is the Yahoo Directory listing still "worth it"?

[brookwater]

Hi all thanks for taking the time to read this. I have just received our notification from Yahoo that our directory listing is up for renewal again. ($299.00/year) Is it still worth it? I realise that a directory such as yahoo does have credibility, but do we really need to be in the Directory. Would our money be better spent using say, INEEDHITS (Fast Paid Inclusion Service and Yahoo Search Engine Submission Program - Yahoo Search Submit Basic), to simply list us in the Basic Submit deal that have (£49.00/year)

any & all thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

brookwater

[innominds]

What was your previous experience with Yahoo Directory? Did you get good traffic atleast from yahoo?

[erikko]

i guess indexing in any SE can help increase your popularity and reputation as a site that may lead to increase in traffic

[dann]

The Yahoo! directory does hold some credibility, however Basic Submit is a complete waste of money. You are paying for what Slurp does on it's own. If you have not already submitted a sitemap or url list in Yahoo's site explorer do so.
If you have a good placement in the Yahoo directory(high pr page) by all means pay the money and keep it.
As far as paying Yahoo! to get your site crawled is ludicrous, I wouldn't even consider, it does not mean your site will get indexed our your rankings to increase.
Dan

[wige]

Yahoo search submission and a directory listing are two different things. The search submission option is intended for new sites, and is supposed to get the site crawled faster than if left to the bot for normal discovery. As far as I know, there are no additional benefits to this, and if you are already indexed it is completely pointless because, well, all it does is add your site to the index.

The directory listing, however, lists you in what Google reps have called an exclusive, quality based index. This does not currently seem to qualify as a paid link because you are not paying for the link itself, but rather for your site to be reviewed and judged for inclusion. Because you do not get your money back if you are not listed, and because Yahoo does exclude sites that do not meet certain quality guidelines that are in line with Google's own guidelines, the link does, and probably will continue to, pass value to your site. However, if your goal is to get users over hopefully increasing pagerank, I am not sure that many people use the directory over search.

[cw1865]

Pay it, if you're in business and you're serious about it, its only $299 per year, that is under $1 per day. Frankly, I personally don't think its worth it, I just went to my yahoo directory listings and I am seeing that some of them have been 'pushed' down into pages that have not been 'cached' by google (which is part of the selling point of the program, I suppose). While I can't prove it, I would be willing to place even money on yahoo discrimination against sites not in the directory-why shouldn't they?

[Dubbya]

"yahoo discrimination against sites not in the directory"

I don't buy it.

I didn't buy a Yahoo! listing and my site is showing up between the 1 and 3 results for the targeted keywords.

The new Yahoo! Search Assistant seems to work a little differently than the main directory searches and I've not yet figured out how that works.

Other than that I'm seeing pretty much the same things I've seen from Yahoo! for a year.

[cw1865]

Are you a customer of yahoo through overture?

[Dubbya]

Originally Posted by cw1865

Are you a customer of yahoo through overture?

Nope.

[cw1865]

Well, the next time you see an article, yahoo's earnings do not/are not expected to meet targets, watch out! One of these days, somebody at yahoo will put 2 and 2 together and come to the realization that better organic search listings makes those companies stronger and better able to pay for what are essentially profitless generic ads, ie. those ads where the cost to obtain a customer exceeds the profit from the sale.

Ultimately there are too many variables to conclusively prove whether a yahoo directory listing is worth it. Its like sponsoring a Little League team, giving money to the PBA, some items to the local 'tricky tray' - if the business model is predicated on receiving what is essentially free advertising, you're relying on the largesse of a profit maximizing U.S. corporation, and if there is something you ought to know about our fine country is that we're all slaves to the dollar.

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by Dubbya

I don't buy it.

I didn't buy a Yahoo! listing and my site is showing up between the 1 and 3 results for the targeted keywords.

And I have a couple of client sites *with* Yahoo listings that can't crack the top ten ... I take that back ... one of them is now #10 ... but has been #14 for years ... I have never really had the SEO-knack for Yahoo; I find it much easier to do well in Google, thanks heavens.

[cw1865]

I'm the reverse, I do well in yahoo and msn for some reason and have difficulty in google, apparently we should get married!

[mjtaylor]

Why, thank you ... that's the first offer this week!

[garyglow]

I have not paid for inclusion in Yahoo and my site is ranking extremely well for all my search terms. heck, my website isn't even that old and I am beating even well known, long term websites in a very competitive market. I was thinking about submitting to them but now see no reason to.

[coolguy27]

Yahoo listings is worth if they gives you traffic...

Since Yahoo plays a big role in the internet so it is of worth...

[innominds]

If you think that you got the traffic worth $299 in the last year, then renew that submission.

[kgun]

Note, every USD spent, has an alternative use. Here is an indirectly related thread:

Yahoo approach to click fraud