Domain penalized by Yahoo! ?

[Fonz]

I see, so most of the BS sites out there get listed but quality LL's won't?
At least I'm in good company

Ah well, moving on...

[Useless]

Yahoo is a link farm. Therefore, our existance threatens them. I dare them to ban me!




I was just kidding, Yahoo. Please don't ban me.

[Bill]

Well, Fonz, if you compare your site in siteexplorer and Linkster's site in siteexplorer, you'll get the good news that you aren't on the yahoo hard ban manual list. (However it works.)

But, clearly yahoo doesn't like something about your site - because, like I said, 'smiling pussy' is an odd enough keyword, that with your 24k inbound links you should absolutely rank high for it in an ordinary search.

One of the theories I've heard is that an algo has taken over the role of the manual list (that presumably Linkster is on). Jay was talking about this idea in one of my serach engine chats. That kinda fits what we see when we look for your site in yahoo search.

But, you pretty much have to accept that yahoo doesn't like linklists and linklist type sites, doesn't want them in their results, and has some way of supressing them.

UW, what type of site is it that you have in there, that you've been mentioning? Is it on a linklist type domain? Or is it a blog or some kind of content domain?

I'm still wondering if we could find out for sure that if a page shows up with just the url listing in site explorer, thats how it looks in the regular serps as well. There's that odd line "authenticate this site to see more" that appears in the siteexplorer listings...

[kenny]

I have the same problem. I recently asked them about this and recieved the following response.

Hello,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Search.

It has been determined that your site may not comply with Yahoo!'s
Content Quality Guidelines located at:

http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearc...etions-05.html

Below are some answers to common questions regarding this issue:

Q: What are some of the common reasons that a site may violate Yahoo!'s
Content Policy Guidelines?

A: Yahoo!'s Content Quality Guidelines (link above) outline what we are
and are not looking for in pages that we index. Listed below are some of
the more common reasons that a site may violate these guidelines:

- Cloaking (showing crawlers deceptive content about a site)
- Massive domain interlinking- Use of affiliate programs without the
addition of substantial unique content
- Use of reciprocal link programs (aka "link farms"
- Hidden text
- Excessive keyword repetition

Q: If my site has a judgment against it, can I use the SiteMatch
inclusion program?

A: All pages submitted to SiteMatch are editorially reviewed. If a site
has a judgment against it, it is likely to be rejected by the SiteMatch
program.

Q: If my site has a judgment against it, can I use the Yahoo! Express
directory inclusion program?

A: Yes, the Yahoo! Directory and Yahoo! Search Index are different
systems. Inclusion or exclusion from one does not affect the other.

Q: How can I have my site re-reviewed?

A: Please review our content quality guidelines to make sure that your
site meets all of them. When you feel the site is ready, please complete
the form located at:

http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/ysearch/cgi_rereview

requesting a re-review of your site. You may wish to include an
explanation of unique features on your site, or details of changes to
your site's content that may assist our editors in their evaluation.

Please allow several weeks for the review process, YST indexing, and a
complete refresh of the database before checking http://search.yahoo.com
to see if your site is listed in the Yahoo!Search Index. We do not offer
specifics detailing how an individual site is not in compliance with our
guidelines, but we will review your site individually. You will not be
receiving further notification regarding your request for a second
review, and we are not able to offer the option of another review.

Thank you for taking the time to make the Yahoo! Search Index better.

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.

Regards,

Dustin

Yahoo! Customer Care
25664934

[kenny]

My response:

That is a very vague reply.

I have no idea which infraction is taking place.

Is this a manual penalty or a automatic one?

Does this penalty remove it's self if the infraction is corrected?

Can you give me a clue on whats wrong with the site? Besides a list of

possible reasons?

[kenny]

Yahoo's response:


Hello,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Search.

We do not offer specifics detailing how an individual site is not in
compliance with our guidelines, but we will review your site
individually.

Please review our content quality guidelines to make sure that your site
meets all of them. When you feel the site is ready, please complete the
form located at:

http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/ysearch/cgi_rereview

You may wish to include an explanation of unique features on your site,
or details of changes to your site's content that may assist our editors
in their evaluation.

