Forum Moderators: open
"This is our second weather report. We will be making changes to the index tonight so you should be seeing more of your pages in the index as well as some fluctuations in the rankings of results from previous searches."
I for one love this open approach that Yahoo have opted for. Tim (if you're reading this) you are definitely scoring points.
complete drivel
Something is going on right now, but it is a BIG mess, the ugliest I have ever seen.
That's for DAMN sure.
Just what the hell is wrong with Yahoo? They had a GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY to gain ground on Google due to Google's screw-up, but instead, they go and "throw a rod" like Google, and now Yahoo is ALSO ****** up.
Two days ago, FIRST on the FIRST page for a load of search phrases for one of my sites. It took me about a year to get there. Today, GONE. It's replaced with crap like hidden text sites, redirects, non-relevant results, blackhat BS, etc., (just like G did and is now doing again). Just what the hell is the SE world coming to?
Where is "The Yahoo Guy" on this thread?
I really like the idea of a block facility. Does it mean if you come across a nasty spammy site, you can click 'block' and never have to see results for that site again. If so I think that is probably about the best way to clean up the SERPS I can think of.
Oh? So that your competitor can "block" your site and have Yahoo get that information and then possibly penalize YOUR site because someone blocked it?
That does absolutely nothing for cleaning up their SERP's. All that does is change what YOU will see. (Unless like I mentioned Y will do something to sites that people "block")....if so, then it brings us back to the possible issue of your competitors being able to hurt you this way.
If they want to "clean up" their SERP's, they need to GO BACK to what it was several days ago! At least this is what I'm seeing on search phrases I monitor. GREAT JOB Yahoo.
StupidScript:
As evidence I point to their major change that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2005 when what used to be standard web page common sense (modest cross-linking to distinctly different site content, for one) was deemed unacceptable and promptly caused any sites with such attributes to be banned. Not penalized ... banned ... which means never to return to their SERPS.
I've got IE and Firefox open, both have completely different results for my keyword combos.
Why even bother mentioning that there is a update, if you don't mention what you have updated.
Almost all my site pages got indexed, backlinks doubled, but no changes in SERP’s for all my keywords. Anyone noticed the same?
..you never know when you will get a penalty for no reason.
For NO reason? You're not doing Anything that's the slightest bit suspect? Come on now. Think about it. You might even be able to come up with a long list without any outside input.
Neither was I in my case! However, that IS about to change! They want blackhat sites to which to give precedence? I CAN GIVE 'EM one, I LEARNED from the Y-SERP's and G-SERP's!
Many thousands were also removed from Google for no reason. YES, NO REASON at all. Many of us were told "there's no reason your site should have been removed". I've had it with this SE BS. MSN is also starting to do the same. Obviously someone needs to come out with NEW SE and make it like Google USED TO BE.
The first few hits were emails I had sent to various email lists where I used to have that URL of that domain in my signature file (it used to be a directed domain, but I made it a real separate domain a few days ago). Apparently the Y search ignored the "[space].com".
The remaining 5 hits on the first page, and, the ENTIRE second and third pages were the almost identical cloaked and redirected hijacking website! These search results SHOWN were EACH not only TOTALLY IRRELEVANT titles and descriptions where also the search phrase was not anywhere to be found in the URL's, titles, or descriptions of the results, but clicking each result redirected you to this identical website, and this is for the ~25 Y results! This website was a blank orange page on freakyseek[dot]com except for two lines of text on it. The lines of text changed for each hit, but were again absolutely no way, not even close, related to the search phrase. The search words didn't even appear anywhere on the webpages! And again, even in the Y URL's, text and description in their SERP's also made absolutely no mention of the search words! It gets worse. Guess that's in the description area of the Yahoo results? TEXT FROM ONE OF MY WEBPAGES ON MY MAIN DOMAIN!
To clarify: let's say I searched for "turtle singing lessons sales". In the results, I see the following, (italics are my comments)....
"weed eater replacement string (obviously not related to the search OR my sites)
Here, is the hijacked/stolen text from one of my webpages on my MAIN DOMAIN, and having nothing to do with the blue title
www.SomeTotallyUnrelatedDomainName/AndPath (Which when clicked redirects to the orange webpages on freakyseek[dot]com)
Pretty sweet, eh?
just looking at the serps now, they are changing within minutes of a search in the uk
OR do they have many data centres and the update is flowing thru them as we speak
The results are way different in travel and finance to a few days ago.
Any ideas how long until the serps settle down?
Anyone notice any particular likes or dislikes that yahoo has now?
1. Scraper site, affiliate ads for big company
2. Affiliate Site, Goggle Adwords + Amazon Affiliate relevant to search query
3. Page Contains 15 words <snip>
4. same site as #1 different scraped content, Same affiliate
5. Website that deserves to be #1(not my site) for the query searched
6. Cloacked Page, Redirect to Goggle Adwords for keywords that have nothing to to with searched query.
7. Same as #6 - same site diferent page - Cloacked Page, Redirect to Goggle Adwords for keywords that have nothing to to with searched query.
8. Small Biz has the product and content
9. Small Biz has the product and content.
10.Small Biz has the product and content.
11. Cloacked Page, Redirect to E-bay Affiliate for keywords that have maybe one word to do with searched query.
12. Cloacked Page, Redirect to E-bay Affiliate for keywords that have maybe one word to do with searched query.
I am #13, have the product have content, rank #1 on MSN for this Query, # 2 on Google.
