Dmoz vs Yahoo listing

[scorpion]

My question is simple, cost not being a factor, what is the SE impact of a listing in Dmoz vs. Yahoo? That is, for example taking Google as the middle man, will a listing in either directory give you credence with Google?

[hutcheson]

It's additive: both listings are twice as good as either one.

(Remember that page rank is logarithmic: that is, twice 4.0 is only 4.2 or so.)

[2_much]

Personally I think there's more value in a DMOZ listing, but I can't prove this, it's just based on my observations.

[subotai]

Yahoo has a high number of users.
Dmoz feeds are

primary results:
Netscape
Lycos

secondary results:
AlltheWeb
AOL

Directory results:
Google
HotBot
Teoma

according to Bruce Clay's chart dated Aug. 1,2002

Based on that my vote is for DMOZ

[steveb]

Dmoz pages are picked up by a lot of sites as an instant links page. I doubt there are ten people in the universe who do that with the Yahoo directory. DMOZ wins by a mile due to the implied benefits of extra links.

Also, parallel categories, the DMOZ one often has a higher pagerank than the Yahoo one.

[Tor]

I absolutely agee with you steveb. DMOZ is in my opinion more "valuable" than Yahoo! There is no doubt about it. ;)

[scorpion]

this may sound quite manic, but I can't STAND waiting around for my business to "grow" due to an editor's whim of when they review a site in Dmoz. I like, even though its expensive, the certainty of a Yahoo listing, which almost means a minimum amount of traffic and a certain placement in Google (if I wasn't already there). The fee is about the controlled growth of my business and at least I have some control over that.

[fathom]

this may sound quite manic, but I can't STAND waiting around for my business to "grow" due to an editor's whim of when they review a site in Dmoz. I like, even though its expensive, the certainty of a Yahoo listing, which almost means a minimum amount of traffic and a certain placement in Google (if I wasn't already there). The fee is about the controlled growth of my business and at least I have some control over that.

In this respect I tend to agree. However, I sense some urgency in your statement that a single listing in one or the other (or both) is a online business "make or break" decision.

It's not.

In addition, you are at an "editor's whim" in both cases, and with Yahoo it's a $299.00 whim that if he/she does not like what you have submitted, they are are obligated to list nor fund your money.

[2_much]

fathom, Yahoo lists almost anybody that pays nowadays. I've very rarely heard of rejections recently. All it takes is a bit of knowledge to do a proper submission and there's a great chance a site will be listed. So Yahoo's whims are a lot less erratic than Dmoz's.

[jackofalltrades]

>So Yahoo's whims are a lot less erratic than Dmoz's.

True, but DMOZ listings have a percieved quality about them. You get a listing in DMOZ, then it means your site meets a certain standard (in theory, most of the time anyway ;)).

With Yahoo, it just means that you can afford to pay. Naturally they must have some standards in the submission process, but to a lesser extent than DMOZ (Why? $$$$!).

JOAT

[petertdavis]

Up until Yahoo changed the way it shows directory listings in its search, a Yahoo directory listing was far more beneficial to a site. Now, because of the changes in the Yahoo search, there's only a slight advantage to a Yahoo listing, all other things being equal. All other things meaning the individual PageRank of the category you are listed in. IOW, being listed in a category with PageRank 8 on one site outweighs a category with PageRank 7, no matter which site it is on (doesn't even have to be one of the two mentioned, as there's no special Google bonus to directory listings beyond the PageRank of the category page).

[Quinn]

Interesting thread. As freshbot becomes more common, and tween updates listing changes become more common, I wonder if it will come down to which directory the freshbot will visit more often...

[scorpion]

the problem is suppose you have a business and want to find high page rank sites to promote on, it requires some research to find the right 'fit' Directories are an easy way to get started...

[martinibuster]

This is an interesting question made more interesting by a lack of solid or even solidly anecdotal evidence that Y! helps you all that much, as opposed to ODP.

You can also turn the question inside out and answer it from the negative: Would not being in Y or ODP hurt you?

Would I hurt without Y? I'm waiting for the price to go down before I pay for Y. Am I hurting? No, not at all.

Would I hurt without an ODP listing? Heck yeah, emphatically yes!

[Big_Balou]

I have to agree with martinibuster.

I had no idea about getting "found" when i first started and it wasn't until I found WW that i found out about DMOZ. The only thing I knew before was to get into Y.

I still don't have a Y listing but my DMOZ listing has been invaluable.

Would I trade my DMOZ listing for a Y listing.....NO.

[scorpion]

also depends the categories. I know for a fact that a Yahoo listing for an adult category is quite lucrative (also $300 more than regular sites)

[Robski]

Personally I regret paying the 3 bills to Yahoo. I guess I found WW a little too late. I will focus on PR in this post because that is something we have control over and having a good PR correlates with good search engine placement thus giving good traffic. It seems to me that paying Yahoo neither gives me control nor does it guarantee anything. The point is, if the listing in yahoo gives me the PR rating that it is showing on my google bar then it was a total waste! To make matters worse I get almost no traffic from the directory itself as most users do a search instead of going down the directory tree. In the back of my head I was counting on a boost in search engine rank when going with the listing but as Yahoo mentions, getting listed in the directory has no bearing on their search results. So I guess my question is, why should we list with them at all? Obviously not for the PR and not for their search engine traffic! I'd be better off if someone established a domain with a good rank like 8 or 9 and then charged to place links on it. Dmoz on the other hand is great because it places me in the google directory as well as many others around the net. This provides for some good linkage hence a good PR value. As a last point, Dmoz even has a higher PR value when compared to Yahoo's "parallel" category. So, as far as my situation is concerned Dmoz is a no brainer ESPECIALLY since it was free.

[2_much]

Hey Robski I was looking through some stats today and had the shocking surprise of seeing a few sites getting a lot of traffic from the Yahoo category. Also, the links from the Yahoos also seem to help. So it's pretty relative - both links are important.

[europeforvisitors]

The issue isn't "DMOZ vs Yahoo listing," because DMOZ listings are free--which means there's no reason not to submit to DMOZ if you meet their guidelines.

The question, then, is whether paying for a Yahoo listing is worthwhile. It may be if you don't anticipate having a DMOZ listing for quite some time (which is likely to be the case if you're submitting to a DMOZ category that doesn't have an editor or is swamped by spammers). At the very least, a Yahoo listing will ensure that Google crawls your site promptly and regularly. OTOH, the number of actual referrals from the Yahoo directory is likely to be small, so it may take quite a while to recoup that $299 submission fee unless (a) you're selling something, (b) you have reason to believe that you'll be converting a lot of visitors into buyers, and (c) your profit margin and/or sales volume will be high enough to justify the expense.

[ZackDude]

people underestimate DMOZ... DMOZ's content is in thousands of sites like google ect... also i think DMOZ will "outdate" Yahoo!... Today I would never use Yahoo over DMOZ...