Uh-Oh

Yahoo! has been providing about 40% of my traffic.

In the course of doing soem SEO research for a client, I did a site:MYSITE.com and it came back with 1 page indexed.

I went to my traffic stats and saw the only Yahoo results I was getting since about 6 am this morning (EST) was from teh foreign Yahoo's (UK, FR, etc). No results from regular Yahoo.com

It looks as though Yahoo has dropped ALL my pages except for my home page, when previosuly it had over 3000 indexed. My BLs are still strong with ~13,000.

My server was down yesterday for about an hour - but I can't see it dropping all pages for that.

Anyone know of anything going on over at Yahoo! Anyone else experiencing simiar effects recently?

 

Which domain are you referring to?

 

www. ishophq. com

 

2160 pages listed for me

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=http://www.ishophq.com/&sm=Yahoo!+Search&fr=FP-tab-web-t&toggle=1

I haven't noticed any problems with my sites

 

Maybe it's some sort of local thing, although that wouldn't explain the foreign-only traffic.

So off I go to check it.... and now it shows 2149, just like crazy sees. Whew.

Man, this live or die by search engien results is pushing me toward the die side. I mean, I have a full time job, but the extra income I make off my sites is nothing to sneeze at. When Google, or Yahoo, or one of the others goes whacky, I start to get that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. And I'm totally above board with my search engine optimization - no black or even gray hat stuff at all. Still, I can't help but think when something like this happens that one of the search engine gods has singled me out for whatever reason and decided to make me squirm.

Know what I mean?

 

I don't know much about those types of sites.

Maybe it's the way you link to other stores. I really don't know.

Your home page is HUUUUGE!
You might want to check something like this out:
http://www.1-hit.com/all-in-one/tool.loading-time-checker.htm

 

Yeah, I know it's huge --- all those images. Most of hte traffic doens't come in on the home page though, less than 10%. Most comes in on the product pages.

Part of the load time problem is a server side image resizing component I use. Ever try to make product images from 40+ sites all the same size? Not much fun.

Go out, get the image (and some are 400x400) bring it back, resize it, then push it up to my site. Ug.

 

Always remember that a spider doesn't see images, and is only intersted in the text and links from that side of things. For an actual customer and viewer, it is definitely wise to cut down on loading. Consider that many are still on phone modems so you should definitely use a better method of snapshot imagery. Not to mention that all of that processing puts a hit on your server loads.

The rule is always to stay well under 100K yet I have had huge success with pages over this amount. I have also found that text and copy at the very bottom of these pages is also appreciated, so do as you need. You just need to track and learn how they are handing your site specifically.

Keep in mind that Yahoo is truly a newer search engine and they are learning every day. So I predict many upset webmasters for a long time to come. Algo's change for their favor constantly.

PS- I see your yahoo backlink count as 12 pages
KG

 

Damn Yahoo! - must be a datacenter thing

When I do linkdomain:www.ishophq.com, I get 24,900.

And yeah, I appreciate and agree with your advice on trimming the home pages. And you are right about server load. My single processor IIS 6 server is gasping when the load gets heavy.

I need more time to do all the things I need/want to do, and right now I ust don't have it.

 

Hello, I completely empathize with others who have been affected by Google's latest changes on Feb. 3rd. I worked very hard to create my home-based Ecommerce site over the last 2 years. My business was hit hard when my webhosting company failed me and let my site be down for 2 weeks in August 2004 and then again in November for 3 WEEKS!!! Based on erroneous information they provided to me, I was forced to rebuild my site using one of their different software packages, believing it was better to stay on with the webhost, rather than pull everything out by the roots and transplant elsewhere. I lost most of my customer base and I barely survived that fiasco. Two months later, at the end of January, my business was on its way to a slow recovery. On January 31st I received my LAST internet order. As I write this, it has been 3 weeks since I had an order come in through the internet!! The pipeline has been cut off. Apparently due to the newness of the website that I was forced to create in November and the changes at Google, my website has lost that important ranking and ALL INROADS to sales. I still get traffic, but no sales. It has devastated me completely. I HAVE BEEN PUT OUT OF BUSINESS by Google and by my webhost's negligence. I will be filing in Small Claims court against my webhosting company. I owe thousands to my supplier and that normally would be covered by incoming sales. I put what remaining money I had into Google pay-per-click and an external link to my site, but with Google's change on Feb 3rd, its all a wash. I have pulled my ad from Google and will no longer advertise with them in the future. Those 2 billionaires are running around with my money and I am out of business. I am leaving the website up for now, as everything is in place and I prepaid everything. My supplier is kind enough to allow me to keep the business open and make small payments, so that if in the future I get orders again, I can continue my business. I HATE the make or break nature of Ecommerce. This is my only job too. Fortunately, I have a safety net. Otherwise, because I live in the middle of nowhere, the only other option I have is to drive 100 miles roundtrip for an $8.00 an hour job. Thanks for letting me vent and feel free to offer suggestions, point me in the direction of great keyword tracking monitors (as DP's doesnt seem to be working?) THANKS! Lady T

 

Hey LadyT,
That is Rough! But the world keeps turning, and google will still continue to crush businesses. Rather than take a hit, learn and get smart. Develop 1, 2, 3 sites of the same and use different methods. Some do full SEO, some lightly, and then one with non at all. That way you will get a collected total of traffic and hope for better.

Just my thoughts. The old saying, "Never put all your eggs in one basket" because google will throw the entire thing off the bridge.
KG

 

iShop, how do I get my products on your website? I have many of the same products as overstock, sears and others. They are dropshipped from the same factory in most case and my prices are very competitive. I wanna play with the big boys

 

Hey wrkalot-

Do you have an affiliate program and offer a datafeed?

Later or later (as opposed to sooner or later), I plan to integrate products that don't do affiliate or datafeeds on a cost per click basis, but that day is WAY off.... especially since I'll be pouring my profits into ulcer medication due to search engines.

Search engine flux. That sounds like a disease, and I've got it....

 

I don't have an affiliate program. At least I'm kicking there butts on Yahoo, MSN and Froogle

 

LadyT,

I totally understand where you are coming from. I was listed on Google on the first page and right before Christmas my site was no were to be found and I'm still not listed. I emailed Google and they are going to try and enlist my site again on the next update but they told me that their tech. guys have to look at it first before they list me. I went from making decent money to making chump change. If it wasnt for Adwords I would make nothing. I try and keep the clickthrough amount low. When I first started my biggest mistake was setting up my click through at 5.00-10.00 that was a big mistake - now I set up to only 2.00 and I'm getting clickthoughs for 60 cents and believe it or not - I'm doing better. I mean It stinks because I never use to pay for advertisments now most of my profits are going to google.
It's happening to all of us - your not alone.

 

Hey, thanks to both of you for the feedback so far. It really helps. As for my website, I haven't yet used Overture pay-per-click to list with Yahoo and MSN, but that is where I am going now, because I won't give Google any more of my money in pay-per-click ads. I discovered that despite paying to have my ad in the first page Sponsored results, that is NOT where my sales were coming from! Whatever change was made a month ago, it wiped out my sales. Very odd. Anyway, take care. Lady T

 

I wonder - Is Yahoo better to advertise? I've never paid to advertise at yahoo.
I mostly use Google.