Ranking dropped in Yahoo from #6 to #63 - Is there any rhyme or reason for this?

[learner99]

Hi,

Anyone knows what's going on with Yahoo? My site http://www.bestsafetyapparel.com was at position 5 for the keyword 'Gas masks' and all of a sudden it dropped to position 63 and the back links came down to 565 which were 667.

My site took a real long time to move up the ladder to position 5 and stayed there for 1 month and all of a sudden around it dropped.

Is there anything I did wrong? I do not know why my site got punished after a real long wait. This is quite depressing.

Please advice,

Thanks & Regards
Andy

[webkidsan]

Welcome to the world of of search engine ...

[Brian M]

A "site:www.bestsafetyapparel.com" examination reveals:

"Results 1 - 2 of about 37 from www.bestsafetyapparel.com" with the dreaded note, "If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included."

Looking at the source code on a random page reveals, "<meta name="Description" content=""> so the field is defined, but there is no data.

So, the SE looks on the page for a description and ends up with the same data on each page, and that results in duplicate content.

This takes a long time to manifest itself as a problem (and an even longer time to get out of the 'penalty box' after you fix it), but it is fixable, so put some relevant data (relevant to the page) in each field and you will see positive results within a few months (maybe sooner if you are lucky).

[Brian M]

Hi,

The numbers in my last post came from Google, but the problem is also evident in Yahoo. Each engine is different, but the "site:" command will reveal what each search engine sees, and it is a fantastic tool for comparisons.

The numbers may vary, but the evidence is always there...

:)

[Rob M]

To add fuel to the fire Yahoo is now changing it's ranking algorithm to something closer to Google's link based algorithm so you can expect to see lots of changes in the rankings. Some of my own sites have shifted also but I don't plan on making many changes until things settle a little.

Check out Aaron Walls post about Yahoo! Search Algorithm Moves Toward Links & Authority Sites (http://www.seobook.com/archives/001755.shtml)