Yahoo having a problem with RSS handling?

Sites are GONE from serps

[crobb305]

I dont see a single site listed in the serps with the "add to my Yahoo" and "view as xml" links. In fact, some of the serps I monitor no longer include the sites with RSS feeds.

My site disappeared from the serps yesterday. I see others today. Is this a glitch with their RSS handling?

[stajer]

Thanks Kamikaze! This is interesting to me because serps in my sector are very static - they don't move at all except during the big updates. No one in my sector has rss feeds.

I might experiment by adding some RSS feeds to big pages in my site to see if I get some flux. It might indicate Yahoo updates sites with RSS feeds more often because it is easier to monitor for changes. Will report back!

[kamikaze Optimizer]

patc: We may very well be discussing two very distinct but related issues; with the issue that I am discribing being the very same issue the OP of this thread has spelled out to be the issue at hand.

[andrewshim]

crobb305 and others in the same boat...

What is the current status of your sites? Yesterday, my site fell to a low #49 (from a high of #5 before the problem started)! The description shown is my meta tag and they ARE current - even showing my latest update 2 days ago - just that my position is way lower than what it should be.

But when i checked just now, I noticed it went back up to #36. Seems like last month's cycle repeating itself. If it is, then what's going to happen is that within the next couple of days, our sites will slowly creep up the ranks again, and we will suddenly see our "View as XML" links again.

Unless of course Yahoo! has indeed decided to drop the "View as XML" listings altogether. Even if that's the case, the serps are crappy for my category. There are sites ranking in the top 10 that are not related in anyway to the category. It also defeats the purpose of updating and having an RSS Feed. Imagine if G (the other search engine) decided to drop ALL sites with RSS feeds!

[andrewshim]

Yahoo! Search Blog informed on 21st April that they will be rolling our more frequenst updates as a result of "improvements to the indexing system". As far as I'm concerned, the last two updates have been a roller coaster ride. These "improvements to the indexing system" certainly aren't improvements.

[crobb305]

Andrewshim,

But when i checked just now, I noticed it went back up to #36. Seems like last month's cycle repeating itself. If it is, then what's going to happen is that within the next couple of days, our sites will slowly creep up the ranks again, and we will suddenly see our "View as XML" links again.

Are you saying that this happened last month? You saw your RSS links disappear from your listing then reappear?

[rohitj]

The people I've talked to have said yahoo is doing a little testing to see if the removal of the RSS feeds truly has an impact. Debates have been going on as of now as to how much value they add and whether they really are necessary or appreciated overall from a usability and functional perspective.

[andrewshim]

Crobb305...

I'm saying Yes it happened to ME. Perhaps by coincidence, I screwed up my RSS file (did not validate) about 2 weeks before the early April update. I only noticed this a couple of days later. Then after the early April update, I found my site on page 3 and the "View As XML" and "Add to myYahoo!" links missing.

Since I screwed up my RSS file earlier, I thought that I was being penalized somehow in the early April update. Like I said.... after this happened, I went into panic mode and made a bunch of changes. After I did this, I noticed that my site went crawling back up until it reached #5 (about 20 days later). Then came the April 21 update and (S**T) it happened again.

It was only when you contacted me did I realize ALL the sites in the serps didn't have the "View As XML" and "Add to myYahoo" links.

And YES, it looks like the cycle is repeating itself. Was at 36 this morning... now am at 35. Could I really be imagining this cycle? Only time will tell...
I hate it that I NEEED the traffic from Yahoo!

[mikey158]

Hi rohitj-

If what you say is true, can you please pass word through your connections, that removing the RSS feeds is one thing (which I am in favor of), however this also causes the link text to change to the directory listing which is beyond the control of the webmaster.

They are the only SE that does this and in many cases the webmaster will have a better idea of what will benefit the user, the site and in many cases Yahoo as well (YPN publishers). I hope they can tweak this for thier sake and mine.

-mikey

[clubbin714]

Same problem here. My forum index page and site homepage which both have XML feeds have been wiped out. Site: command was showing nothing a few days ago and now shows all my forum and sub pages but still no home page or forum index page.

[BillyS]

I'm trying to follow this one. My Add to Yahoo and RSS feed links are also gone. However, I have not experienced any change in ranking from Yahoo.

In fact, they've been adding pages aggresively lately and way over spidering my website. Nearly 16,000 page hits last month on a site with about 1,100 pages.

[andrewshim]

any updates?

[kamikaze Optimizer]

We are back in as of yesterday but with our directory listing title and description, minus the rss link and we dropped from the number 2 spot to the number 8 spot.

