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Well, two weeks ago, I requested a total change to the directory listing including to the URL which I substituted for another related website of lesser importance.
To my surprise they made the change (which will now kill the new site for the remainder of the 1 year sentence), but my main website has been sprung. On the first day I've already observed one page at #2 in the SERPS for an important (money) keyword and hopefully many more will follow suit.
This is especially great news as this particular website had been flying very high in Google, until it was sandboxed/filtered on Sept. 23rd.
The moral: Run, don’t walk, away form the Yahoo directory.
Why would you be the only person they ever did this to?
For example, when I type in keyword1 keyword2, where normally the page www.widgets.com/keyword1-keyword2.htm would come up (and where it does come up now)... when the site was in the Yahoo directory the only thing that would come up is the poorly written index page www.widgets.com with its title: No Keyword1 No Keyword2 No Keyword3. No other pages could be found anywhere.
One other interesting note: Only the old pages that I had at the time of the listing are back in the SERPS, no pages I've added since then it seems. Some of them are updated, but a couple still have the same titles that I had when I got my listing about 6 months ago. Strange...
Why? Find a post where anyone ever mentioned this before. It obviously is not normal behavior. Perhaps it happened once in a blue moon but take one minute to look at the serps and you can see that this is not normal.
You seem to be blaming the Directory for Slurp's shortcomings, or you had a glitch unique to your site.
Rollo: "Actually it can be a big negative. Getting listed was the worst move I've as a webmaster [made] and a total waste of money. I used to get a bit of traffic 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."
Petehall: "rollo don't panic, be patient - this happened to us with one of our sites and now all pages have been indexed..."
Unfortunately, it didn't correct itself until I got unlisted. And I did email them about it several times asking them to unlist me and explaining why... no response.
If this is due to Ink, I would be happy to blame them to the extent that they are not inextricably linked to Yahoo... I'd never used the directory so I assumed this was the status quo. Judging it several months out now (and with a bit of forecasting that assumes a visit from Yahoo is equal to a visit from Google, which may or may not be the case), it easily cost 6 figures to this business so it was upsetting.
I do blame the Yahoo directory for: 1) the lousy meta titles; 2) on principle, for not listing, it seems, any sites for free; 3) for not promoting the directory with any enthusiasm; and 4) for a total lack of responsiveness to customer enquiries.
Normally, when one spends $ to so much as to buy a CD online, he or she should expect to be able get a little customer service. I emailed Google recently and to their credit they did go to the trouble of emailing back, even though I hadn't paid them anything.
So... given the above, I would not recommend the directory. I don't think I'm alone. SEOs like Bruce Clay don't recommend it either and he indicates that on his website.
That said, the site in question is now jamming seriously in Yahoo and MSN (and doing terrible in Google) so all's forgiven.
Any more research you'll have to do yourself steveb...
"Yahoo is the ONLY major search index offering a paid inclusion program, and it has drawbacks. For instance, MSN is droping results from the Yahoo feed if they are in the Yahoo paid inclusion program. As a result, we advise against this program at this time. "
I can't vouch for Bruce Clay's statement one way or another. I can say, however, that if rollo's problems were caused by Yahoo paid inclusion, then his problem is not universally shared. I didn't have the same problem after getting into Yahoo.
My post is right there and I don't see any mention of the directory with respect to Bruce Clay. I think you're trying to distort it. I didn't say or imply he was referring to an experience similar to mine, but rather that he, like me, doesn't recommend the directory which is the point of this thread... to run, not walk away from the directory. Personally, I wouldn't want to be listed for free after what happened much less pay for it again. Others may have had good experiences and that's great. I'm sure many do, but I sure didn't.
I started this thread for the benefit of other webmasters because I've learned much from the board and would like to share my experiences. Readers have all the info and are free to take it or leave it.
Steveb... let's leave it there, shall we?
[webmasterworld.com...]
And now you very bizarrely say:
"I don't see any mention of the directory with respect to Bruce Clay."
What on Earth does "SEOs like Bruce Clay don't recommend it either..." mean then?
You made a wrong statement, either accidentally or dishonestly. Don't make it worse by pretending what you wrote a few inches up doesn't exist.
You tried an appeal to authority for your anti-Directory rant and were caught in a pile of baloney.
And then you even contradict yourself in the same post by saying "but rather that he, like me, doesn't recommend the directory which is the point of this thread". This is now a lie. Regardless of your feelings, stop saying someone else is saying something they are not.
Site Match is not the Yahoo Directory. If you don't know that, then that might explain some of your problems. Perhaps you should be asking questions instead of falsely claiming something that isn't so.
