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Search Engine Roundtable

• 

  Last Day For Yahoo Site Explorer

  Fetched: November 22nd, 2011, 6:22am CET by Barry Schwartz

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Engine Optimization  

  Today is the last day you will be able to use Yahoo Site Explorer.

  Yahoo announced late on Friday that they are closing it down today, November 21st. They said:

  With the completion of algorithmic transition to Bing, Yahoo! Search has merged Site Explorer into Bing Webmaster Tools. Webmasters should now be using the Bing Webmaster Tools to ensure that their websites continue to get high quality organic search traffic from Bing and Yahoo!. Site Explorer services will not be available from November 21, 2011.

  This comes with no surprise. Yahoo notified everyone that it would happen this year but since today is the day, it is some what of a shocker that it has finally happened. It is basically the last nail in the coffin for Yahoo Search.

  Site Explorer was launched in 2005 as one of Tim Mayer's babys at Yahoo. I personally am very sad to see it go, but I am sure it upsets Tim a bit more.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

  Update: As of Tuesday, November 22nd, it is now closed and here is what the closure page looks like:

  
  

• 

  Yahoo's Crawler Not Listening To Robots.txt Directive?

  Fetched: September 20th, 2011, 5:02am CEST by Barry Schwartz

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Engine Optimization  

  A WebmasterWorld thread reports that Yahoo may not be fully listening to the robots.txt directive to block their spider, Yahoo Slurp.

  The thing is, Yahoo spider isn't all that active these days - because Bing is now powering much of Yahoo and thus BingBot is most active.

  The webmaster said:

  Depending on the Host and UA, the official Yahoo! Slurp apparently does whatever it wants to. Note the subtle differences in the subdomains and UAs...

  This morning, the only Host to read/heed robots.txt was:

  b3091154.crawl.yahoo.net [67.195.112.189] Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Yahoo! Slurp; http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp)

  These retrieved graphics by the pageful, over 60 total:

  b5101137.yst.yahoo.net [98.137.72.218] b5101139.yst.yahoo.net [98.137.72.228] Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Yahoo! Slurp/3.0; http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp)

  I am not sure if this is a widespread issue or something that is just a smaller bug.

  The main question is, should you care of Yahoo is crawling your site when Bing is? That discussion is also taking place in the forum thread. The answer is, it depends.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  Yahoo To Turn Off Site Explorer

  Fetched: July 12th, 2011, 2:44am CEST by Barry Schwartz

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Engine Optimization  

  Yahoo Site Explorer, which went live in September 2005 is now going to be shut down by the end of this year.

  Yahoo said:

  In an August 2010 blog post, we said we would continue Site Explorer with a focus on new features for webmaster community, even after the transition to Microsoft platforms is complete. We listened to your feedback, and along with the team from Bing Webmaster Center looked jointly at the roadmap for the webmaster tools. Having two webmaster portals for a single source for organic results does not add enough value. Once organic results are transitioned to Bing in all the markets, we plan to shut down Yahoo! Site Explorer and Microsoftâs Webmaster Tools will be the source for Bing and Yahoo! webmaster site and analytics data.

  Horrible news for many SEOs who have come to rely on Yahoo Site Explorer as a free, comprehensive and search engine backed competitive analysis link tool.

  Sad news for me, being that Yahoo keeps failing on search. But we know. Tim Mayer, the equivalent to Yahoo's Matt Cutts back int he day, was personally responsible for setting up this beloved tool. So it is so sad to see it being shut down.

  Microsoft Webmaster Tools, which isn't bad, is suppose to pick up where Yahoo left off. But I doubt Microsoft will offer a competitive link analysis tool within their webmaster tools. Google doesn't, Yahoo did, I doubt Microsoft will.

  Yahoo has posted a detailed FAQ on this on their blog. Here are some of them:

  When will Site Explorer shutdown?

  We are working with Microsoft to transition organic results in all markets to the Microsoft Search platform. Site Explorer will shut down once all markets are transitioned. This is expected later this year. We will keep updating you with progress of the transition at our Search Blog.

  Will the Site Explorer APIs be shut down?

  The APIs were scheduled to be shut down at the end of last year, but the timeframe has been extended for the YDN Site Explorer API up until September 15, 2011. Note: For BOSS Site Explorer APIs shut down information, scheduled for July 20, 2011, please see this April 2011 blog post.

  Will Yahoo! continue to crawl my website?

  Although the organic results will be powered by Microsoft Search platforms, Yahoo! will continue to innovate on the search experience beyond the services delivered by Microsoft. In order to provide Yahoo! users with an amazing search experience, our slurp crawlers may continue to selectively crawl websites to help support these efforts.

