17 replies to this topic

[djonline]

Hi everyone,

Just was wondering if anyone knew if Yahoo changed what they deem relevant for search queries?

My site went from hardly being found on Yahoo (but doing well on Google!), to ranking well on competitive keyword phrases on Yahoo all of a sudden.

I was just wondering if there have been any changes with Yahoo recently?

Julie

[Randy]

Nothing that I've noticed Julie. But then again I rarely check the rankings of my sites unless overall traffic numbers have changed one way or another on a specific engine. And I've not seen any drastic changes in my Yahoo! traffic that couldn't be explained by something else.

How new is your site? If it's a newer one maybe Slurp finally got around to indexing more of your site and your pages being on-theme throughout have helped you out. I've seen that happen before, even after a site has been up for months and months.

[Googlewhacked]

Hey Julie,

Actually, I have noticed a significant change (for the better ) in one a couple of my sites' rankings over the past 24-36 hours for several major keywords.

Phil

[djonline]

Hi Randy,

Thanks! I appreciate your input. Instead of ubiquitous, it may be unique with just my site then?

I usually don't check my rankings either. Unless traffic is substantially down or up. But I do review my logs and statistics daily. And today, I have noticed a 500% increase in traffic from Yahoo. This is what peaked my interest. Plus the fact that some of the search queries visitors have found me under were queries on Yahoo where I was in the top 10 out of over a million pages. This is a first for my site on Yahoo. I rank well on many competitive keyword phrases on Google but never could crack Yahoo.

My site has been live for a little over a year, but the past few months, Slurp has been blazing through my site over and over.

I guess your explanation fits Randy Thanks!

Julie

[magician]

Just was wondering if anyone knew if Yahoo changed what they deem relevant for search queries?

My site went from hardly being found on Yahoo (but doing well on Google!), to ranking well on competitive keyword phrases on Yahoo all of a sudden.

I was just wondering if there have been any changes with Yahoo recently?

Yahoo have certainly change something since yesterday, because my website was showing in 14th place yesterday for my keyword, and Today, I am 1st!

[powerofeyes]

I saw a lot of movement over the sites we monitor in yahoo, definetely something major was updated by yahoo,

[Randy]

There ya go Julie. Looks like we're starting to get a consensus that something has changed.

I've still not seen any major movement myself. But that could be because my major phrases were already Top 5 all over Yahoo! so I simply couldn't see the effect in traffic if they didn't move.

[Hungryfish]

Does anyone have any feedback on why Yahoo uses your directory listing in serps for your keyphrases rather than your title and description tag? Can we change this?
jb

[qwerty]

The only way I know of to keep Yahoo from using your directory description is to stay out of the directory. If you're in it, they're going to use the directory description.

In fact, I've noticed on a few occasions that they'll use your home page with the directory description even when you have an interior page that better fits the query. In those cases, I've found that if I specify a search on that particular domain, the more relevant page will then come up above the home page.

[DarrenC]

Yep, somethings definatly happened over at Yahoo. Optimised keywords are ranking alot better in Yahoo at the moment, many first page results, rather than 2nd or 3rd page.



Only problem now - get more people to search on Yahoo

[kevinsource]

I am also seeing big changes in Yahoo! Not sure yet if they are better or worse overall.

[randfish]

Definitely some large scale changes for the better at Yahoo! - The results had taken a relevance dive over the past 3-4 months, but they look quite good to me right now on a large variety of searches (not just my industry). They're also getting better at returning good results for local type searches, which is quite nice.

I hope the trend continues - I was very worried about their ability to compete from Sep. - Dec.

[josh1r]

I think they might have switched from Inktomi to Overture on the 14th. Or something like that. Both Yahoo and MSN changed dramatically for me (for the worse), as both engines are now filled with spam (duplicates and redirects) for my main search terms. And they also both have the EXACT same search results all of a sudden.

http://search.msn.co.....harm bracelet

http://search.yahoo.... charm bracelet

I've filled out the spam reports for both Yahoo and MSN, but I doubt that will lead to any quick resolution. Does anybody know of anyone I can contact directly to help get this fixed? About 3-4 months ago this same company managed to spam Google in the exact same way, and they eventually banned them. But now they've managed to get on Yahoo and MSN at the same time. Ugh!!!

[Jill]

Josh, Inktomi and Overture are the same company. (Yahoo)

[Connie]

Over the last few months my site has steadily risen in Yahoo for more and more key words. In the last week or so there has been a dramatic increase in traffic from Yahoo which is converting to sales. Don't know how long it will last but I hope for a while.

One of the things I'm seeing with Yahoo is the sites coming up in the area of my interest are not sites like Amazon.com with thousands of back links. What I'm seeing is results similar to Google results back in Feb of 2003 when my site was ranking well with Google.