Google PR directly influencing Yahoo directory results?

[dave83]

As has been discussed previously, there has been some recent shuffling in Yahoo's rankings.. One thing I haven't seen discussed, if it was I missed it is the apparent use of Google page rank in Yahoo's directly algo..

Let's look an real world example..

I have a client who sells window blinds.. a fairly competitive Yahoo phrase.. we used the same techniques we have used for a while and achieved a page 1 #1 for this client for the term window blinds.. he had an existing site that was doing very well in Google, but the domain name stunk and it was just not really set up to do well in Yahoo so it was much easier to create a new site for the directories.. we got him listed in early January and he received a top ranking for his main keyword 'window blinds' then boom, about 4 weeks ago I guess it was.. he's listed # 300 or something.. The new site has no Google page rank. the new top 20 was dramatically different from what was listed previously.

here's what I found, sites currently ranked in yahoo's directory for the term window blinds

yahoo rankings/ google page rank
#1 - PR6
#2 - PR6
#3 - PR6
#4 - PR6
#5 - PR6
#6 - PR5
#7 - PR5
#8 - PR5
#9 - PR5
#10 - PR5
#11 - PR5
#12 - PR5
#13 - PR5
#14 - PR3
#15 - PR5
#16 - PR5
#17 - PR5
#18 - PR5
#19 - PR5
#20 - PR5
#35 - PR4
#40 - PR4
#45 - PR4
#50 - PR5
#55 - PR4
#60 - PR4
#65 - PR4
#75 - PR4
#85 - PR2
#95 - PR4
#100- PR3

I also had a site ranked in the top 3 on Yahoo for a very competitive phrase, one of my own sites.. it had been # 3 for about a year.. last month it got hit with the google PR0 and has now dropped into oblivion on yahoo.. and I'm talking about the directory, not web pages here..

you can take almost any modestly competitive phrase and replicate these results..

search for a competitive phrase in yahoo and see if you can find one top ranking thast doesn't have a high Google page rank..

try health insurance..

#1 PR 8
#2 PR 7
#3 PR 6
#4 PR 6
#5 PR 6

and so on..

It appears that right now Google Page rank is MAJOR factor in Yahoo's algo..

any thoughts?

[whatson]

This is a very interesting theory and does make a lot of sense in some ways.
If it is true then it must be just an extra ranking factor to take into consideration, I would say the title and description that Y! provide are also ver important.
Look at the top 7 for 'search engine positioning' the PRs are 5, 8, 5, 4, 7, 7, 6.
Also what about the Most Popular section on Y! are they sites with higher PR or have they had their click throughs measured?

[whatson]

Also one other comment, what about the .biz and .info sites that do not get Pageranks, do you think they will treated equally?

[Jack_Straw]

I believe pages on .biz and .info domains DO get a page rank. It is just that the page rank is not displayed on the Google bar for those domains. Yahoo is probably privy to the page ranks that are actually computed and not dependent on the toolbar

[whatson]

Yes they were my thoughts also, I think that the toolbar just needs to be updated

[WebGuerrilla]

>>I would have to think that this was due to yahoo adding new sites in above you that haven't been indexed by google yet.

I would agree. Yahoo seems to be running about 30 days behind when it comes factoring any PR from Google. I have a site that sat at #5 on Google and #9 at Yahoo up until Google's December update. After the update, the site was PR0 and it dropped to #120 on Yahoo.

The site returned to Google in the March/April update. When it came back in Google, it had moved up a spot to #4. But the Yahoo listing did not return until today. Now that the site is back in Yahoo, it has been moved up from #9 to #8.

[NFFC]

>The site returned to Google in the March/April update

At the same PR as before?

[WebGuerrilla]

The PR dropped by one, but all the other sites within the results also dropped, so there was no impact on any rankings.

[NFFC]

I have a site at PR0 since last October, in March and April it was completely removed from Google. During this time it has been virtually last for all keyword searchs at Y!.

The domain, just the index page, reappeared in Google on May 3rd. Today rankings at Y! have returned roughly to the levels pre-PR0.

The domain still shows no PR, greyed out, and is ranking at Google as if it was PR1 or 2 max. I don't believe that Google has reassigned any realistic PR to the domain yet but it still ranks at Y!

I think Google passes a list of "bad boys" to Y!, I remain uconvinced that Google PR directly influences the Y! serp's.

[makemetop]

>I think Google passes a list of "bad boys" to Y!, I remain uconvinced that Google PR directly influences the Y! serp's.

I would tend to agree with the fact that a PR0 or removal influences results dramatically and that even a minor PR improvement will allow the other Yahoo ranking factors to come into play.

[angiolo]

>I think Google passes a list of "bad boys" to Y!

Could you inform us about what was considered a "bad boys" behavior?

[whatson]

When Google does their dance every month, and updates the links pointing to your sites and adjusts your PageRank accordingly, will Yahoo also adjust your positions as well?

[agerhart]

Yahoo does not update as frequently as Google has been known to.

[coconutz]

Since we've been debating on submitting to Yahoo, curiosity got the better of us and we checked our main kw phrase:

Yahoo rank/Google PR
#1- not ranked
#2-PR5
#3-PR5
#4-PR2
#5-PR6
#6-PR6
#7-PR6
#8-PR5
#9-not ranked
#10-PR5

Results 11-20 do follow a decending page rank order except for #14 (also not ranked). I don't understand the PR6's below the PR2. Any thoughts?

[JamesR]

>I don't understand the PR6's below the PR2.

PR may not be the only ranking factor. Click data and keyword factors in title, description and URL may factor. There also may be a randomness element thrown in.

[coconutz]

Thanks James. The PR2 (at position #4) title contains only a partial kw match, the description does not, and the url is one of those .com/biz/KeyWordbyJohnny sites, and has no backward links.

A PR5 site much further down(lower than #10) contains a partial kw match in title, full match in description and url.