  Goodbye Yahoo Site Explorer!

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  Yahoo Site Explorer Migrating Into Bing Webmaster Tools & More

  Posted: August 18th, 2010, 4:44pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  As you know by now, Yahoo promised to complete the transition to being fully powered by Bing in the U.S. and Canada within a week of time. But what does that mean for the beloved Yahoo Site Explorer or BOSS or Search Monkey?

  Site Explorer will stick around until all of the migration is complete. But when the Bing transition in the U.S. and Canada are complete, within a week or so, Yahoo hopes to announce when Bing will have the Site Explorer features in Bing Webmaster Tools.

  When Bing released their new Bing Webmaster Center it was missing a critical feature, linkage data. Many speculated that Yahoo Site Explorer would replace it and that is kind of true. Bing Webmaster Center will get linkage tools via Site Explorers framework, some how. We should know exactly when that will happen in a week or so.

  BOSS is sticking around too, but there will be some ways to monetize that so it makes sense for Yahoo to keep it around. I believe Bing will power some of Yahoo BOSS and Yahoo will power parts of it as well. But there are not many details exactly what will happen with BOSS going forward at this point.

  SearchMonkey is kind of dead. The developer tools are going away but they markup techniques will remain on Yahoo Search. Bing may or may not use some of the markup techniques, but Yahoo will continue to use it to make the search results richer there.

  You can learn a lot more about the specifics at the Yahoo Developer blog and on the Yahoo Search blog.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  Yes, Yahoo Slurp Is Still Active

  Posted: August 4th, 2010, 3:05pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  A WebmasterWorld thread asks if Yahoo's crawler, Yahoo Slurp is still active. As we know, Yahoo has begun testing Bing powered Yahoo search results and may transition completely over as soon as this month.

  But what will happen with Yahoo's crawler? Ultimately, I believe it will go away. But right now it is active. I see it in my logs and so do other webmasters.

  So what will happen with Yahoo Site Explorer? Will it continue to exist? If so, will the data go stale? Will it be migrated over to Bing? Bing's new webmaster tools currently has no link reporting tool.

  As you can imagine, this leaves some SEOs a bit concerned. There are alternatives, but many loved Yahoo Site Explorer. Yahoo Site Explorer was really a revolutionary tool in the industry, launching in September 2005 under Tim Mayer's leadership (who we will talk about a bit later today).

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  Searchers Seeing Bing Powered Yahoo Results

  Posted: July 20th, 2010, 4:19pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  Yahoo said they will be testing Bing powered search results this month.

  Since then, I haven't really seen anyone say they see it. How will you know if you are in a test group that is seeing the Bing powered Yahoo search results? Simple. The organic results should match Bing exactly.

  Now, a senior member at WebmasterWorld said he saw the exact same results on Yahoo that he sees on Bing. He then eventually cleared his cookies and the results no longer matched. I trust him, he was 100% in the test group seeing Bing powered Yahoo results.

  Textex, the person who saw it said:

  I was seeing it for all queries. I then cleared my cookies and it was gone.

  I personally tried it on several browsers and operating systems and did not see it myself. But who knows how likely I am to see these results.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  Official: Yahoo Testing Bing Powered Results In July (aka Now)

  Posted: July 16th, 2010, 3:20pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  Yesterday, I received an email from Yahoo that discussed the migration plan for the organic side of Yahoo Search. As I wrote at Search Engine Land, in that email, Yahoo officially confirmed that they will (if not already) that they are testing Bing powered Yahoo Search results this month.

  The email said:

  Though much of our testing is already happening offline, this month we’ll also test the delivery of organic and paid search results provided by Microsoft on live Yahoo! traffic.

  You can read the full email over here.

  Key points:

  • Testing Bing powered Yahoo results this month.
  • The transition for organic is on target for August/September.
  • Testing volumes specifically for paid search will be very low, to not impact current campaigns.
  • When the switch over happens, Bing will power about 30% of all search queries worldwide.

  Have you seen any Yahoo and Bing search results matching? If so, email me screen shots.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

  
  

• 

  Yahoo Search's URL Ping Server Goes Offline. Beginning Of The End?

  Posted: July 15th, 2010, 3:15pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  WebmasterWorld's moderator, incrediBill, posted a thread at WebmasterWorld noting that Yahoo's URL Ping server seems to have gone offline recently. As he explains, when he tries to access the documented Ping URLs, he gets a dead response.