It looks like Clay is mainly concerned that you won't get listed if you pay.
At any rate, the directory is a risky propostion... and there are others that have had bad experinces.
[edited by: martinibuster at 2:08 am (utc) on Dec. 19, 2004]
[edit reason] Please, no urls. Thanks. [/edit]
Looks like some of my better comments were edited...
I've corrected my error regarding the Bruce Clay statement.
When you said: "Why would you be the only person they ever did this to?" regarding the Yahoo directory problem.
... would you care to correct your FALSE statement?
When a site is in thre Yahoo Directory, all other pages on the domain rank under their regular titles.
Anything is possible, and what you say happened may have in fact happened, and it may have in fact happened to other people, but such posts have never been made here.
You on the other hand insisted something was true for everyone that obviously is not. As a matter of at least 99.9% of the time policy, Yahoo does not "insist" on what you say, and they do not apply such a thing globally. And "so none of them will rank well for anything" is completely false in any case since Yahoo doesn't rank by the Directory displayed title.
We paid the $299 for our listing in the Yahoo directory. Our site is very well optimized (I have been a web developer for several years now) and I have worked hard at getting sites to link back to us. Yahoo has picked up on quite a few of these backlinks.
For the most competitive/broad keywords, we are nowhere to be found in Yahoo (not in the top 50). For the more specific/narrow keywords we do rank within the top 3 - 5 terms (and for some terms even at #1). What I have noticed though is that Yahoo either displays:
--The information from the Yahoo directory listing.
--Information for either one or two pages that it seems that Yahoo has indexed.
We have about 300 pages on our site right now but Yahoo hardly ever displays results from those pages outside of what I mentioned above. It is either results from the directory listing or from one of two pages that seem to come up constantly. I'd hate to think that the $299 that we spent on our directory listing could actually be hurting us but I am staring to wonder...
[search.yahoo.com...]
Assuming you have more than a couple pages in the index, and a domain only up for a month likely doesn't, then search for terms that a subpage should outrank the main page for.
Here is a good example. I searched on Widget X. Widget X is a fairly competitive search term. However, there is only one site that I am aware of that sells as much Widget X on their site as we do. In fact, they have a bit more of Widget X than we do.
In Yahoo, Widget X brings up the aforementioned site for results #1 & #3. Result #2 is for the manufacturer of Widget X (Widget X is the domain name in this instance).
Our site has listings #4 & #5. Listing #4 is the listing from the Yahoo directory and has no mention of Widget X in it (just the generic directory listing). Listing #5 is a listing from one of the two pages that I mentioned above that pops up all the time. The only place that Widget X is mentioned on this particular page is in the left-hand navigation (text based).
Out of the 49 pages that Yahoo has indexed, Widget X comes up as #26 out of the 49 when I do a search for www.mydomainname.com in Yahoo. So, I know the Widget X page has been indexed. It is just not showing up though.
I realize that it may be soon to really tell for sure but patience is not one of my strong points. :)
We've obviously established that this is not normal behavior, and that I am a sloppy reader, but when you chime in with remarks like: "Why would you be the only person they ever did this to?" when I wasn't, then you should own up. Saying later on that "anything is possible" doesn't really cut it.
This exchange has been mighty entertaining, but feel free to sticky mail me with your phone number if you'd like to discuss it further. I'd enjoy the opportunity of being educated a bit more.
Who said: "now all pages have been indexed"
You don't seem to read what you cite. Yahoo indexs at the speed of snail.
And the full quote was: "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!"
How awful, #1 for everything.
"then another added a link of you arguing with him over a similar issue."
The issue of how the Yahoo Directory titles pages is an old one, and it occurs for everybody. It has nothing to do with your incorrect, sweeping assertion.
The issue boils down to this: You seem to imply that this never happened. So your theory is that I invented the entire thing because it is an enjoyable pastime to post invented stories then go around asking advice from strangers that I never intend to use all while wasting countless hours of my time reserching in order to figure out what happened, not to mention sending emails to Yahoo requesting to be unlisted ...while secretly enjoying the benefits of being listed for nearly half a year? This, of course, before actually getting the site unlisted prematurely. My traffic stats and lost revenue tell the whole story, unmistakably. I'm not a webmaster by trade, I'm a businessperson who has discovered the benefits of online marketing, but this experience cannot be confused. It's as simple as checking the traffic stats and typing keywords into the search engine and observing what comes out.
I've sent you my phone number... if you still doubt it, I'd be happy to discuss it with you further.
