Yahoo! have announced a global search update which will begin to re-index the web and result in immediate ranking changes amongst search results. The search update is taking place so Yahoo! can implement a new meta tag, allowing webmasters to decide how their page is shown in search results.

The ‘NOYDIR’ meta tag is the latest to be supported by Yahoo! and will be used to inform the Yahoo! search spider not to show Yahoo! directory titles and descriptions in search results. If your website is included in the Yahoo! directory and you would prefer to have your natural page title and description shown, simply add the following to your HTML code:

<meta name=”ROBOTS” content=”NOYDIR”>

or

<meta name=”Slurp” content=”NOYDIR”>

The ‘NOYDIR’ tag follows the same principle behind the ‘NOODP’ meta tag which is used to inform search spiders not to use a website’s Open Directory Project (ODP) listing when displaying search results.

While the ‘NOYDIR’ tag will prevent your Yahoo! directory information from being used in search results, the tag will not have an impact on any current Yahoo! directory submissions, which will continue to operate unchanged. For those who plan to implement the ‘NOYDIR’ tag, now would be a great time to ensure your meta tags are optimized correctly, as they can now become factors in your website’s ranking.

If you have noticed a change in Yahoo! traffic to your website, or are planning to use the ‘NOYDIR’ tag, let us know via our blog comments!

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