  Try it yourself, try sending a ping via the documented example URLs:

  • http://ping.feeds.yahoo.com/rss/ping?u=http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/topstories
  • http://ping.feeds.yahoo.com/rss/ping?u=http://site.example.com/blog

  The API URLs are dead as well, see [api.my.yahoo.com].

  Is this the beginning of the end to Yahoo Search?

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  Breaking: Yahoo Now Testing Bing's Search Algorithm & Results?

  Posted: July 4th, 2010, 5:18pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  There are two large threads that started over the weekend at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums with discussion around the Yahoo Search results.

  The thing is, I have never seen such a large influx of buzz around Yahoo Search results, at least not for the past 3 years or so. People are reporting huge, I mean huge, shifts with Yahoo's search results.

  At first, the folks at WebmasterWorld have called it a bug but some are now suspecting this has to do with Yahoo testing Bing results. Yes, as expected, Yahoo should begin testing the Bing powered results on Yahoo Search any time now. Maybe this is the first signs of it?

  Why would Yahoo spend the time drastically revamping their algorithm? Either this is a huge bug or Yahoo has let some people into a bucket testing of the Bing search results.

  The thing that kind of makes me feel this is more of a bug than a Bing powered Yahoo is the results. I tried to personally match up Bing and Yahoo results and they are different. Some said in the forum that the results "looks like a mix of bing and google." But honestly, when Yahoo begins Bing powered results, the results of the organic listings, the ranking and order, will be exactly the same as you see them on Bing. Yahoo may throw more visual results at the top, middle and so on, but the organic result should be exactly the same.

  Maybe I am not in this bucket test and maybe this is Bing on Yahoo?

  What do you see?

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

  
  

• 

  Yahoo Search 404 Handling Poor Again?

  Posted: June 22nd, 2010, 3:30pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  A WebmasterWorld thread has several webmasters complaining about how Yahoo Search handles 404s.

  There is a really good analysis by Frank Rizzo, a senior member from 2002 at WebmasterWorld, who shows how Yahoo is doing three weird things on his site, in regards to 404s. He said Yahoo is showing:

  • Genuine 404s from pages which were deleted a while ago.
  • 404s from what seems to be badly configured software
  • 404s from what seems to be attempts at exploits.

  Others are reporting similar issues as of this month and some are even thinking about blocking Yahoo's spiders over the issue.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  Yahoo Search Unstable?

  Posted: June 3rd, 2010, 4:11pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  A WebmasterWorld thread has limited discussion on Yahoo. In the old days, when Yahoo made changes or if there were issues, there would have been a lot more activity, which makes my job hard to figure out if this is a bigger issue than it is. So I start with that, because I do not know if this impact a small number of sites or a nice amount of sites.

  The thread has complaints from two different webmasters that Yahoo Search is going to the dogs. A long time senior member at WebmasterWorld said:

  12 year old site authority in nitch went poof yesterday at about 4:30 pm. How I know looking at referrals from yahoo on a big term last one was that time. Site is gone still indexed but for all the main terms went poof.

  And then a member since 2002 wrote:

  On one site :

  1. after a revamp of the site and 5 months of constant crawling all Y has to show for is 3 pages indexed, two of which are irrelevant to searchers
  2. after several years of crawling the site Y stepped twice in my honeypot in the space of two weeks, go figure

  It looks like Y has all but given up.

  Clearly, these are two members who know their SEO and have been around for a long time.

  We know Bing will ultimately take over Yahoo, so I probably shouldn't be covering this but I miss the old Yahoo.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  Links Return To Yahoo Site Explorer

  Posted: May 24th, 2010, 3:29pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  On Friday we reported that Yahoo Site Explorer links went missing and literally about a 100,000 of the links were lost to this site. Well, I guess it was a bug, because our links are back and so are everyone else's.

  Here is a screen shot from today:

  Here it was from Friday:

  As you can see, I acquired 100,000 or so links over the weekend - not bad.

  Clearly there was some sort of bug and now it is fixed. Yahoo has not confirmed the issue.

  Forum discussion continued at Search Engine Watch Forums.

  
  

• 

  Yahoo Site Explorer Link Count Drops Significantly

  Posted: May 21st, 2010, 3:14pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  Several webmasters and SEOs are reporting that the link reports in Yahoo Site Explorer is reporting drastically less links than ever before. I assume this is not being discussed as much as it would have been a year or two ago, simply cause Yahoo is out of search but some webmasters and SEOs are concerned over the major link drop.

  I personally checked my January 2009 screen shot and compared it to today and I noticed a drop of over 100,000 links! Here is a before and after screen shot.

  Today:

  In January 2009:

  A Search Engine Watch Forums thread has a post about this drop, as well as some tweets.

