How to Fix Your Rankings in Yahoo and Google

We get quite a bit of emails from people asking why they are not ranking well in Google and Yahoo and in many cases these sites did nothing shady or "blackhat" and they have tons of organic links. We've actually had this problem in the past with Pronet Advertising but after email Google and Yahoo we're doing great with the search engines. If you are having some search problems that don't seem to make sense, here are three simple steps that should fix your problem:

Think about all of the things that could potentially be causing your site to do poorly in the search engines and list them out. In my case, a long time ago, I bought www.pronetadvertising.com from another company and I had a suspicion that something shady could have been done in the past.
Once you have come up with a list of all the potential problems (ones that you can't fix) that are causing your site to rank poorly then create a short and descriptive message that outlines everything.
Figure out the search engines that you are doing poorly in and contact them. In my case, I was doing poorly in Google (Google contact page) and Yahoo (Yahoo contact page) so I contacted them directly.

This may seem silly, but it actually works and is very effective. Sometimes there are issues that you just don't know about unless you explore further and go straight to the source. Pronet Advertising gets tons of search love now because the search engines fixed the site on their end. I am not sure why I wasn't getting any Google love before (although they did fix the problem) but in terms of Yahoo, Tim Mayer from Yahoo actually told me that there were some adult sites linking to Pronet Advertising which caused it to be marked as an adult site, thus causing it to do poorly in the search engines. My guess is that the same thing happened with Google, but either way I was pleased with the responses Yahoo and Google gave me. Don't be afraid to try this out, search engines like Yahoo and Google are there to help you out.

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Loren Baker, April 18, 2007

Sometimes we forget that the search engines are very approachable and a simple email or contact to Google, Yahoo, MSN Search or Ask.com can unveil site problems which we do not even consider.

Great post Neil!

David Dalka, April 18, 2007

Good concepts. I'd also add that posting these

I don't rank as well in Yahoo! or in Live as I'd like. In Live.com's case, I replied to a recent Live.com interview and asked more questions: http://www.daviddalka.com/createvalue/2007/04/16/livecom-search-interview-and-some-questions-i-still-have/

Depending on the site, posting comments on a blog can sometimes help depending on how the blog is set up.

Asia, April 18, 2007

I've had the opportunity to work directly with Tim after a webmaster conference. He assigned me to the director of search , who further assisted me. Unfortunately, the advice given wasn't the best, but we compromised and got sites back on Yahoo.

I have to say however, I am left with a bad taste in my mouth after dealing with Yahoo for over a year. So much so, that I'm jaded with their engine, I do my best to promote Google over Yahoo as well as MSN/Live over Yahoo - specifically because, Yahoo's advice was very disheartening and very careless.

Not everybody will receive the same courtesy you've received Neil. Tim Mayer will not assist each person regarding their specific issue, and the contact form at Yahoo may get you some assistance, but it won't for many.

However, Google reps will be happy to assist you, and rather quickly. I dropped a quick line on Matt's blog and was assisted the very next day by a Google Rep. That's communication and customer service to brag about.

Asia, April 18, 2007

Just a follow-up: On your advice I decided to give the Yahoo Contact page a try - Here's the response so far:

Hello,

Sincerely,

The Yahoo! Search Team

That's it! So far I'm ahead, I got a hello!

Neil Patel, April 18, 2007

ASIA, sorry to hear about your experience with Yahoo. So far I have had a great experience with them. Tim from Yahoo has been so kind he even offered to give me a list of the adult sites linking to me that caused Pronet Advertising to be flagged.

Joshua Dorkin, April 18, 2007

Great suggestion! I've included this in a post to be published tomorrow.

Adam Audette, April 18, 2007

So you were being penalized by sites linking to you? I've never heard proof of that before. If that's the case then it's got to be silly easy to harm competitor sites.

Play, April 19, 2007

It's fantastic that you received a response from these companies, I suppose that making a request of this sort is a very un-spammer sort of thing to do, (perhaps white listing you as a legitimate site)

That said, I think that's a bit of an odd response from Y, that you have "adu1t" sites linking to you and therefore your site is being side-lined by their automated algos.

This would only highlight how ineffective their automated ranking systems are. If this was in fact a measurement in the ranking algos it would be easy to de-rail competitor sites, just by getting links on adult sites for them.

Adam Audette, April 19, 2007

Play: yeah, see my comment above yours. Sounds like total FUD from Yahoo.

Adrienne Doss, April 19, 2007

Glad to see I'm not the only one a little freaked out about what Yahoo! said about the adult links. It's pretty much the same problem suggested by Matt Cutt's recent post about buying links. So why not kill two birds with one stone? Buy links on adult sites pointing to your competitors and watch their rankings tank. Ridiculous.

scott, April 27, 2007