I have been very perplexed as to why my site extremedigitalimage.com which used to rank number one both in yahoo and msn for "Chicago Wedding Photographer" does not even show up for this keyword anymore. It is still fine in google. Recently I discovered this site http://www.mishamedia.com has stolen not only all of my seo techniques from my index page, but has also copied much of the on page text word for word. This site ranks fairly well in Yahoo. Is it possible that I am being penalized from Yahoo for duplicate content even though mine existed first? What would you do?
It is possible that the stolen text is causing a problem. Personally I would try contacting that website directly with your beef. That text could've been added by their seo company without them knowing it was even copied. If they do know about it, then the threat of a lawsuit may be enough to convince them to change. If that doesn't work, you could try contacting Yahoo about the problem. One thing I did noticed about your website is that your main navigation from your splash page is through image links. Whenever you choose to use graphics for navigation, you should also have a way to navigate throughout the site via text links. You'll also want to examine your website to see if there is anything else that could be considered spammy. Then continue to get more incoming links and hopefully it resolves itself. Yahoo could've just made some type of algorithm update since last time you checked rankings. So also try examining your top competitors to see if there is something that they are all doing that you aren't and vice versa.
The best advice my grandfather ever gave me... Worry about what you do, not what others do, and you're untouchable. That being said forget what the other guy is doing unless you have the funds for a lawsuit, otherwise you're wasting time. Some pointers - The grey text on black background... you couldn't pay me to read it. It's fine if its not really meant to be read though. - Navigation needs improving... Why not repeat the same links with regular text underneath so that search engines can follow? The "gallery" link especially that you have on the 2nd pages needs to be available on the main page. Great site but since you don't get to the goodies until page 2 and crawlers can't get there some content is hiding from internal link love!
I can understand even my website www.healthtip.info 's all SEO technique is being copied by someone silly with a similar name stand something called healthpoint or something. When i tried talking in the gals saying how can u say this i am copying... Do u have any proof??and as our sites are similar i can also say that you are copying my website. You wont believe she copied my theme, SEO technique, topics, programs, categories, layout, promotion everything. I took a positive step i developed my site better and gave more efforts. Today my site ranks in top for few keywords and she is below me(like always). And one thing is for sure if i keep using innovative ideas all she can do is copy them after i have got the benefit. And one very good advantage of someone copying your website is you will always have a regular visitor on your website.So if some one copies your website all you need to do is smile back and say thanks for visiting. P.S:- please lighten the screen.. black is looking too dark on eyes and pics taking too much time to load.
I noticed that you have javascript in your head tag above the meta content. This looks to me like it would be a red-flag to a robot coming to your site. I would suggest placing all of your javascript and css in external files to keep the code clean and add more on page text. Also Yahoo site explorer lists just 3 IB links to your site while your competitor has over 200. This will make a huge difference.