  .bbpBox14263109799 {background:url(http://s.twimg.com/a/1274144130/images/themes/theme1/bg.png) #9ae4e8;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author{line-height:19px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 7px 0 0px;width:38px;height:38px} p.bbpTweet a:hover{text-decoration:underline}p.bbpTweet span.timestamp{font-size:12px;display:block}

  @rustybrick Do u have any theories on why people are seeing lots of link loss in Yahoo SiteExplorer? I saw you covered this topic...less than a minute ago via HootSuiteSusan Urban
  UrbanSeattle

  .bbpBox14300877012 {background:url(http://a3.twimg.com/profile_background_images/76396131/matrix-1280x1024.jpg) #1A1B1F;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author{line-height:19px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 7px 0 0px;width:38px;height:38px} p.bbpTweet a:hover{text-decoration:underline}p.bbpTweet span.timestamp{font-size:12px;display:block}

  Noticing a significant drop in link counts in Yahoo's Site Explorer for the "link:" - "except from this domain" option. Anyone?less than a minute ago via EchofonG-Rod
  grod69

  .bbpBox14231514509 {background:url(http://a3.twimg.com/profile_background_images/37858893/BanksyBalloonGirl.jpg) #c2c2c2;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author{line-height:19px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 7px 0 0px;width:38px;height:38px} p.bbpTweet a:hover{text-decoration:underline}p.bbpTweet span.timestamp{font-size:12px;display:block}

  Seeing a big drop in number of backlinks reported by Yahoo Site Explorer. Anyone else?less than a minute ago via EchofonDan Sharp
  screamingfrog

  Did you notice a major drop?

  Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

  Update May 23, 2010: Seems like most of the links lost are now back.

  
  

• 

  Yahoo Search Update: April 2010, Really?

  Posted: April 30th, 2010, 3:30pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  Yesterday, Yahoo announced that they are doing a search index and algorithm update. They said, like they do almost every month:

  The Yahoo! Search engineering teams are rolling out updates to crawling, indexing, and ranking algorithms. Similar to previous updates, you may notice some ranking changes and page shuffling during the process, which we expect to complete over the next few days.

  But like last month, no one really noticed anything when the announcement went live. Back in the old days, we normally saw forum discussion before the announcement - with SEOs and webmasters noticing changes before Yahoo was ready to admit it. But the past few times, no one was talking about changes even a day or so after Yahoo announced it.

  Why aren't people talking about it like they use to?

  (1) Webmasters don't care about Yahoo anymore?
  (2) Traffic from Yahoo may be insignificant to most webmasters for them to notice
  (3) Yahoo is more proactive about letting us know before any changes are made
  (4) Yahoo is not really doing a serious update

  I don't see any discussions on this currently at WebmasterWorld (this may change soon, since I posted a thread). I do see one webmaster at DigitalPoint Forums complaining about his link count in Yahoo, but people suspect this is unrelated to the update and more related to his site being considered web spam.

  So what is up Yahoo? Really? Why invest in search backend when Microsoft will soon take that over?

  Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

  
  

• 

  Yahoo Search Update: March 2010

  Posted: March 11th, 2010, 3:27pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  Yahoo announced a new search update, or what they call a "weather report" for their index. Yahoo said you may notice ranking changes in the Yahoo Search results. They said:

  The Yahoo! Search engineering teams are rolling out updates to crawling, indexing, and ranking algorithms. Similar to previous updates, you may notice some ranking changes and page shuffling during the process, which we expect to complete over the next few days.

  I have not seen any discussion around this but there may be an issue with the Yahoo Search WebmasterWorld forum, so I am not sure.

  I did spot two threads discussing an update with Yahoo Site Explorer. One thread was at the Site Explorer Suggestion Board and the other at DigitalPoint Forums.

  Update: I was able to post a thread at WebmasterWorld (maybe there was a bug on my side) and now we have a nice amount of feedback on how significant this update is. Here are some posts from the thread:

  I'm seeing a small but statistically insignificant increase from Yahoo!

  We had been showing a steady increase in traffic until yesterday (March 10th). Today, we've lost about 20% of our traffic from Y!.

  This is a pattern that seems to repeat with each update. After the update we drop in ranking but slowly climb back before the next update.

  They are showing lots of love for Wikipedia.

  I'm seeing huge differences not in the results but the output...5 natural results for some queries instead of the usual 10 and quite frankly I like it shortened like this. Top 5 or go home.......

  
  

• 

  A Real Yahoo Search Update for January 2010?