[andrewshim]

now i'm at #20 and #22 depending on which Yahoo! datacenter i hit. no rss links but my description is my metatag (I have not submitted to directory).

Looks like last months cycle affecting me again except this time i have refrained from tweaking my site to see if it goes up. If it doesn't in a weeks time, will try some other stuff. any suggestions?

anyone got any ideas if Yahoo! has permanently killed the RSS links? one other forum said that Yahoo! is rolling out another big update as of yesterday. can anyone confirm this?

[crobb305]

My site back to the top as well, minus the RSS links. Something happened last week that remains inexplicable. But with out without the RSS links, we appear to be back in the serps. I would much rather the RSS links to be used because they pull the meta title from your page, not use the editor-created Directory title.

C

[navman]

hi my site is not containg any kind of rss though my site is dropped in SERPs. my site was almost on top rank on each keyword till Satday but on monday i am not able to find my site on top 10 pages also anybody can suggest me what is happening wrong.

[LunaC]

I'm still in the mid 60's since this change (had been #1). The title and description now are being pulled from the Yahoo directory for me now as well.

Glad to hear others have recovered their rankings.. just wish mine did to.

Is there any way to encourage Yahoo to show the meta description? The directory description for me is out of date and not really descriptive at all.

[andrewshim]

From what I gather from other webbies on chats and forums, a Yahoo! filter has been lifted and this has caused a lot of sites who were removed from the serps for up to a year ago to suddenly float to page 1.

Just wished mine would float to page one again... sigh... but I suppose page 3 is better than no page...

[crobb305]

Andrewshim,
I sent you a stickymail. Thanks for the info.

[andrewshim]

Kewllll... my wish came through. last check two hours ago, I was at #22. Did another check and am now at #6. In my category of 35 million that's very good. Immediately reflected in my traffic and adsense earnings.

So like I said, this is my second ride on the Yahoo! Yo Yo in two updates. If it happens again, it will probably be like "been there, done that".

Looks like it takes a long time for Yahoo!'s serps to settle down. So to you guys who are still floating in Yahoo!'s wasteland, if your site is legit and clean, they WILL come back.

Ta & cheers until the next update (touch wood)....

[navman]

Mine discription and all the factor are as per search engine rules and regulation and that is why it was on top results but now i dont understand why it is not on top 10 pages also can anybody suggest me how can i manage this situation...

[kamikaze Optimizer]

I guess the bottom line is here..., it is only Yahoo.

Even at the number 2 spot the traffic was 1/20th of that from Google, for me anyhow.

So, those of you back on page 20, don't worry about it; unless of course you are banned from Google.

[navman]

So did you mean that if i dont find my site on more than 20 Pages that means that it is banned but when i check my site on yahoo it shows me all of my site pages but that all pages are not in SERPs. is it due to some update or anything else what will you suggest to me for this.

[kamikaze Optimizer]

Navman: If you are speaking to me..., I am not suggesting anything other than not to worry too much about Yahoo, the referral traffic is peanuts at best compared to Google, thats all.

:)

[navman]

ok thanx lets wait and watch. for some days.

[crobb305]

Whatever this flux is we are seeing is not complete, as the results on Yahoo portals such as alltheweb and altavista are completely different.

//
C

[andrewshim]

kamikaze...

Many of us come to this forum at different levels of website management. The senior guys would have sites that have been picked up by Google and are ranking well in G's serps. So, in comparison, Yahoo! don't mean diddly squat for these guys.

For the rest of us, getting ranked in Yahoo! is a good start. Take me for instance. Since my site is 10 months old, Google isn't giving me any notice right now, but the traffic that I'm getting from Yahoo! is VERY targetted and is converting to good money!

I never appreciated how much I needed Y!'s traffic until all this crap happened in April. Now, I know and I'm gonna fight like hell for my spot on page 1.

Yeah, I am double sure my site's gonna do well in Google eventually, but in the meantime, I'm building on Yahoo!

[F_Rose]

Is thier any way I can change the directory in DMOZ, being that our competitors that are listed in Yahoo are in a complete different directory than us.

Perhaps that is the reason they are doing better?

Any suggestions?

[kamikaze Optimizer]

FYI: I am out again.

[crobb305]

kamikaze Optimizer,

I am out again too. But I am seeing some indexing problems with my site as well. Yahoo indexing unrelated urls that utilize 302 to my homepage as if they were part of my site. The old hijacking problem resurrected.

[F_Rose]

Actually I see better SERP on some of our main keywords.

Just wondering, where is Yahoo taking the directory information. Our website is listed in the wrong directory, plus they are using a different title and description for our website.