301 redirect Affected Yahoo in a big way

[MNPropeller]

Hello all,

First, I am a the owner of the company NOT the designer/programmer. I just know enough to get me into trouble.

I have been reading this BB for quite awhile trying to improve my Google / Yahoo rankings. I assume that I am still in the "newbie" stage with Google.

Last week I had the host do the 301 permanent redirect from PropMD.com (http://PropMD.com) to www.PropMD.com (http://www.PropMD.com) (in reference to some of the posts in the Google section saying that the 301 redirect will help with any confusion with a possible double entry)

It actually appeared to help in the Google but KILLED the yahoo rankings. Using the keyword "aluminum propeller repair" I used to be on the first page, now it doesn't even rank. Same with "Propeller repair".

I realize that my largest problem is no inbound quality links. (tough to get)

Any ideas if the 301 redirect hurts Yahoo rankings?

thanks
Mark

[suthra]

I dont think its the 301 that affects the ranking. Your title tag , description and keywords should be changed.

Also, i would suggest to add your title tag above all the tags.,

Instead of having your title as:
"aluminum and Stainless Steel Propellers and Boat Prop Repairs from PropMD.com We have boat props at great discount prices! "

You can have:
Title:
Aluminum propeller - Stainless Steel Propellers - Boat Propeller Repairs

[clasione]

I highly doubt it was the 301 redirect that caused the change.....

Everywhere I go there are tons of threads about Yahoo removing sites left and right including some of mine....

Seems like their creating their own negitive "buzz" :confused:

[Robert_Charlton]

Any ideas if the 301 redirect hurts Yahoo rankings?

The 301 checks out OK on a server header checker. I doubt that the redirect is what's hurting you on Yahoo.

Using the keyword "aluminum propeller repair" I used to be on the first page, now it doesn't even rank.

Actually, you're now #20 for that search (default all-the-words, no quotes). If you add some exclusion strings to the search, as in...

aluminum propeller repair -asdf -asdf -asdf -asdf -asdf -asdf

...you'll see that you pop back up (www version) at #7. Yahoo's applying some sort of extra level of "filtering" that's knocking down a bunch of pages that used to rank quite well. I've thought it was link-related, because it is a post-algo level of computation, but I haven't fully figured it out yet. I feel that they've turned a knob too far, similar to what Google did in the Florida update a couple of years ago, and, as Google did, they'll fix it after the holiday shopping season. I don't think they can leave it as it is.

[MNPropeller]

thanks for the ideas and looking into it!!

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays everyone!

[Chelee]

Yike!

I did not realize that Google penalizes the web hosting user for using
"Domain Forwarding" as known as diverting or redirecting.

As you can see, Yahoo! Web Hosting set "Domain Forwarding" option for
Yahoo! customers like myself. I was completely innocent when I
clicked the domain forwarding to one of my particular web addresses.
There is no warning statement from Yahoo! service that Google will
penalizing if I select this option. I wish they put the warning
statement next to option selection when it comes to using domain
forwarding.

It is no wonder my web site did not show up at Google listing. Is
this really happening? I might be wrong, huh?? Is there any way to
get back on Google listing? So....


Any helpful advices from Google community to solve this matter ...will
be greatly appreciated!!!

If anyone knows how to get attention from Google Headquarter to solve this
unique problem, then please contact them if you do know how!

Signed by,

Yahoo! Customer Newbie (even SEO newbie!)

[Marcia]

Welcome to the forums, Chelee. I heard a while back that domains can be redirected with 301s for Yahoo stores, but don't know if that applies to ordinary Yahoo hosting. You'd better check with them - with tech support from the hosts themselves.

Is the site hosted "on" the domain name or hosted someplace else (like on a subdomain) with the name just forwarded to it?

[Chelee]

Hi,

What is 301s? You mentioned in your reply!

Chelee

[Marcia]

It's a permanent redirect. The easiest thing is just to ask the tech support people about it, because sometimes things are server-dependent, depending on how they've got it set up.