  Posted: January 21st, 2010, 3:13pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  Earlier this month, we reported on a rumored Yahoo Search update. Although it appeared to be an update, the consensus was that what people were seeing was the paid inclusion being weeded out of the organic search results.

  But the thread at WebmasterWorld has been updated by BillyS, who often tracks Yahoo. Billy thinks that Yahoo is now updating, for real, this time. He said:

  Yahoo tweaked something today around 1:30 until 3:00 Eastern time. We had a huge spike in traffic. Anyone else see this?

  Yahoo updates typically don't get as much reaction as a Google update. And over the past year or so, Yahoo updates have received a lot less attention then they have in the past. This is likely due to them losing search market share and giving up to Bing.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  Yahoo Search January 2010 Update?

  Posted: January 6th, 2010, 2:46pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  There is a single report at a WebmasterWorld thread of a possible Yahoo Search update. Senior member, textex, is noticing changes in the Yahoo Search results, but clearly, the Yahoo Search Blog has not posted anything since December 15th.

  Typically, when it comes to Yahoo Search updates - we normally see it being reported in the forums before Yahoo posts anything on their blog about it. Also, we typically see Yahoo Search update every quarter or so and the last update was in September 2009, so we are do an update.

  Do you notice any ranking changes in Yahoo or a shift in your Yahoo referrals?

  Note: As Yahoo loses market share, less and less webmasters and SEOs are concerned about Yahoo. So it doesn't surprise me to see such little activity in the thread at this point. I do hope the thread picks up.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  Yahoo Search Unbanning Web Sites After Years?

  Posted: December 2nd, 2009, 2:53pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  Is it possible that Yahoo is unbanning web sites from Yahoo Search after years of being in the penalty box? A single post by an old time member at WebmasterWorld claims that two of his sites are now back in the Yahoo index after years.

  He said:

  Just noticed today two of our sites that were previously banned in Yahoo for 2+ years are now receiving traffic once again from Yahoo and are being reindexed. Anybode else noticing their sites being reindexed? Traffic was first noticed on the 25th of November.

  Did anyone else notice that their sites that were banned from Yahoo is now back?

  Again, this is a single post from one webmaster - so I am trying to see if this is a single incident or a larger one. Please join the thread or comment here.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  Yahoo Dropping Controversial Paid Inclusion Program, Finally

  Posted: October 16th, 2009, 3:36pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  It is true, Yahoo is dropping paid inclusion by years end, as I reported at Search Engine Land. Yahoo issued a statement, I'll cut out the part where they say they are committed to search and show you the relevant part:

  Yahoo! will exit Search Submit at the end of 2009. Yahoo! is providing those advertisers affected by the decision a sufficient lead time to assist in the transition. In addition, Yahoo! has recently announced a series of important enhancements to its Search advertising business and will work closely with many Search Submit advertisers to provide them with search solutions that will benefit their businesses.

  There has always been confusion over the paid inclusion program at Yahoo. In fact, it changed names a few times. There were reports that banned sites were able to be included in Yahoo via this program. Like I said at Search Engine Land, accepting money to be included in a free/unbiased search engine, just seems wrong.

  I for one think this is a good move, although I know many SEOs who love this program.

  Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  Yahoo's Senior Director of Search Got It Wrong, Yahoo Uses Meta Keywords Still

  Posted: October 16th, 2009, 3:18pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  Last week, I reported that Yahoo dropped the meta keywords tag and stopped using it completely. Remember, I told you that I wasn't convinced when I heard that and I asked the Senior Director of Search at Yahoo if he was sure? Well, he said he was, but in reality, he was mistaken.

  Danny and others have confirmed that Yahoo is still using the meta keywords tag when ranking. People have set up test sites that show this to be the case. Danny received an official statement from Yahoo on how they use this meta keywords tag, which they do use:

  What changed with Yahoo’s ranking algorithms is that while we still index the meta keyword tag, the ranking importance given to meta keyword tags receives the lowest ranking signal in our system.

  Words that appear in any other part of documents, including the body, title, description, anchor text etc., will take priority in ranking the document – the re-occurrence of these words in the meta keyword tag will not help in boosting the signal for these words. Therefore, keyword stuffing in the keyword tag will not help a page’s recall or ranking, it will actually have less effect than introducing those same words in the body of the document, or any other section.

  However, when no other ranking signal is present, unique words that only appear in the meta keyword tag section of documents can still be used to recall these documents.

  I am not sure why I didn't originally believe it. It was not like I had proof at the time. In any event, we are all human and we make mistakes. Search representatives are often seen as the single authority on SEO related questions, but in reality, they cannot know everything and are human, like you and me.

  Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  Will You Implement Yahoo's Common Tag?

