Site Buried in Yahoo Serps: -asdf Syndrome

Any suggestions on how to correct?

[dbar]

I'm guessing it's a penalty but not sure what for. The keywords phrases are the same and very similar to my link text in the Yahoo Directory Link. These phrases used to be on the top of the first page, now I can't find (stopped looking after 100). Other keywords still show up, but buries 25+ down.

This happened within the last week or so with their update. Anyone else who's site dropped tried the search with "-somerandomletters" and seeing similar or have suggestions on how to correct?

[stuno259]

I'm seeing the same thing for a couple generic one word terms that I used to rank well for, but two word terms are still ranking okay with yahoo and my serps for the one word terms actually improved if I add the -adsf flag.

Title of my home page is something like this:
"Large Steel Red Widgets"

I used to rank well in yahoo for:
widgets
steel
large widgets
steel widgets
red widgets

Now I only get the two word combos and my yahoo traffic has been cut in half. A search for

widgets -adsf

actually shows that my serps have gone up for that term. Perhaps some kind of penalty for repeating those keywords too many times? I have a very high keyword density for the generic words.

[minnapple]

I have done a recent test that leans to yahoo decreasing the advantage of having a matching title tag an h1 tag on the page.
Test it.

[dbar]

Ok, I've just realized one of the main phrases (that tanked) is a little stuffy - 9 times on home page (site is a few years old with not many changes to the home page in a long time). This same phrase along with some other words is also my text link in the Yahoo directory and has been for a couple of years. It ranks #1 in msn, used to rank #1-4 in Yahoo (before last couple of weeks and still does with the -asdf), and used to rank #1-5 in google (before going PR0). Ya think I've found the problem?

Any recommendations on how much to change/reduce the phrase (competition seems to range 2-4 times) and NOT LOSE RANKING in MSN?

[followgreg]

With the current update we are going towards the most ridiculous SERP ever created I believe...
Now searches using the -asdf trick are returning relevant (subjective but at least close to it) results while the regular search returns scrappers LOL - Try searching for marketing firm or company or the like to get a blink of what I'm talking about - come on that's not professional!

Actually on Y! with the current update, except for hand coded results each time you type -asdf you get more relevant SERP lol, looks like a bad movie or a nightmare you choose! :)

[RobinK]

what exactly kind of results does it show when you type in -asdf, I can see the results are clearly different. When you add that to the search does it filter out some sites or filter in some?

[Robert Charlton]

This happened within the last week or so with their update. Anyone else who's site dropped tried the search with "-somerandomletters" and seeing similar or have suggestions on how to correct?

dbar - I commented on this on the big Yahoo Update thread back in July. See my msg #252 and discussion following for comments then...

[webmasterworld.com...]

In my opinion, it's got to be a linking related filter. If onpage factors were responsible for the drops that were noted then (and which have continued), then the extra level of "filtration" which exclusion strings like -asdf suggest is there wouldn't be necessary.

I'm inclined to think it's related to onsite navigation text, which had previously been a common form of spamming that Yahoo was very vulnerable to. I'm not seeing that problem any more, but I think Yahoo has, in the process of eliminating it, thrown the baby out with the bathwater.

[dbar]

Robert Charlton,
Thanks and that would make sense. Part of the site is a directory with geotargetted sections and links (e.g., arizona blue widgets, california blue widgets, etc..). So on these targeted directory pages, each page within that part of the site lists all state links on the left with the geo phrases in the text links.

However each individual state page has different listings, not just rehashing and changing the state name.

I'll remove the index on the individual state pages and see what happens.