9 replies to this topic

[Miriam]

I have a client who's site was listed in the top 10 on a yahoo search for Betty Boop for almost 3 years. She got alot of business from people searching on yahoo. She is still listed in the top 10 on the yahoo directory page, but is nowhere to be found on the yahoo web site page. Her business has taken almost a 100% drop!

I've re-optimized her site, re-did links to utilize apache mod rewrite for the dynamic urls, added a sitemap page, and I still can't get her site to come up in yahoo on the web site search page. She is doing fine in Google and MSN, but it seems most of her business came from yahoo, and now it's gone. Of course, she's looking to me to make it all better, and I'm all out of ideas.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Miriam

[Jill]

Miriam, it could be anything. You might want to hire an SEO consultant to take a deep look at things as it will probably take some digging to figure it out.

Jill

[ajeshnair]

Hiya Miriam!

Last 3 years Yahoo's results were powered by Google and now it is changed. There are certain things which wont work for Yahoo but for Google. Most of the the methods you have mentioned may work for Google. Unless you provide the website url it is difficult to give any solution.

- Ajesh

[Jill]

Unless you provide the website url it is difficult to give any solution.

Please note that you need to be an Active Member here before requesting a site review as per out guidelines.

...are certain things which wont work for Yahoo but for Google.

Like what?

Jill

[OldWelshGuy]

Hi Miriam,

When did this disappearance happen? as Ajesh mentioned Yahoo is no longer using Google to deliver it's results, it is now using its own branded Yahoo! search.

Yahoo slurp (their spider) is a totally different animal to googlebot which will run around spidering most stuff. Slurp needs to be have a damn good reason to spider your site, (very much more with dynamic sites) unlike Googlebot who considers that simply being there is reason enough

Dumb question I know, but have you checked how many of the sites pages are actually in the Yahoo! search index? I personally would start there, I would also find out what links Yahoo know exist to your site, as this is a major way to get slurp slurping. I would check to make sure that backlinks are not going to the wrong place www.site, http//:site, multiple domain names etc, make sure the technical bit is right, as in my experience this is normally where a lot of problems stem, split backlinks.

Y! is spidering their own directory now, but it may still take a while for your site to be picked up, and then only the submitted page will get spidered first round.

Cheers

OWG

[Miriam]

Thanks to all who replied.

I'm only up to around 6 posts, so it will be awhile before I can ask for a site review officially thru the board.

I'm not sure I can afford to hire a SEO company. I have no idea what they charge, and I can't charge my client for it, so I'd really appreciate some free advice first.

Don't want to get kicked off this wonderful board, but would anyone be willing to take a quick look at this site for me and see if there is anything glaringly un-yahoo friendly?

Please let me know if it would be ok to type in the domain name but not as an active link?

Thanks,
Miriam

[Jill]

Miriam, if you go to the top of the forums, you can click on "My Controls" and create a signature file there that contains your link.

But please do read our Guidelines first!

Jill

[anthonyparsons.com]

I hate it when things disappear.....Just like my site at the moment....disappeared from the WWW.....who stole it.

Just kidding....changing servers....waiting...waiting...waiting...

Damn DNS so slow. If it doesn't hurry up I will be disappearing from Yahoo and many others.

[glengara]

Strange the site's still doing well on MSN though, sort of excludes the "Inktomi penalty" theory.

Mind you, if they've advertised on Overture in the past, there's always the "OV penalty" theory to fall back on ;-)

[anthonyparsons.com]

Miriam, get a second opinion. Maybe you just can't see a problem because of too much involvement. It does happen. A second opinion can sometimes spot a problem that would nearly jump out and bite ya, but you just keep missing it???