Nowhere on Google but all over Yahoo like a rash

[nickster999]

I'm on the first page on Yahoo for all of my keywords and many that I hadn't optimised for :) Yahoo seems to love me!
However, I'm nowhere on Google. My most popular page is 42nd on Google, but 2nd on Yahoo and the same is true for all my other pages.

Could anyone suggest what I could try changing to improve my Google ranking? I'm suspecting I must have some sort of penalty or have something that doesn't look right to Google? I have (I think) a reasonable set of inbound links from a wide range of pages and the keyword density on the pages is around 5%, nothing hidden or dodgy in the least. That I'm aware of anyway...

[internetheaven]

Could anyone suggest what I could try changing to improve my Google ranking?

Hey no problem. Here is how you beat all my rankings. First you ..... wait a minute! You nearly had me that time! ;)

Tip: search for 'ranking well in Yahoo but not in Google' on the webmasterworld site. There are hundreds of threads with your exact question. Probably nothing new people can add over them. Yahoo and Google are different companies with different staff, different aims and different resources.

[tedster]

Hey nickster, welcome to the forums.

What you're describing might be one of these:

1. Not a strong enough backlink profile for Google's liking - including a good variety of types of sites and a good variety of anchor text.

2. You may be struggling with Google's -950 "over-optimization" penalty [webmasterworld.com].

[nickster999]

Thanks, I had already had a look through the search but the vast majority of people seem to have the problem the other way round! Also, any relevant threads were 3+ years old...

I'll have a look at the -950 penalty, that sounds like it could be an issue.

Variety of anchor text could also be an issue. I have been varying it in my link building, but worth checking.

If only Yahoo were the one with the massive market share!