A non-American company with a.com website recently dropped out of Yahoo's Australian rankings. The author is an advertising copywriter from Australia and has their website hosted by a major Australian host, but their domain is a.com, not a.au. They emailed Yahoo support, explaining the issue and sharing their thoughts on what was causing it, but nothing happened. Finally, after a few weeks, they received an email from a Yahoo support representative informing them that their keyword was not included in their page title or description, which was incorrect. The author responded, frustrated, but they had started paying more attention when they got back to them.
The story is about an Australian company with a.com URL that was rejected by Yahoo due to its URL. The support representative suggested changing the domain name to the.com.au, which was not an acceptable solution. The author wrote back expressing their displeasure and explained how Yahoo had made a mistake and that if Google could recognize their Australian company despite its.com addresses, it is technically possible. However, there was no response and the situation did not appear to be promising. A week or two later, the website was ranked first once more. The story's moral is to not be scared of Yahoo and to trust your instincts.
If you're a non-American company with a.com website and your regional Yahoo ranking is important to you, my story might be of interest to you.
My copywriting website recently dropped out of Yahoo's Australian rankings. It was number one for my primary keywords "advertising copywriter," "copywriter," and "website copywriter" for a long time. However, it abruptly vanished. I scrolled through about ten pages of results and couldn't find it. I then looked for my domain name, but Yahoo couldn't find it.
Something didn't smell right.
I'd done nothing 'naughty' to my site to warrant a ban, and I still had a ton of links pointing to it (actually, I had more than ever before).
I'm an advertising copywriter from Australia. I live just north of Sydney and have my website hosted by a major Australian host. But my domain is a.com, not a.au. I began to suspect that this was the source of the problem.
So I emailed Yahoo support, explaining the issue and sharing my thoughts on what was causing it.
Then, suddenly, nothing happened.
So I sat and waited. And then I waited. And then I waited. Finally, after a few weeks, I received an email from a Yahoo support representative informing me that my keyword was not included in my page title or description, which was incorrect. I should correct this oversight and resubmit my website to Yahoo.
I responded, frustrated. I reiterated the key points from the first email to ensure they'd paid attention. They hadn't done so. They hadn't even looked up my domain to see if Yahoo still recognized it.
They had started paying more attention when they got back to me this time. The support representative confirmed my suspicion that Yahoo had rejected my site due to its.com URL. Her very helpful solution was to change my domain name to.au! She included some ridiculously complicated instructions for doing so and sent me on my way.
As one would expect, I was dissatisfied. I wasn't even having a good time. I explained to her that this was not an acceptable solution because all internet links to my site point to the.com and my email address uses the.com.
She remained unmoved. She insisted that this was the only and best solution to the problem. Oh, and adding my primary keyword to the title and description might help.
My laughter was not amusing! I wrote back expressing my displeasure at this "solution". I painstakingly explained how Yahoo had made a mistake, and that if Google could recognize my Australian company despite its.com addresses, I believe it is technically possible. In the first couple of pages of Australian results, I also mentioned several other.coms.
There was no response.
The situation did not appear to be promising...
Don't be discouraged if this story sounds familiar to you. A week or two later, I searched Yahoo Australia for my primary keyword, and... My website was ranked first once more!
What is the story's moral? Don't be scared of Yahoo. Don't give up and trust your instincts. If you're an Australian company with a.com and you're not appearing in Australian searches, this could be the reason. In fact, I believe this story applies to all regional Yahoos. (Of course, before making any accusations, make sure your site is properly optimized and has a large number of inbound links.)
That's the end of my story. I hope it is useful to someone.
And they were all happy ever after. So far, at least...Yahoooooooo!
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