Yahoo Update September 26

[vstevens]

I am seeing new results since yesterday. Anyone else?

[andrewshim]

yes... jumped from 168 to 29. Just another trip on the Yahoo YoYo. They still list nothing but my non-www URLs despite my 301 redirects.

[vstevens]

I saw results that closely resembled these SERPS, about 2 weeks ago. It was displayed very, very briefly - like barely a day. Maybe there going live with it?

[BillyS]

No weather report yet. Seems early in the week for Y! they ususally let things settle over a weekend. Still, I think we're overdue for an update.

[rustybrick]

Weather Report from Yahoo

We've rolled out some changes to our index with fresh web data and updates to our crawling, indexing and ranking algorithms over the last few days. We expect the update will be completed very soon. Throughout this process you may see some changes in ranking as well as some shuffling of the pages in the index.

This is the first update after the launch of Dynamic URL Rewriting in Site Explorer. We've had millions of URLs rewritten based on your submissions and your sites should have seen smarter crawling from Yahoo! Slurp as a result. You will see further benefits in how your site is represented in the index from this update. Your input improves relevance and coverage for users in search results, particularly in relation to your site.

[ysearchblog.com...]

[edited by: engine at 7:44 pm (utc) on Sep. 26, 2007]
[edit reason] added quote [/edit]

[woop01]

We got five pages of a site that had been banned from before the time we purchased the domain (Mar 06) indexed for the first time. I have no clue why they chose the five random pages they did but it's a relief to see them.

[p5gal5]

Finally, they've updated some of those old, abysmal Yahoo! directory descriptions. At least Google has the good sense to display the meta description (where relevant).

[weeks]

We're getting beat only by Wikipedia and Topix on our local sites on Yahoo. It had been worse in recent weeks, however, so I'll not whine (too much).

[microlinx]

Another drop for our site...from 2000 to 2005 #1 and 2 across many keyphrases...then in 2005 dppped out completely...then back at around -25. Yesterday it dropped to -35. I see no improvements.

I also shut off my Overture listings. I'm not going to pay a search engine that's clearly broken. Overture is a benefit for businesses that already have decent organic results and helps boost business.

Google now gets 100% of my PPC business. They list me for over 8000 keyprases and I return the favor by patronizing their PPC program.

In my niche, there's no way to stay in business when you have to grease Overture to be listed. No organic results, no PPC business.

I've pleaded with Yahoo! to tell me if I've been penalized, but no response in 2 years. But Overture calls me with 24 hours of shutting off my ads. Typical...

[JS_Harris]

Mixed feelings, I need more time to evaluate it though. I'm seeing a drop in ranking accross the board for one site coupled with multiple listings per term. ie: article page ranks #11, index page ranks #12 for the same search. The number of pages indexed didn't change but the index page is all over the place now.

If a site isn't top 3 it doesn't really matter though does it.

[adfree]

Mixed results of (30%) very, very, very old URL's to pages that I took off 2 years ago (!) and new URL's that were created since May.

Still, searching for the title tag of the new URLs: nada.

I have stopped hoping for Y! years ago, this update won't change anything around here.

[Vimes]

I'm seeing the large brand authority sites ranking in the first 3 positions in my sector, they certainly weren't dominating the SERP's at the beginning of the week.

Vimes.

[tigger]

nice update moved up well for some great terms

[irldonalb]

Results are seriously flawed.

I did a search for a major phrase. 4 of the 10 are .edu sites, 2 are hijacked domains and 4 legit sites.

[night707]

Since a long time Yahoo is only crawling, but not sending traffic like MSN or Google. Probably worth blocking them now.

[vstevens]

It looks like they reverted back after having so much trouble yesterday?

[Rick42]

I haven't seen a god(*#$& thing change on Yahoo since 2006. I hate how they have to announce it every time. What are they trying to do?

Yahoo sucks.

[JoeSinkwitz]

It is really hard to pay much attention to the results Yahoo gives when one sees so much in the way of hijacked edus, tinyurls (seriously?), and low value splogs.

Really, I'm rooting for some positive change Yahoo, but I haven't seen it since 2005, back when a searcher could generally find something of value without having to resort to the PPC listings. I don't think it is any type of conspiracy, I just don't think:
1. The crawler is seriously broken and parsing all sorts of garbage [resulted in one of my domains getting banned by indexing stuff that never existed and was setup to properly redirect].
2. The indexing is weighted incorrectly towards false authority and quasi-informational material, when those results usually aren't even relevant. Still think Purdue university is relevant for the top 100 paying PPC phrases? Google fixed that one a long time ago Yahoo. To your credit, the current version of Live doesn't catch that mistake, though the &Form=PRESS version does.
3. I wish I captured a screenshot, but I literally saw a "@yahoo.com" e-mail address indexed for a competitive financial phrase.

Don't get me started on the obvious SERP hand edits...all in all, it is difficult to bother considering Yahoo as a reliable search alternative. Jerry, increase the focus on search relevancy and integration into your other products, and everything else will fall into place.

[bilalseo]

i have seen the same results on my site .. ... this is true yahoo updates itself on 26th.... I agree....

Bilal

[walrus]

Good time for a new search engine to launch, Yahoo results poor, MSlive search results poor and Googles results quality has gotten a bit inconsistent.
I think Google will prevail and deliver even better results this next year. The other two probably wont.

[night707]

A year ago, Yahoo had been better. Now they are rock bottom in terms of sending traffic to quality content and in terms of search results.

Indeed, a great time for new and better search engines!

[trakkerguy]

Anybody else seeing more changes today? My main site moved up a few spots sep 26, but not what I expected due to recent backlinks.

Then today, I see some dramatic improvements in rank.

[ashish21cool]

Dear friends,

My most of the rankings have dropped in Yahoo.
I was in position 1 for many of ny keywrods but now its hay wire.
I am not even in first 500.

I guess I will wait till some time after which I might do some changes.

Is anybody having similar rankings shift?

Thanks and best regards

[walrus]

Lost all Yahoo traffic. Used to have over 100 pages indexed now only the home page. All the SEs seem to be bulloxed now.

[microlinx]

Gotta agree with Rick42.

IMHO, Yahoo dropped rank on some of the Overture customers who they thought weren't spending enough, thus (in their mind) thinking that we would increase our PPC spending.

This only resulted in my suspending all my Overture listings.
They are an insignificant * useless source of traffic at this time and
I won't patronize their broken system.
Now Google get's all my PPC alotted funds.

Compare their stock charts...
[finance.yahoo.com...]

Go Google!

[andrewshim]

One site used to rank #1 for a popular 3-word phrase 2 years ago, then dropped out, but is now back at #1,

BUT the homepage for that site now states :

This Site Has Been Closed
Will Reopen Soon
As A Completely New Site
Be sure to come back soon.

And it's ranking #1 out of 80 million! Ha! Ha! Ha!