Is something wrong with Yahoo Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)?

In April 2008, we started noticing a weakness in the relevance of Yahoo’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). What is going on? We contacted Yahoo to find out what they could do to help. But without great proof, and not being a “paying customer” this was their reply:

“Unfortunately we were unable to duplicate the problem you have
described…You may have an issue with your ISP or computer caching content
or results.

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.

Thank you Yahoo, for absolutely nothing. We considered it being our IP, and so we took action and hurried to 5 other computers in the area all returning the same results as we had, and they had different ISPs. Eventually, within 3 weeks time, Yahoo SERPs corrected itself for that search term.

Now its been 6 weeks and Yahoo has the same problem again, but with a different website. If you type in “how to get a girlfriend” into Google and MSN you get mainly the same top 20 sites (with a few exceptions). Now, as of June 6th, 2008 Yahoo has decided rather to return sites about how to get your girlfriend to like football!

One might think that some of the SEO techniques we used on this particular client has resulted in a penalty, but this is not the case. If you misspell the word girlfriend, the CORRECT results return. How could this be happening and why does it happen?

It seems like Yahoo should partner with Google on its SERPs rather than on an advertising partnership. Wouldn’t it make sense that if a search engine returned valid results on a consistent basis, that more users would use it to find what they’re looking for, therefore increasing advertising dollars?

We think so.

We will continue to monitor the situation and post about it in the future.

Update 9-14-2008:

Thank you Yahoo! You have successfully fixed the error for the term “Mortgage Broker Melbourne” and Mortgage Jet, a client of Ponder Consulting is now listed first.

Now it’s time to fix the search results for the term “how to get a girlfriend” and stop returning Terrell Owens and sites about football.

We will continue to monitor the situation and post updates here.