  Posted: June 17th, 2009, 2:06pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  Several days ago Yahoo announced support for something called the common tag. In short, it basically gives developers a way to tag their content in a more unified way.

  Vanessa Fox has the most detailed explanation of how this all works. In fact, Yahoo's post on the topic is almost unusable.

  So please go skim her article and then come back here and let me know if you plan on giving this common tag a try. Personally, I doubt I will.

  Here is the poll:

  
  Will You Use Yahoo's Common Tag?(survey)
  

  Forum discussion at Sphinn.

  
  

• 

  Will You Implement Yahoo's Common Tag?

  Posted: June 17th, 2009, 2:06pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  Several days ago Yahoo announced support for something called the common tag. In short, it basically gives developers a way to tag their content in a more unified way.

  Vanessa Fox has the most detailed explanation of how this all works. In fact, Yahoo's post on the topic is almost unusable.

  So please go skim her article and then come back here and let me know if you plan on giving this common tag a try. Personally, I doubt I will.

  Here is the poll:

  
  Will You Use Yahoo's Common Tag?(survey)
  

  Forum discussion at Sphinn.

  
  

• 

  Will You Implement Yahoo's Common Tag?

  Posted: June 17th, 2009, 2:06pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  Several days ago Yahoo announced support for something called the common tag. In short, it basically gives developers a way to tag their content in a more unified way.

  Vanessa Fox has the most detailed explanation of how this all works. In fact, Yahoo's post on the topic is almost unusable.

  So please go skim her article and then come back here and let me know if you plan on giving this common tag a try. Personally, I doubt I will.

  Here is the poll:

  
  Will You Use Yahoo's Common Tag?(survey)
  

  Forum discussion at Sphinn.

  
  

• 

  Yahoo Search Japan Update: US Update Soon?

  Posted: May 22nd, 2009, 3:42pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  The Yahoo Search Japan blog announced they are updating their index now. Perhaps this is a sign that Yahoo in the US will update soon as well. I am pretty sure that both indexes are mostly separate for the most part, I am not sure if it works the same way at Google, but I think it does at Yahoo.

  A WebmasterWorld thread has a single post about the update. One person who tracks Yahoo Search Japan said "we're experiencing big move on SERP."

  The translated announcement reads:

  Yahoo! In search, Yahoo! Inc. UEBUSACHIENJIN has developed the "Yahoo! Search Technology (YST)" has upgraded the search algorithm.

  Recently we reported Index Update, unlike a significant upgrade and will affect the behavior of search engine algorithms.

  The last US Yahoo Search update we reported was a while ago in March 2009.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  Yahoo Search Update: February 2009

  Posted: February 26th, 2009, 2:34pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  There seems to be a Yahoo Search update taking place now. A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around the update. We do not have official confirmation from the Yahoo Search Blog yet, but we didn't have confirmation the last update either.

  The first report came in early yesterday morning and since then, many others confirmed seeing an update as well. Let me pull out the key findings from the thread:

  • Link counts may have dropped
  • Some are reporting canonical issues
  • One person reported "different titles and descriptions for singular vs. plural of my main keyword. It's the same URL, so kind of odd."

  Why did Yahoo not announce this update? Well, maybe they will today or tomorrow. But the Yahoo Search Japan blog announced it the other day. It translates to:

  Yahoo! In search, Yahoo! Inc. UEBUSACHIENJIN has developed the "Yahoo! Search Technology (YST)" has started a full update of the index.

  The Index Update?

  YST, every day to make a more user-friendly search engine, such as Japan's own and respond to the world stage and improve the work of Akira Osamu develop new features and functions. To reflect the results of this search engine, built-in indexer will update the entire index.
  Position changes are expected to be improved with the results of this search. The full completion of the update takes a few days.

  Yahoo! Search Project

  The last update was a small hiccup on February 9th but a larger update was on or around January 19th.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

• 

  Yahoo Search & Ask.com January 2009 Search Updates?

  Posted: January 19th, 2009, 1:57pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  Textex at WebmasterWorld is reporting that he is seeing both an Ask.com update and a Yahoo Search update.

  He first noticed Yahoo Search changes yesterday afternoon, saying "Seeing movement." He was then backed up by full member, Vimes, who said, "I'm seeing something not sure if I'd call it an update just yet, the sectors i look at there is a shuffle." So this may be the beginning of a Yahoo update or it might be some sector tweaks. We are due a Yahoo update, the last one we noticed was back in November 2008, since then, there have been no confirmed Yahoo Search updates. So having an update now, would not surprise me.

