Search Engines & eCommerce Frank Ross on 11 Apr 2007 05:58 pm
Site Fell out of Yahoo!
I have this drop ship site (call it site A) which used to be on the first page on Yahoo for its main keyword. It was in the top 5 sometimes as high as 3. Earlier this year, it took a tumble in the rankings. Not just a little slip, but a major tumble. It’s been fluctuating between the 50 and 65 spots - in other words, they did ‘the Donald’ on my site (for that keyword).I know the reason for the tumble was their January Algo update. But what I don’t know is how to get it back up to page 1. Site A for that keyword ranks #4 on MSN and is currently #12 on Google with an occasional bump to 9 or 10.
I have a theory about Yahoo ranking - completely unfounded, but rumors like this have been floating around for years so I may as well add to them. You have to spend money with Yahoo to rank well with Yahoo.
The competitor for Site A is now in #1 on Yahoo - they are a Yahoo store, my Site A is not hosted on Yahoo. Ahem. Site B (another drop ship site of mine) is not a Yahoo store, but I did plunk down the $300 per year to get it into the Yahoo Directory. It ranks better now than before January for its top keyword - #5 on Yahoo. Cough.
So there you have it folks - the unofficial Frank Ross theory of Yahoo’s Search Algo. Seriously, I suppose I should consider plunking down the $300 for a Yahoo directory listing for Site A. That may bump it up to the first page of Google and may help Yahoo see fit to raise it back to its former prominence.