offline. :)
They've devalued blog links. That's interesting.
Even better if the blogs are Y! listed :)
But are the blog links the reason they're ranking well?
Incidentally MSN updated last week, they seem to be quicker than Yahoo. Pages that went up on the 6th and 7th of this month are pulling MSN traffic, that's how I happened to notice.
a client's site is #1 in the directory for keyword-keyword.com in a very competitive area and was buried in the main index until today they are #9.
It might be that Y is planning on capitalizing the directory as their method for profits. Like G$ already did with their dishonest natural SERPs, Y could be distorting their natural SERPs too (but this way, Y might be choosing to tie SERP listings to Y directory listings), as their way to force webmasters to pay the excessively-priced annual Y directory listing-inclusion recurring fees.
Y's "freebie" offer at their suggest-a-site URL (below) never gets a site actually listed in the Y directory.
[add.yahoo.com...]
(Just change the number in the query-string for other Y subdirectories.)
Y actually seems to currently think that it is reasonable to ask $299 per year per site listing in the Y directory -- and even then, there is no guarantee of even being listed in the Y directory.
One can only hope this is not Y's plan. If Y is taking this route, though, then they will truly be Y$ indeed.
I'm not paying for SiteMatch no matter how hard you push me Y! You can't tell me that it is my site's fault as I'm using the same scripting, the same servers, the same domains and my domain registrations never skipped a beat. You've had them in your index for almost two years so you can't tell me "they couldn't be found by your spider" either ...
Im must admit im getting a little cheesed off by all this.
What are dishonest natural SERPS?
Natural SERPs ("Search Engine Rank Pages") are supposed to be the untouched algorithmicly-determined results of an honest algo, that proven authority sites obviously end up in high SERP positions as a matter of their proven authority in any legitimate search engine SERPs.
A dishonest search engine company, even as they seek to deceive people into believing that their SE algo and SERPs are legitimate, and as motivated purely by unlimited and unfettered greed, actually manipulate the SERPs in order to blackmail proven authority sites to pay to be found or not be found at all. The search engine actually TARGETS such proven authority sites, reduces their SERP position to a point of uselessness, and then such authority sites are more or less blackmailed to pay the search engine for advertising ---or not be found.
Companies are legally free to list any site in any order they choose, that is their right. There is no such thing as a "right" to high SERPs, of course.
But while it may be within the rights for a search engine company to manipulate their SERPs, it is an outright lie --total dishonesty-- for them to say or to allow the false impression that their manipulated SERPs are actual natural SERPs. But the SEs which do such deception want users to believe the lie because they know that if users knew the lie, the search engine would lose users.
Hence, they turn supposed natural SERPs into "dishonest natural SERPs."
Back to the topic of this thread, I've noticed my Y! traffic increase slightly. That's good news. Perhaps I've finally shaken off whatever Inktomi ban I picked up somewhere along the way.
A dishonest search engine company, even as they seek to deceive people into believing that their SE algo and SERPs are legitimate, and as motivated purely by unlimited and unfettered greed, actually manipulate the SERPs in order to blackmail proven authority sites to pay to be found or not be found at all. The search engine actually TARGETS such proven authority sites, reduces their SERP position to a point of uselessness, and then such authority sites are more or less blackmailed to pay the search engine for advertising ---or not be found.
What's your definition of an "authority site"? And how many authority sites would find it economically worthwhile to buy PPC ads even if a search engine's management were foolish enough to risk losing their audiences by manipulating search results out of "unlimited and unfettered greed"?
What is going on with Yahoo and Google? Lots of talk but no one seems to be able to answer the most important question.
I don't see a directory listing be a magic ingredient .. one of my clients sites has been seriously demoted in the serps and they have a directory listing yet I've seen a few site gain without a Yahoo Directory listing....
So if your site about ‘widgets’ is in the ‘widgets’ Y! category then your doing well for a search on "widgets"
However, if you target ‘online widgets’ then don't expect the same boost - especially if you don't have 'online' in your description.
Perhaps this will come in the near future.
From my experiences I think it's something less subtle/clever than this and just some sort of filter.
My site had pages in the top 5 for a host of KWs for the best part of a year. Now they are all gone NOT JUST MOVED, but gone. If I look hard enough I will find my home page 8 or 9 pages down. If I look at the similar pages from here all my pages are still listed - but not in the SERPs.
There just aren't anywhere near enough sites above mine in the SERPs that are directory listed to credit the directory theory. I reckon it's a filter - possibly on larger sites?
Just noticed I'm still #5 for widget
but dropped to #153 for Widgets (plural)
of course my main site continues to be banned by yahoo.
