Is it worth it to pay yahoo $299

[mikeweb]

I think this is probably been posted before. I apology if it is. But I just wanted to get some fresh opinion..

[Rollo]

Actually it can be a big negative. Getting listed was the worst move I've as a webmaster and a total waste of money. I used to get a bit trafic from Yahoo, that is before I got listed. I'm about two months out and my traffic has all but gone away. The only page they index on a site with over 100 pages is index page, for which they wrote a keyword poor title.

I'd really like to un-list myself.

[robotsdobetter]

I wouldn't, unless you really have the extra money and I mean extra money that you can mess with for your site.

[bears5122]

Really depends on the directory. I've noticed a spike in Yahoo rankings after getting a directory listing. I've also seen a lot of Yahoo directories rank well in Google. One of my clients is getting 20 uniques a day from it.

I guess it depends on your budget. If you have a very small one, then no way. If you are working with tens of thousands of dollars, then it's definately worth while.

[makemetop]

For me?

It's a must. But then I get paid per click and the annual click value from a Yahoo listing is always worth more than $299 - certainly so if I count in the extra clicks I get from the linkage boost!

However it all depends on what you want - 10K clicks for $299 with no sales or 100 clicks earning you $10 per time.

For those used to "free traffic" it all probably seems like a rip-off? For me and my clients I still bin out for several listings a month.

[PatrickDeese]

I am with MakeMeTop - it simply depends on your site and your niche.

If you are listing in a relatively unpopulated region category - the listing may pay itself back in spades - If you are going to be one of 500 sites in the "Widgets" category - the value of the listing may be lower.

[Dynamoo]

No.

Firstly, unless you get in a lucky category, you'll be unlikely to generate more than a handful of hits per day.

Secondly, Yahoo! track record of shafting Directory subscribers last year (by giving directory results prominent positions, getting a load of signups and then dumping directory results from the SERPs), and then the Inktomi bait-and-switch they did earlier this year shows that Yahoo is not a company to be trusted with your money.

[seoArt]

I think it all depends on the category you get placed in.

One site I have in Yahoo directory gets about 150 clicks / month from the listing itself. There are only 2 other sites in the category, and the category is PR 5; so I get a good backlink as well.

Interestingly, they put me in a category that I thought would have been obscure (and wasn't the one I wanted). It turned out well.

I have another site that gets no traffic at all from the listing, and the backlink isn't that valuable either.

I have heard of people losing traffic after getting listed, but that has never been my experience.

[petehall]

Rollo don't panic, be patient - this happened to us with one of our sites and now all pages have been indexed and we are number 1 on all phrases!

The only annoying thing is our home page doesn't rank very well anymore.

To combat this I have created an extra page optimised for what we were previously achieving with the home page.

Have you tried submitting to Yahoo! again?

[petehall]

Sorry that was a bit OT.

mikeweb it is more than worth it in my opinion.

If your website address / company name contains the generic keywords that you wish to rank under I'd pay and submit right away.

[Decius]

What about sponsored listings? Any feedback on that?