MAJOR CHANGES to Yahoo SERP

Their Search Engine Results Pages Look Like They Are Using Link Pop?

[magnus]

OK, I just noticed that we lost some traffic at Yahoo and I went to investigate what was up... Wow, the search engine results were MAJORLY shuffled from what I can tell.

The only thing I could find was that it looked like they were possibly using some sort of link pop. factor in their SERPs but I'm not sure of that. I know they never used that (link pop) in the past but just look at some of the results and compare in the Google Toolbar and you'll see lots of high pagerank pages listed.

Let me know what you all think... This is only a theory at this point but it's the only one I have so far...

[arachnid]

Hi Magnus,

I've noticed the same...dropped 90 places :(

My site has been moving up and down for a few months now. There is various theories but no one seems quite sure what is really happening.Some have suggested click pop and others believed that google page rank had something to do with the rankings.

I dismissed the google theory because my page rank was very average but I still managed a top five position for my main keyword. That was until now.

At the last google update my page rank fell to PR1 which some people have suggested is a new form of penalty (read about it here)

[webmasterworld.com...]

Now with the last shuffle of the the yahoo database I have fell 90 places which has lead me to two conclusions ( for now anyway)

1. Page Rank 1 is a penalty on google
2. Google has a major part to play on how you rank on yahoo.

As for click pop it may be a factor but from my experience it is worthless without a ranking of some form on google...or at least no penalties

[Jill]

If Google has a major part in how you rank on Yahoo then something is seriously wrong. We have one site that ranks between 1 and 2 and has for a long time. It is buried as of today so deep in Yahoo I haven't found it yet. Another site that ranks in the top 20 on Google and it too is buried beyond belief. I'm not sure what is going on but both sites get a fair amount of traffic, have a PR of 5 or 6 and rank well in Google, so unless I'm way off that's not it.

[agerhart]

Google definitely has a large part in you ranking on Yahoo.....I know this for a fact!

[Jill]

If Google has such a large part in it why would both of these sites be off the radar now when they both have great rankings and good PR in Google? I'm not saying you're wrong - I am just trying to figure out where these Google ratings come in to play for these sites on Yahoo.

[agerhart]

One of our sites had top 5 rankings in Yahoo and good rankings in Google with a good PR and strong links. We got hit with a penalty, different from the average one that everyone else got, and were out of the Google DB for 2-3 months. Directly after this happened with Google, we dropped off the radar in Yahoo. Now that this site is back in Google, it is now back in Yahoo............a direct correlation.

[Napoleon]

The potential that I can see is of Google sharing the 'penalty index' with Yahoo, rather than any sort of rank for rank similarity.

From a Yahoo perspective, if Google is claiming that the sites hit with a PR0 are likely to be spammers, then Yahoo could treat the same sites accordingly, assuming that they were armed with the list.

The question is, has Google shared that data or not.

[Jill]

To my knowledge neither of the sites I'm talking about has any Google penalty. Unless, of course, this is a preview of things to come... hope not.

[JamesR]

I think Google PR has been experimented with for awhile, perhaps in a rotating algo. It definitely seems to play a large factor now.