dealing with yahoo

getting yahoo to fix its mistakes

[allanp73]

Way back in March I warned Yahoo that there was a serious problem with their robots ability to understand redirecting or cgi scripted links. These types of links are used commonly on directories especially those that show exit traffic. Briefly Yahoo was interrupting these links as duplicate web sites. And strangely Yahoo not only dropped the "duplicate" page but dropped the whole site as well. The result would be only the redirect link appearing in the serps and since won't have any links it would have terrible rankings.
I manage about 200 clients and in March the problem caught one of my client's sites. I acted quickly getting the company that linked to me this way to remove the links and wrote Yahoo about the problem. After months of emailing back and forth the site was reviewed and reincluded. I felt very relieved and was happy with Yahoo even though it had been a slow process.
However, Yahoo never fixed the real problem of the redirecting links. So I noticed that 40 more clients were affected. I got several of the clients to write Yahoo and I went further by writing Yahoo and even several days trying to phone Yahoo to explain the seriousness of the problem.
I imagine this problem will effect thousands of sites because there are thousands of directories using these types of links and each link to hundreds of sites. In my case the 40 sites were all on a major portal which cased the problem.
Yahoo at first was nice about replying and told me the basic stuff about my sites being banned and that I should review the guidelines. Well I know the guidelines by heart and have done everything from day one to make sure the sites follow the rules. So I politing wrote back but now Yahoo isn't responding. I noticed the sites are no longer banned however, they only have one page each in the index and they are ranked dead last for any search term. Strangely their backlinks show almost their normal amounts.

It has been almost two months and my clients' businesses are suffering. I worry that others will be affected because I had submitted many of them to directories that use these types of links and even worse several directories seeing that the sites have good content are linking to these sites so I don't even know where the problem might result from.
HELP!

NOTE: I recommend that if you notice your ranking has dissappeared that you do a search for your site's meta title this is how you can find out if you were affected by a redirecting link.

[allanp73]

I noticed several other posts with similar problems where their sites have disappeared from Yahoo. Has anyone made the connection to the possibility they were banned because of an outside link.

[quotations]

My complaints about this problem resulted in Yahoo taking vengeful action against me which impacted about 70,000 other Yahoo users.

It is not possible to get Yahoo to fix their mistakes or even to admit them.

This bug has been causing major havoc and if you can prove it and send them proof, they will probably exact a price against you as well.

[allanp73]

Actually, I found Yahoo helpful. Though at first they banned 40 of my clients sites it seems like they have now lifted the ban and have moved to fix the problem.I give Yahoo high marks but the problem is really huge and I don't know if Yahoo has helped others who might not of realize that this problem existed.

[paybacksa]

How about posting to WebmasterWorld exactly how to check if you have this issue? I would think that would helpwebmasters check their client websites, and raise the pressure a bit more....

[Goanna1]

Our company website along with others in our industry were wiped out in the same way early this month.

This problem has been widely discussed for some time
I would have thought that it's in Yahoo's interest to deal with this problem since it could be used maliciously and cause absolute havoc.

[quotations]

Actually, I found Yahoo helpful. Though at first they banned 40 of my clients sites it seems like they have now lifted the ban and have moved to fix the problem.

Because I wrote to them with details about the problem, they have banned all of the sites they could identify as mine, removed my Yahoo ID, deleted all mailing lists associated with my ID and put a ban on my IP address which rejects mail to yahoo-inc.com addresses.

That does not seem very helpful to me.

I also spoke to their public relations department about it and they referred me to another department which told me:

"We have a really large legal staff."

and indicated that I should stop letting people know about the problems that they were having.

"Or else" was implied.

[oigeez2003]

I would recommend contacting your state's attorney general's office. You might be surprised how open some are to these kinds of things.

[paybacksa]

Because I wrote to them with details about the problem, they have banned all of the sites they could identify as mine, removed my Yahoo ID, deleted all mailing lists associated with my ID and put a ban on my IP address which rejects mail to yahoo-inc.com addresses....which told me: "We have a really large legal staff."....and indicated that I should stop letting people know about the problems that they were having...."Or else" was implied.

Wow. If they wanted you to keep quiet, why would they antagonize you like this? If they ban all your sites, they leave you with nothing to lose. That would be stupid, no? It doesn't seem like something a company with a "very large legal staff" would do.

I would expect such a company to notify you that your post is libelous, however. When you say "because I wrote to them... they banned [me]" you are assuming that was the reason. They didn't say that was the reason, and they may say they had other reasons. They may claim that you were making money and now you're not and you are slandering them to get back at them, and that it harms their business, etc etc etc.

I completely agree you should discuss this in public, but if I were you I would use "I think" and "it seemed" and "they appear to be doing" more to avoid the kind of trouble they can give you now that they have taken away everything else.

[allanp73]

paybacksa,

Here is how you find out if your site has be affected. Do the following search: "your meta title"
If you see another URL listed instead of your site which redirects to your site then you know that you have a problem. Then check to see if your site is still listed. If it is still listed you might be able to save it. Contact the company that links to you using a redirect, then get them to point the link to a empty page. Submit the link to yahoo so their bot knows that it is now different then your site. If they drop the link all together it doesn't solve the problem as quickly. If your site is no longer listed it will take 4-5 months to resolve because Yahoo will treat it like a new site. It is a slow annoying process once banned.
I hope this helps...