8 replies to this topic

[slopo]

My site has not been ranking well in Yahoo every since the switch to their own SE. For one of my main keywords, my rank is 613. But in Google and MSN the site usually ranks around 60-70 for the same key word.

I've gone through Yahoo's help pages to make sure that my site isn't breaking any rules. The only thing I can figure is that I have 2 additional domain names pointing to my site.

Do you think Yahoo is considering this as spam and penalizing me?

[SearchRank]

It probably has nothing to do with having domain pointers but more to do with your site optimization and the competitiveness of the keyword phrase you are targeting.

If you are referring to the site in your signature, then your home page is pretty much void of any content. There is no substitute for html text content. You should try including some on your home page and see if that does not give you a boost.

[slopo]

No, I'm not talking about the site in my profile. This is a different web site that I work on.

[OldWelshGuy]

Hi Slopo, 60-70 just as well be 600, same effect it is going to be.

Have you checked to see if there are any pages in the index under the domain names you have pointing? That is the easiest way to rule duplication filters in or out. no pages in a 'site:' search and there can be no duplication filter.

Check the backlinks on Google, MSN & Yahoo could be that G & MSN have picked up links that Yahoo has not. Also check that the backlinks are not pointing to the wrong domain. Yahoo does not handle 301's as well as MSN & Google. Someone might have backlinked to one of the pointing domains.

I would sit down and look at the basics, check you have the Yahoo! Search 'flavours of the month' included on the pages and optimised properly. (Keyword and description Metas) That is the only thing that I can think of offhand (and blind) that would make such a difference between between MSN & Yahoo! other than what I have mentioned.

OWG

[slopo]

OWG,
Yes, a 'site:' search in Yahoo shows that they have picked up all the pages in the site. And Yahoo does not show any listings for the other two domain names.

I have keywords and description META tags on all of my main pages (about 8 pages) and they are optimized for that paricular page. But I don't have the METAs on every single page. Do you think that is neccessary?

My Google backlinks look fine, but how do I check for backlinks in Yahoo?

[OldWelshGuy]

link:http://www.yoursite.com

Yahoo does place a lot more importance on those metas, so I would have them there, although I doubt that is what is holding your ranking back.

OWG

[slopo]

Most of the backlinks that Yahoo shows look good, but on the 2nd page there are a few listings for completely unrelated sites that don't even contain a link to my site. These sites appear to be spam - sites selling discount prescription drugs.

Do you think this is what's causing my low ranking in Yahoo? Any idea why those site listing would be showing up when there are no links to my web site?

[slopo]

Can anyone tell me why these listings for spam sites are showing up?

[rohgan03]

Just thought I'll point you to interesting related reading. Yahoo places more imporatnce to on-page factors ( I am not implying that that is what is holding your ranking back but just pointing to an article that might interest you)
Yahoo compared with google