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I have been reading a lot of posts and there seem to be 1,000 theories about why Yahoo has dropped so many indexed pages. My site definitely hasn't been banned since there are still a few hundred pages indexed and Slurp still visits my site every day.
I thought that maybe Yahoo was doing a major re-indexing and that the number of indexed pages would return to their former high, but that hasn't happened.
Is there any consensus about what is causing this strange behavior? My site has hit an all time high in Google traffic and looks even stronger in MSN beta, so whats up with Yahoo?
[edited by: martinibuster at 6:12 pm (utc) on Jan. 17, 2005]
[edit reason] Added paragraph breaks for an easier read. :) [/edit]
But before you post, please consider the topic of the thread. Off-topic ax-grinding is not the topic. ;)
Analysis shows that the sites that have dropped out are still in Yahoo's index, but that we now rank on a completely different, unrelated page. For example, we may previously have ranked on a well optimised page, but we now rank on a random (and not well optimised) page.
Basically it looks like Yahoo has dropped many of our pages from the index to make way for other new pages to be added to the index.
I'm no expert in the workings of the Yahoo index, but this has led me to believe that Yahoo may be operating with a fixed size index. That is to say, if more sites want to get into the Yahoo index, then other sites will need to be dropped.
As I said, I'm no expert, so I may be well off the mark, but it would interesting to see what anyone else thinks of the idea.
[edited by: Uber_SEO at 1:08 pm (utc) on Jan. 18, 2005]
Sadly even genuine good sites are not being given a review in yahoo.
Three of my client's sites which are listed in yahoo directory are caught up in yahoo filters and none of the pages appear. Only index appears. And it appears TWICE if u type the domain name!
Atleast msn is welcoming such sites back in their new search which is now almost live ( they will soon stop using yahoo results).
The action is shifting to see the new msn search unfolding ...
[webmasterworld.com...]
eddy
I've thought that before. It also seems as a site ages and accumulates more back links it may see a quick exit from Yahoo. In other words new and old sites with few links or spam sites nobody wants to link to will probably do well in Yahoo.
Three of my client's sites which are listed in yahoo directory are caught up in yahoo filters and none of the pages appear. Only index appears. And it appears TWICE if u type the domain name!
So what is your theory about why your client's websites stopped ranking? Obviously we can't do a case study about your client's websites, but it would be interesting to know your thoughts as to why the sites are no longer ranking.
The topic of this thread is about trying to reach a consensus for why a site will drop out. Keeping to that topic, your theory as to why you think the sites stopped ranking is integral to the discussion.
[edited by: martinibuster at 7:42 pm (utc) on Jan. 18, 2005]
new and old sites with few links or spam sites nobody wants to link to will probably do well in Yahoo.
i agree with that bit....
as for why sites drop out or start ranking poorly...i dont believe theres a single answer..its a many roads to the 'same place statement'.. i.e. different events geared to an overiding policy of maximum monetarization of the serps while stripping it of a notional idea of the type of sites they do not want in the index..this may be based both on its onpage content and its offpage policies..(linking partners, networks, affiliations etc).
Same here. it appears twice because the second listing has keywords highlighted
a partial theory i have been thinking about is not so much why a site will drop out but, why a particular site? With all the millions indexed on Y, it seems the best way to find you for a demotion review is to be on a Y list somewhere. I paid for InkPFI, so did a lot of others that are penalized, and we were on a list. I am also in the Y directory, grandfathered for two commercial sites since 1998. Again, I am on a list, easy to run through filters. Just something I've been thinking about.
There are people out there that are seeing penalties and page drops that are not in the Y directory, have never been, didn't pay PFI, and don't have a Overture account, aren't there? That would make you harder to find.
Why did I get penalized? Best I can tell I guess I had crosslinked pages on different business sites I own. I had a web guy for a little while that started that. It was ok in 2000. I've cleaned them all up. 2 months ago, now what?
Even murderers get a parole review.
Ok, someone can slam me now.
I went from 1000s to the index.htm only then up to 200 now back down to 30-50 pages.
The pages now in the index seem random and are all old even though yahoo visits every day.
Its a Amazon site but I have around 100 content only pages none of which are in the index.
The only real guess I have is that I have 2 of my other sites linking to the dropped site and it links back to them.
Different IPs although they all share the same class C (if I understand the terminology correctly)
I'd remove the links but they are very on topic and I hate to remove links that benefit my vistors because of a SE.
The problem is I don't know why - last year I blocked Slurp from crawling my site because I was always last (really, always last) in an exact string search for any phrase. Just in time I spotted my resurgence up the Yahoo SERPS (with pages that had been deleted a year before and 301-ed to new pages)
The strong suspicion I have is that Slurp is not very forgiving of your HTML . If you have errors in/around your internal links (or they are phrased strangely) then watch out. In any case, validating your HTML is a good idea so it's hardly a contraversial thing to say.