Yahoo!'s Content Quality Guidelines outline what we are and are not
looking for in pages that we index. For more information about Yahoo!'s
Content Quality Guidelines, please visit:

http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearc...etions-05.html

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.

Regards,

Dustin

Yahoo! Customer Care
25664934

[Bill]

It's been said that yahoo considers linklists to be link farms, one of the things mentioned in your reply.

Fonz, you should write them and see if you get back the same reply.

Linklists haven't been a good way to get yahoo traffic pretty much from the beginning of their new database and search. Small young linklists can show up for a while but sooner or later as they grow they trip the algorithim and get the boot.

Nobody knows for sure except a few yahoo engineers, but I would bet money that when they started there was a manual list, and that folks like linkster and jay got put on that manual list. But, they added to that an algo that looks for certain behaviors and that algo does most of the work of culling linklists and the like now.

[kenny]

my latest reponse:




I'm not going to alter my whole website in a desperate attempt of removing this phantom penalty.

Lets go over your "Content Quality Guidelines"

Pages Yahoo! Wants Included in its Index

1)Original and unique content of genuine value

I have many returning vistors which would indicate that my site includes content which they value.


2)Pages designed primarily for humans, with search engine considerations secondary

My site is easy to navigate and provides descriptive and categorized links to content in which they are looking for. This would explain the high ratio of bookmarkers

3)Hyperlinks intended to help people find interesting, related content, when applicable

The only way I know how to connect webpages is via hyperlink. I build webpages which provide content to retain bookmarkers and to upsell vistors. I'm not in the buisness of building webpages for the sake of building webpages.

4)Metadata (including title and description) that accurately describes the contents of a web page

I don't use metadata

5)Good web design in general

My site design looks better then the sites you have listed when searching for my own site.


What Yahoo! Considers Unwanted
Some, but not all, examples of the more common types of content that Yahoo! does not want include:


1)Pages that harm accuracy, diversity or relevance of search results

My site is as advertised. It's a adult website.


2)Pages dedicated to directing the user to another page

My site features zero redirects. If you mean trying to upsell my visitors for commission then yes I'm guilty. Virtually every webmaster does this. Yahoo does this.


3)Pages that have substantially the same content as other pages

My site provides hand reviewed content split into categories which again spawns bookmarkers.


4)Sites with numerous, unnecessary virtual hostnames

I don't do this.


5)Pages in great quantity, automatically generated or of little value

My pages have value as each one serves it's own purpose. I don't create webpages for the sake of creating webpages. I am not about to elminate my own webpages for the sake of Yahoo.


6)Pages using methods to artificially inflate search engine ranking

If I knew how to do this we wouldn't be having this conversation.

7)The use of text that is hidden from the user

I don't do this. Anybody with half a brain knows this is how you get banned from search engines.

8)Pages that give the search engine different content than what the end-user sees

I don't do this and don't even know how.

9)Excessively cross-linking sites to inflate a site's apparent popularity

I'm not going to stop linking to my own webpages nor am I going to tell other people to stop linking to me. In my buisness we exchange traffic. I'm not going to kill the life blood of my website for Yahoo's sake. Prehaps inflated popularity actually translates to actual popularity.

10)Pages built primarily for the search engines

I build webpages for my surfers.

11)Misuse of competitor names

I don't do this.

12)Multiple sites offering the same content

You already said this in number 3.

13)Sites that use excessive pop-ups, interfering with user navigation
Pages that seem deceptive, fraudulent or provide a poor user experience

My website is popup free. Again, I create webpages to retain bookmarkers.


Now that I have gone over Yahoo's gudelines can you please inform me of the problem?

If not I'll take it as a fault in Yahoo and not of my own site.

[kenny]

Originally Posted by Bill

It's been said that yahoo considers linklists to be link farms, one of the things mentioned in your reply.

Fonz, you should write them and see if you get back the same reply.

Linklists haven't been a good way to get yahoo traffic pretty much from the beginning of their new database and search. Small young linklists can show up for a while but sooner or later as they grow they trip the algorithim and get the boot.

Nobody knows for sure except a few yahoo engineers, but I would bet money that when they started there was a manual list, and that folks like linkster and jay got put on that manual list. But, they added to that an algo that looks for certain behaviors and that algo does most of the work of culling linklists and the like now.

It's the way link lists use recips.

I am sure of it.