  On the Ask.com front, there is a bit more discussion going on, being that the update was reported at WebmasterWorld a bit earlier. Textex called this update "a complete overhaul." Full member, robzilla, confirmed but cautioned that this update doesn't seem to be "an improvement" to their index. Soon later, they both noticed that clearing their cookies reset the "results reverted back" to their previous state. This implies that the results might be a test on some users. I did some of my own testing and the results do seem a bit better. Still not what I consider "fresh" results, but a bit better on the few dozen results I check to see quality. This cannot have anything to do with Ask.com's recent announcement on NASCAR, so I wonder what exactly is going on here?

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld on both Ask.com update and Yahoo Search update.

• 

  Report: Yahoo Site Explorer Updated Link Values

  Posted: January 9th, 2009, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  A DigitalPoint Forums thread reports that folks are noticing that Yahoo Site Explorer has updated the link counts for the tool.

  I do not typically track these numbers, but many do. So if you do, definitely take a look and see if you are doing any better.

  Here is a screen capture of our most recent Yahoo Site Explorer link count:

  The 250,000 value shows all links to seroundtable.com, excluding internal links, but to the entire domain. In contrast to Google Webmaster Tools, which only reports 175,408 links for this domain.

  Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

• 

  Yahoo's New Site Explorer Design Now Officially Live

  Posted: October 3rd, 2008, 3:41pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  Yahoo Site Explorer seems to have pushed out their beta design to everyone now. The new look, is not just visual, it also contains these new data points:

  + Site URL
  + Number of pages known
  + Number of pages crawled
  + Number of host on this domain
  + Number of inlinks
  + Number of inlink domains
  + Number of outlinks
  + Number of outlink domains

  Patrick at BlogStorm took notice to this update early this morning. Yes, it is now available to everyone to see by default, without having to go to the beta URL. Nice catch Patrick.

  A DigitalPoint Forums thread has a poll on if you like the new design or not. I am not sure if the poll is fair, because the new design not only gives you a slightly new look, but also gives you new data - which everyone likes.

  Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

• 

  Yahoo Search Not Listening to Redirect Rules?

  Posted: September 22nd, 2008, 1:34pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  A WebmasterWorld thread reports that several webmasters have noticed that even though they are redirecting their non www to the www version, Yahoo is still listing their non-www as the main result.

  This comes even after months of redirecting the non www using a 301 redirect, permanent redirect, to the www version. Here are some comments from the thread:

  www.example.com redirects to example.com and has done so for quite some time now. Yet when I do a search for a two word primary key phrase, Yahoo shows www.example.com. A search for my domain name returns example.com.

  I was at #1 for a few years but lost some ranking in August for this search phrase. I'm not sure if the ranking loss is related.

  Is it a backlink issue? Doesn't appear so:

  I looked, and can't find any backlinks at all to non-www but the homepage shows up both with and without for different searches.

  So what is going on with the latest Yahoo update? Good question.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

• 

  Yahoo Site Explorer Updates Link Data, Huge Drops Reported

  Posted: September 3rd, 2008, 3:24pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  A DigitalPoint Forums thread reports that Yahoo Site Explorer has done a major update to their linkage data reports. Most webmasters are reporting huge drops in the number of links reported today versus the days before.

  The linkage drops are reported as high as losing over 5,000 links. Others saw a drop of about 1,000 links and so on.

  It is possible it is a temporary reporting glitch, but some are actually speculating that Yahoo is no longer showing links that are not counted, either nofollowed or simply not counted, in the linkage reports anymore. Right now, it is too soon to know for sure. But if anything changes or if more reports come in, I will do a follow up post.

  Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

  Update: Just wanted to add that we reported similar issues in March, where my link count then was 271,196 inlinks, but in October I had 216,880 inlinks, and now I have 247,183.

• 

  Is Yahoo Search More Relevant Now? SEOs Claim "More Like Google"

  Posted: August 6th, 2008, 3:20pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  Yahoo conducted an update to their search engine over the weekend. We reported on the early discussion around the update and it then became official when the Yahoo Search Blog confirmed the update later in the day.

  But since then, I have been hearing and reading discussion that the new Yahoo Search results are more like Google. And since Google tends to be the barometer of what is "relevant" and what is not, maybe Yahoo's search results are becoming more "relevant."

  Yahoo Search moderator, travelin cat, at WebmasterWorld said:

  We have never ranked in the top 100 results in Yahoo since their split with Google. Starting a couple of days ago, our site started showing up in Yahoo serps. Most of our kw phrases are now on either the first or second page.

