Banned For Being #1 They sometimes say that #1 isn't always the best place to be, and I have a great example for you... Recently I have had a HUGE site removed from the Yahoo index for what I believe is being too good.... For the last few months our site "Long Island Exchange" (www.longislandexchange.com) has out ranked every single newspaper, media outlet, and/or company on Long Island New York. A simple search for the keywords "Long Island" would return Long Island Exchange in the number 1 position out of about 162,000,000 on Yahoo along with other keywords like "Long Island News" Long Island Classifieds" "Long Island Personals" Basically, anything you typed into a search box containing the words "Long Island" we were #1... We were stuck in the number one position. This even surprised me, but since I have been marketing the site for three years, it was a great accomplishment.... We have been building the site for years and it is one of the largest Long Island sites that exist... So now we're removed from the Yahoo index completely. I have no idea how Yahoo can remove such a large veteran site with absolutely no care in the word... I wrote them and explained that this tremendous site is Long Island's largest site which still offers a completely free web experience, along with real writers, real photographer shots of the Island, completely free classifieds, and many other services that are in most cases a pay service elsewhere... We are no doubt, one of Long Island's best. They are not offering to remedy the situation. _____ What I believe happened: YSM ADVERTISER Asks: Hey MR Yahoo Inc., why is it that my company XYZ INC spends $30,000 per month for that Long Island spot on a pay-per-click basis and this Long Island Exchange guy gets to rank #1 for free? Why is it that every time I search for something with the words "Long Island" I get this Long Island Exchange site? Why is that? How is this possible? YAHOO THINKS TO THEMSELVES: Geez, why is that happening? Well, you know what, we're not sure but until we figure it out, lets just pull this Long Island Exchange site out completely because we don't want to aggravate MR XYZ INC because he spends alot of money on advertising every month.... Tell the algorithm department to ban LongIslandExchange.com Any hows, Long Island Exchange looks like a BIG SITE.... Lets get them into the YSM program as well..... __________________________________________ LongIslandExchange.com writes into Yahoo to find out why this has happened and Yahoo explains that we seem to have violated their quality guidelines, but do to the sites size, they will review my site individually - something they do not do often... Long Island Exchange submits to YSM ADVERTISING and gets excepted on the first try with a keyword phrase of "Long Island" with a potential click thru rate of $150 per day..... bottom line: LongIslandExchange.com is high quality and meets all necessary guidelines to be in Yahoo Directory. LongIslandExchange.com is high quality and meets all necessary guidelines to be in pay-per-click program. LongIslandExchange.com does NOT meet quality guidelines to be included in natural search results..... End result. Yahoo bans site for being too good and shacking up advertisers. Yahoo deliberately and without just cause removes our site completely in a sophisticated attempt to manipulate our company into a paid client model...... I'm not happy at all, and every reasonable attempt at getting some sort of adequate communication from them has gotten me nowhere....
Granted it's not your whole site, but I see 11 pages still in Yahoo. Penalized...maybe. Banned...nope.
I have been out of the index for three weeks, but I have been going back and forth with Yahoo and I haven't voiced out about it.... I have indeed discussed it with a few close contacts of mine and we are all leaning towards the "big YSM advertiser" complaints.... I have been out ranking a few major newspaper sites similar to the size of the New York Times.... To have major newspapers out ranked for "Long Island News" has got to hurt..... Especially when you have a base publication and media presence on Long Island.
I think that sometimes happens to yahoo. In Yahoo index sities appears and dissapears from time to time. For me it is strange search engine. And strange company (overture and etc.)
I'm sure that 11 pages isn't great news, but it's better than "no results". It could be a sign that you were just seeing a fluke with Yahoo and you'll be back in the index again shortly.
And I thought I had it bad. Good luck in getting a satisfactory resolution. I'd be happy to write to Y and ask why I can't find your site anymore. Maybe we could get a boatload of members from DP to do the same and see what shakes out.
im showing 38 pages indexed..... Yahoo has done this to a few of my sites also - none of my important ones though. I think its basically as you explained. All about the $$$ -
I have gone through a very similar scenero with one of my mother domains that ruled Yahoo #1 for a couple years, woke up one day SERPS gone . All my site is still indexed, ibl's are all showing, but nowhere in serps. I also have a directory listing for this site and it remains 'most favorite' according to their own directory ranking algo . This happened about 3 months ago. I have written them numorious times and rec'd the same canned email everytime. There was a thread started by a newby that I read a couple of weeks ago and he claims that Adsense has everything to do with it . I really don't know...AS, link churning, recips, spam, they send you a list of possible infractions. What you're suggesting in this case also makes sense as Yahoo does more human based reviewing than any other SE...bunch of BS if it's true...and very little you can do! Ever thought of a Yahoo friendly mirrored version of this site? Let slurp in don't let gbot in! I also found this an interesting read: http://www.platinax.co.uk/blogs/brian/archives/2005/06/dmca_the_new_bl.html So you can complain about a site and Yahoo will, without invstigation BANNED it .
The only thing I can think to do is to actually bring a case against them, where I feel they would be forced to explain the details of removal as a part of the cases "discovery"..... (discovery: where each party must present evidence) I feel that this is an attempt to force another company into a paid model which very well could be an "unfair business practice" CALIFORNIA CODES BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONS CODE SECTION 13741 13741. It is unlawful for any person or other legal entity to make any deceptive, false, or misleading statement by any means whatever regarding quality, quantity, performance, price, discount, or saving in the sale or selling of any commodity regulated pursuant to this chapter. 17001. The Legislature declares that the purpose of this chapter is to safeguard the public against the creation or perpetuation of monopolies and to foster and encourage competition, by prohibiting unfair, dishonest, deceptive, destructive, fraudulent and discriminatory practices by which fair and honest competition is destroyed or prevented. Site excepted in YSM advertising program on first attempt after admission site has been removed, Which makes me a customer, and proves that quality guidelines are met..... Any lawyers in the house who specialize in internet legalities:: 877-543-3744
You seem to be on page 3 of yahoo SERPs for the term 'long island classifieds'. Would you be there if it were a ban?
The .net half of the site (forums and classifieds) has not been effected... The .com half 900+ (static, news, info) hand created pages is effected....