Is the Yahoo directory worth submitting to?

yahoo directory

[luckystrike]

Is the Yahoo directory worth submitting to? It costs me $299 (they claim it cost $299 a year) to submit...mine is a information site mainly focusing on content and I've already submitted my site (and been listed) on most of the other directories. However, I've noted that although my site is ranked high on google its still ranked below 5 other sites which I've noted are all present in the yahoo directory.

I'd like to hear your opinions on this and whether Yahoo will really remove my site if I only pay the $299 join fee and destroy the card so that it cannot be billed again ($299 is already quite a lot for me)

thanks

Andy

[McMohan]

$299 spent on Yahoo directory listing is the best investment you can do for your site. Benefits are many -

1. Link from an authority site that Google trusts.
2. Chances of better ranks in Yahoo search.
3. Direct Traffic from the listing.
4. Collateral benefit in other sites using the Yahoo directory resources.

IMHO, $299 is money well spent with Yahoo Directory.

Best Wishs

Mc

[Mr Bo Jangles]

I recently v. reluctantly 'poneyed up' the money, and whilst for me the direct referrals are v. few, I have to agree with Mc about the related benefits - it does appear to have made a difference for me.

[Dynamoo]

I've got one site listed in Y! and it generates perhaps one or two hits per day. Frankly, I don't think it's worth the expense.

Partly it depends where in the Y! directory you're listed. For a *content* site you might be in a backwater.

Besides, I don't think that the Y! links actually pass PageRank do they?

[McMohan]

Besides, I don't think that the Y! links actually pass PageRank do they?

Sorry to say, but if you don't know this, then you can't comment - "Frankly, I don't think it's worth the expense."

Mc

[Imaster]

Luckystrike,

You might also like to read a related discussion about the cons of getting your site listed under Yahoo Directory. Read my post #11 in that thread.

[webmasterworld.com ]

[McMohan]

Imaster,

That is interesting. I see most people had problems after doing a PFI with Overture/Yahoo. But problems after Yahoo directory listing is new to me. I mostly had sites benefit after a Yahoo directory listing in Yahoo SERPs.

Mc

[Imaster]

Mc, believe me, it happened to three of my sites. I have also spoken to a few other webmasters who have faced similar problems after getting a paid listing in Yahoo directory.

[steveb]

Blaming the Directory for Slurp being a crappy bot doesn't make much sense. Slurp doesn't crawl anything well. You might as well blame having text on the page.

[dtvscoop]

I notice that Yahoo! Directory has redirect scripts and it's been said that, despite this, the benefit of a listing is Google PR passing to your site. Yet, it's been established that redirects are not followed by Google unless they are 301 redirects.

The explanation I've been given is that Google treats Yahoo differently and will pass PR and follow links out of Yahoo! Directory even though that's not the case for anyone else. As proof, one points to the many links coming from country-specific Yahoo directories that show up in a Google backlink check.

BUT, country-specific Yahoo directories (e.g. ca.yahoo.com) DON'T use redirects, they are straight, href links.

So, is anyone able to enlighten me that, given what I've said above, Yahoo directory listings still pass PR? And that people are not merely misinformed that because country-specific Yahoo directory backlinks show up, then Google must be following ALL Yahoo directory backlinks (including the main yahoo.com directory which uses redirects)?

Thanks for any insight.

[coconutz]

Yahoo.com directory listing do show up as backlinks. Yahoo's UK directory uses the same redirect links and they're listed as backlinks as well. Whether they pass PR or not only Google knows.

[Undead Hunter]

I have a curious situation.

I have a site in the Yahoo directory but in the wrong spot. It's from 1997, when the site was the home of my first web design firm, plus an ezine.

Now we're a general interest site - essentially, we've expanded the ezine side of it to the max.

Would it be worth it for me to spend $299 to get it "moved" to the right part of their directory, or should I try to write them and ask them to move it?

We see some traffic from Yahoo already, but not much. We're a PR 5, and have been forever.

Any thoughts on this are appreciated.

[mastervisa]

I'm grandfathered in with two sites in the Y Directory since 1998. Back in the day, the directory worked, front page center. Now, it's buried and I don't see any benefit. I see more benefits from DMOZ. My opinion though. Also, I've read many more negative than positive threads here about the Y directory.

[pageoneresults]

I've got one site listed in Y! and it generates perhaps one or two hits per day. Frankly, I don't think it's worth the expense.

