Forum Moderators: open
Keywords in title, description and URL are still very important. The easiest way to rank fine is a keywords reach URL.
I have the impressions that their algo considers click throughout.
First listing seems Google result: continuing to the extended Google pages you have the impression not to switch to Google.
It looks totally unlike the directory structure it has always clearly been.
I have noticed the rise in the stats of referals from yahoo and a decrease in referals from yahoo/google.
It will be interesting to monitor it to see if the wise ones realise the difference between web sites and web pages and the relevancy difference of the two.
BTW, I am new here so hello all :D
You will love this place! ;)
But then again they could just switch the relevancy weigh at anytime.
Their new look has all but wiped out all those exclamation exclamation #11 sites which were looking a bit clumsy. Anyone redirecting from their listing is going to be wiped out after this. The number of queries on Yahoo at the moment is off the scale so obviously a lot of webmasters are frantically looking for their listings (me included). You win some, you lose some but ultimately will it encourage us to submit to Yahoo again anytime soon. I can see great opportunities but as you said, it might be wise to wait and see.
Simply to weed out sites that no longer exist. If you are in the directory your site logs might have shown the spider visit every so often. There is nothing to worry about if you see it. If it finds the site down, it will come back several times to check it's not just a server that is down.
that was always the key differance in the yahoo directory. It was different and did not serve spam. Now it it is trying to be a look alike "search engine" it is going to serve spam until it works it out.
After hearing a friend celebrating at paying and getting a top ten, I looked at his head<and found it totally empty>. Suspecting "Paying" will get you in there. I checked Alta vista, and found the top 4 positions had <head> nothing between the </head>.
Today, I found this discussion of yours, so made a comparison.
On Yahoo,searching the word "Sales" returned 16735 entries. Of those;
No 1 position had : Keyword as third word in title, No description, Keywords, or H1's at all. The keyword was used 3 times on page.
Certainly PAYING must had got this to the pole position
No 2 position had: Keyword 4th word of title. Used 3 x's in keywords, 2x's in description, many times on page.
This one EARNED its position.
No 3 position had: Keyword as fourth word in title
No description, Keywords, or H1's at all, yet opened page with a logo.gif with the keyword in the alt box.
keyword only used once again on page.
This one probably PAID, but the Alt box is helping to maintain position.
No 4 position had keyword twice in title, No description or keywords.
It does have the keyword in an H1 and an H3, then again half a dozen times on the page. This I think was an accidental success.
No 5 position had keyword in url, but forgot to incude it in title.
No description, keywords or headers, but one image alt tag.
Unless the URL + alt tag did this, this one PAID.
To summarise, I believe paying will get you in at the top, yet as others pay to come in above you, your bouyancy tanks of URL, IMG alt, and headers, will back up your keywords and description as the payers sink past you.
Any comments?
Currently Yahoo doesn't spider sites so the source code should have nothing to do with ranking.
Known variables in Yahoo's algo:
Title given by Yahoo
Description given by yahoo
Category given by yahoo
Possible variables in Yahoo algo:
site url
click popularity
(edited by: seth_wilde at 10:47 pm (gmt) on Sep. 26, 2001
I encourage all to go give em feedback on the new "relevancy" of the results etc. There is a field to detail you comments.
So love it hate it, let's speak!
NOW
Type a query and get a long list of all sites with titles/descriptions with matching keywords.
Instead of the categories dictating which sites are at the top of the list - the cats just get a brief mention under each site:
I typed 'Amsterdam Hotel'. Y! lists 9 sites in a variety of cats. This is the order the cats appeard:
Netherlands > Noord-Holland > Amsterdam > Hotels
Netherlands > Noord-Holland > Amsterdam > Local Travel Guides
Netherlands > Noord-Holland > Amsterdam > Hotel Directories
United Kingdom > England > Greater London > Kensington and Chelsea > Hotels
California > San Francisco > Bed and Breakfasts
Netherlands > Noord-Holland > Amsterdam > Lodging > Reservation Services
So - it doesn't seem to matter quite so much anymore which cat your in so long as your title and description have the keywords.
Probably most of the users had been searching within categories from the main page and going deep; after one or two sub-categories users search using the search field.
They had a big reorganization.
Have a look at:
[dir.yahoo.com...]
About everything has a "new" logo.
Yahoo and Dmoz are going to have the same category structure too.
See this example:
[dir.yahoo.com...]
[dmoz.org...]
1. Write down everything that you want to say to Yahoo about what you want changed.
2. Re-write the above giving everything the tone and theme of wanting to better facilitate Yahoo searchers. Any keyword/phrase that you want included needs to be justified in this way.
3. Think about changing or adding pages in order to prove that you are offering what you are asking for and that it would be easier for Yahoo searchers to find you quickly if they gave you the keywords. Mention these pages and all others that support your request in your e-mails to Yahoo - provide the page URL's.
4. Don't give up, ever.
You forgot:
5. Pray very very very hard... ;)
Your right, it never hurts to pray to the Gods of Yahoo...I also agree with dogboy in that creating a whole new site can sometimes be the easiest solution. You would then have a clean slate with new keyword rich domain etc...
If you want to sticky mail your URL, I'd be happy to look it over.