  Plus, we have a whole new DigitalPoint Forums thread on the topic of the Yahoo results being incredibly similar to Google results. Here is a select comment from that thread:

  Did anyone noticed changes in Yahoo!' SERP today. Yahoo is following the same way as Google. Frequent change in Google SERP is kind of common now but it's new for Yahoo!. Yahoo! is changing search results very frequently now.

  Not only are the results looking a bit similar, in some cases, the frequency of updates seems to be getting similar and the discussion has grown a bit around this update.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

• 

  More Yahoo Search Changes in July? Oh, Also Google

  Posted: July 17th, 2008, 3:27pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  Let me take you back a few steps before getting into this update. On June 30th, Yahoo announced an update that did not update any of the search results around that date. Several days later, around July 7th, webmasters began to notice a July Yahoo update. Now, I am seeing early reports of an additional Yahoo update.

  The reports come from WebmasterWorld yesterday, saying that in the real estate niche, "80% of the sites" are no longer in the same position they were the day before. They have been replaced by "gov and org or small old sites," said WebmasterWorld member Garya.

  Member, supafresh supported Garya's post by saying:

  Yahoo changed today in my sector, we moved from the 3rd page to the first page. From my analysis a few days prior I think they tweaked the algorithm on template recognition.

  Did you notice a change in Yahoo in the past twenty-four hours?

  On the Google front, we continue to see yo-yoing, even today.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

• 

  Yahoo Site Command Works Without Applying [site:]?

  Posted: July 15th, 2008, 2:54pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  I am not sure if this is new but it seems if you search in Yahoo for www.domain.com, Yahoo will return results as if you submitted a site command to Yahoo. For example, a search on www.seroundtable.com returns about 18,800, only from seroundtable.com.

  If you conduct a true site command at Yahoo Search, i.e. site:www.seroundtable.com, Yahoo will automatically redirect you to Yahoo Site Explorer. Yahoo actually started redirecting these types of queries to Site Explorer almost exactly two years ago, today.

  Has Yahoo decided using a simple www.domain.com syntax should stay on Yahoo Search and not be redirected to Site Explorer? Has Yahoo always returned a site command like result set for www.domain.com searches? I know Google does not return site command like results for a www.domain.com search.

  Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

• 

  Yahoo Site Explorer Mishandling HTTPS Vs. HTTP Protocols?

  Posted: May 15th, 2008, 3:15pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  A WebmasterWorld thread is reporting a possible bug with the Yahoo Site Explorer tool.

  The webmaster reports that when trying to delete the https URLs of his site from the Yahoo index via Yahoo Site Explorer, it tries to delete the http version as well.

  As many SEOs and Webmasters know, having both the https and http version of the same content in the search results can hurt you a bit in terms of link equity. SEOs and Webmasters want to ensure that the links they obtain go specifically to one URL and not two, and since https is a different url then http, search engines may consider them as two different pages with exactly the same content.

  So when some webmasters see that Yahoo indexed both pages, they may want to force the removal of one of those pages in Site Explorer. But according to this webmaster, if you try removing https, it will remove the http versions as well.

  That brings up an interesting logical observation. If removing an https version, will remove the http version, then maybe Yahoo considers https urls to be the same as http. Maybe https://www.mysite.com/abc.html is the same as http://www.mysite.com/abc.html in the eyes of Yahoo. Maybe all links pointing to the https version are automatically moved over to the http version, in terms of the link popularity component used in Yahoo? Maybe... Or Maybe not?

  Maybe, it is a bug in Site Explorer as one member suggests.

  I've pointed out to Yahoo that http and https are just different protocols. They suggested that this was a bug in SiteExplorer.

  I would think it is a bug and Yahoo doesn't treat https URLs as http.

  The quick and easy fix, 301 the https version to http, if possible. But that is not always possible.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

• 

  Yahoo Slurp, Yahoo Search Crawler, Suffering From ADHD?

  Posted: March 31st, 2008, 2:48pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Optimization Search Yahoo  

  A DigitalPoint Forums thread has dozens of reports that Yahoo Search's crawler, Yahoo Slurp, took some bad medicine recently. Many are reporting that they see the crawler spidering their sites like never before. Some times they have seen the spider multiple to over a 1,000 crawls at one time.

  The first report claimed about 500 Yahoo spiders:

  I have a forum and I get 500+ (sometimes 800+) Yahoo spiders daily. Why is there so many? I only get 1 or 2 Google spiders.

  Others reported similar cases with much more Yahoo spider activity then Google spider activity. These reports seemed to have died down recently.

  The initial report came at Friday afternoon and then died out Saturday afternoon. So maybe it was just a temporary Yahoo glitch?

  Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.