Yahoo Traffic, But Not Google

Hi,

On my former hacked blog, I see search traffic starting to dribble back in but it's mostly Yahoo and not Google. I find this odd, anyone familiar with why this might be happening? And will Google ever come back? Lol.

Share below.

You're not blacklisted on Google are you? Check your webmaster tools, or Google your URL and see if there is a note next to the results that say the site is unsafe.

Hi, Cindy:

No, the blog is not blacklisted in Google. It was hacked back in January but is fine now. Traffic is finally starting to roll back in, but (for now) it's coming mostly from Yahoo. I'm hoping Google is not too far behind.

Any other thoughts?

I don't think that there's ever going to become a point where we know exactly how search engines are working. While we often hear about changes to their algorithm, I think that there's never going to be a time when we can know exactly how something is going to affect our rankings.

I have found, however, that with a couple of new sites that I have started this year, that I've been ranking and getting more traffic from Yahoo - quite a bit before I start to get any real traffic from Google.

If you're still indexed in Google, I don't see why you won't get more traffic from them soon. Did you have good traffic from Yahoo before your site was hacked and or is it that only your Google traffic has decreased since you were hacked?

Just lately, I've found that I've been getting a lot of traffic from Yahoo (maybe 10x what I would normally get) for some sites and then it drops back to normal the next day. From my own experience, I've noticed that Yahoo jumps around a little more than Google often does, in terms of the amount of traffic that I receive from them.

Other than that though, the fact that you're still indexed in Google is a good sign so I'm sure that things will pick up for you again soon, as you begin to add more content. I've always found the differences between Yahoo and Google interesting though. About 4-5 years ago, I had a site that used to get mega traffic from Yahoo and hardly any from Google. I've never seen anything like that since. Even though Yahoo, is the lesser search engine (in terms of users and traffic) I used to be able to get enough traffic to make a profitable site from just Yahoo alone. It hasn't been like that for a long time though! haha! :)

I did use to get traffic from Yahoo (and Bing) before my hack, so this is why I am thinking that maybe Google is not too far behind. However this is still odd to me, but anyway I am also focusing on other traffic methods including social media. I have been pushing my Facebook pretty hard in the last few weeks and trying to get more active there.

I really do not want to rely anymore solely on Google for my traffic. So am diverting my efforts on other methods as well, but it sure would be nice if it came back. Lol.

Anyone else have any other tips or advice?

Are you doing anything to track your rankings in Google? If not, it is really hard to say where you are losing traffic from. I would go through your analytics and see what keywords were bringing Google traffic when you were getting it. Then check out where you are ranking these days for those keywords. If you weren't tracking them before, it is impossible to say which ones dropped and how far they dropped, but you might see some obvious bad rankings that you can work on.