So if you take Yahooo Serp for this query and takeout #1,2,3,4,6,7,11 and 12 that should put me at #5 or #6.
What do you think I am going and should to do in this case?.............
Yahoo please fix your SERP!
[edited by: martinibuster at 7:07 pm (utc) on June 29, 2005]
[edit reason] Specifics [/edit]
If you have any feedback for us about the new index please email: ystfeedback@yahoo.com.from the Yahoo Search Blog at [ysearchblog.com...]
I used this feedback mechanism after the first "weather report" and Yahoo was surprisingly responsive.
This is "cross-linking". In the good old days, this was how people found related sites. That and gopher searches.
But now Yahoo says "excessive cross-linking" is a reason for expulsion from their utopia. Is 3 links to distinctly different information about the same object excessive? I guess Y thinks it is.
So let's remove those links, and let each site stand on its own. Is that enough to get back into the SERPS? Nope.
Regarding different search results when searching from different computers or with side-by-side browsers: This is the way it is with Y. Every time you do a search, your cookies are updated with new gobbldeygook, so you see different results as time goes on ... supposedly to offer you choices that are closer to what you really want.
And to Robert Charlton, perhaps that would have been better said as "for no explainable reason". On Jan.1 we lost 30 domains from the Y index, all sandboxed to this day. If you agree that 3 cross-links are reason enough, then enough said. I don't. Many of those domains are not cross-linked at all! Yet they all fell at the same time, on the same day. Most of those have aggregated thousands of pages in the Y SERPS over 4-6 years. Some of the sites were "authority" sites often linked to (~180,000 backlinks) by folks of all stripes, and were used as benchmarks by various net metrics companies in our industry. These aren't scraper sites or malformed SE trickster sites. They are good, useful, elderly sites that have proved themselves through many SE changes.
As Clint noted,
So that your competitor can "block" your site and have Yahoo get that information and then possibly penalize YOUR site because someone blocked it?
That seems like what has happened to our domains. Someone complained about something (perhaps one of the companies that have spun off from ours and are engaged in really nasty anti-competitive behavior), and Y pulled all of our domains without explanation.
I have been on the phone with 2 Y "platinum" reps since, as we spend about US$60k per month on Overture PPC and are well-established in the Y directories. In both cases, the reps were shocked ... "shocked" ... to view the example of our sites compared to our competitor's sites in their SERPS. In both cases, their inquiries ended up with the same guy at Y who knows nothing and sent all queries to the same YST regurgitator who sent back the same FAQ listings re: "why isn't my site showing up".
All we ask is for someone at Y to take a moment to check out ONE of the banned sites and point out which "rules" were broken. Or to let us know what complaint was filed against us so we can address it.
But nobody there knows anything. They are all sales people, and they have no interest in answering questions.
Even "Yahoo Guy" can't chime in on this thread, because he knows what a dead end it is to try and get answers from YST about anything in particular.
That's what happens when you lose your corporate identity, I guess. Everyone disconnects as they try to make it from day to day without getting fired by their nameless, faceless corporate overseers. It's not about people, anymore, or even good information ... it's about the stock market and short-term shareholder earnings ... period.
No, for real, look, you run a biz, or you atempt to run a part of it for someone. As soon as you get comfortable - you have(get) -"Oo0Ooooo00pps" - its aways like this.
StupidScript:
Clint, what I mean by "cross-linking" is that on one domain (widgets.com) I have specific info about widgets. Also on that domain, I have 3 links to 3 of my other domains (widget-performance-tweaks.com, build-your-own-widget.com and if-not-widgets-then-what.com). Each domain has exclusive content that is distinctive from the others. They are related to widgets, but otherwise approach the topic from very different needs/perspectives. 2 of the domains are on one IP and the others are on another IP within the same Class B block. (123.456.#*$!.#*$!). A simple whois would reveal that I own all four domains.
That is almost EXACTLY like my situation. The only difference is my whois info isn't exactly the same on all the sites. My street address, city & state is the same, but that's it. (My main domain is a "private registration" by Domains By Proxy).
Well if the Y j3rks (or algo) penalize for that, then something has to be done about that. What, I have no idea, but SOMETHING because that is TOTALLY OFF BASE and is bound to violate something. Perhaps "discriminating against same IP address" might be it. There are millions of servers all over the planet, and each of these servers can have a hundred or more domains on them, EACH with the same IP address! This just enforces a reason for cloaking an IP address.
So, Yahoo ALSO has a sandbox? That BS has got to stop. I fail to see the logic in "putting a website and webmaster in jail" just because it's new.
All we ask is for someone at Y to take a moment to check out ONE of the banned sites and point out which "rules" were broken. Or to let us know what complaint was filed against us so we can address it.
Probably NONE. This exact same thing happened with the G update. Numerous people from this forum ALONE were told there was no reason why their sites should have been affected--yet they WERE. Which again proves (as in the case with G), a seriously flawed "update" by that example alone. Then, there's also the issue (again as in with G) with the non-relevant content, and sites that violate their own SE inclusion TOS which have top SERP's. This even adds more credence which proves the update is not working.
Well, I spoke to soon! I thought that Yahoo fixed this crap I mentioned about my new site's meta tag text being hijacked (msg #95), and today it's back! Plus, they REMOVED my own damn new website now from the results!