Hmmm, 2 visitors per day X 365 days = 730. $299.00 / 730 = $.41 per visitor. Not bad just from directory leads. Now, if you look at all the other benefits of having a listing in Yahoo!, I personally feel the expense is worth it for just about any site.

The goal is to find an appropriate category that is not overpopulated. I just had a recent experience where there were two categories the client could have been listed in based on the taxonomy. One cat had over a hundred listings. The other only had eight. We of course chose the one with eight and that is where we were listed.

Yes, it is a $299.00 annual fee. If you feel that the first year was not worth the value, just discontinue the annual renewal before it is due.

[coconutz]

Would it be worth it for me to spend $299 to get it "moved" to the right part of their directory, or should I try to write them and ask them to move it?

You might end up losing the $299.00:

[ecom.yahoo.com...]

2.6 Please note that Yahoo! Express is only open to sites that DO NOT ALREADY EXIST in the Directory. Do not submit your site to Yahoo! Express program if your site already appears in the Directory. IF YOU SUBMIT A SITE THAT ALREADY EXISTS IN THE DIRECTORY THROUGH YAHOO! EXPRESS, YOUR CREDIT CARD WILL BE CHARGED THE THEN-CURRENT, APPLICABLE FEE FOR EXPEDITED REVIEW. Nor should you submit change requests to the Yahoo! Express program. If you need to make a change to your listing in the Directory (this includes changing the URL, title, and/or description of the existing site), you must use the change form NOT Yahoo! Express. IF YOU SUBMIT CHANGE REQUESTS THROUGH YAHOO! EXPRESS YOU WILL BE CHARGED THE THEN-CURRENT, APPLICABLE FEE FOR EXPEDITED REVIEW, AND THE CHANGES YOU SUBMIT WILL NOT BE MADE.

I'd try [add.yahoo.com...]

[McMohan]

coconutz

Thats a great piece of info! Thank you.

Mc

[Undead Hunter]

Hmm. $0.41 per visitor, if it only brings 2 per day IS a lot of money. Could bring in a lot more via a PPC program on keyword searches.

Thanks for giving me that perspective. At the very least that makes me stop and think about how much traffic we might get from them, or need to.

I will look into a "change of address" style form rather than re-submit.

[econman]

We paid to have a site listed, and are getting virtually no traffic. We're getting much more traffic from a niche directory that charged us nothing. My impression is that Yahoo is letting its directory slowly die, or at least it is becoming increasingly irrelevant to them and to us.

[KrisVal]

I absolutely think it is worth it to submit to yahoo for your largest/main sites for the following reasons:

1. It does produce backlinks. At least for my sites listed there.
2. It has produced traffic for me. Obviously if you back into the CPC, it is expensive, but when you combine the traffic with the other benefits, I believe it is still worth it.
3. It helps to build your brand. I receive advertising inquiries and partnership requests from companies that find my listings on Yahoo. It demonstrates that you are a real company.
4. It helps search engines, both Google and Yahoo to categorize your site. Relevancy. At least this is my belief.

[Rosalind]

I have one site listed in Yahoo, and it rarely gets referrals from that listing. I feel the question "Is it worth it?" depends a great deal on which category, and how many levels down it is. Being 4 levels deep has made very little impact on that site's traffic. Luckily I didn't have to pay for it.

[2_much]

I think it depends on many variables. If you only manage one site, i think it's worth it, as the listing will contribute to the link pop of the site. Also, it'll get you more links from people who spider the directory and use the results to add pages to their site.

However, there are risks involved, such as getting your title and description changed and possibly even getting dropped.

I think it's a matter of looking at your particular situation, weighing the pros and cons, and making a decision based on that.

Marcela

[RichTC]

i regret paying Yahoo to get listed in the directory.

It does nothing to help get you listed in the SERPS. Even worse, the pages that get indexed in the SERPS get changed to the one line directory listing. Thats one line that doesnt tell surfers enough about what you offer.

So your previous spidered page that may have 8 lines from your website page on it, which you may have directed towards sales interest (which would stand out in the SERPS index against other websites)gets replaced with a poor one line directory description.

In conclusion you are paying good money for damage to your listings.

It would be worth listing if A) Yahoo spidered your pages more often and indexed them and B) if you could expand your site description to about 7 lines of text.