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As a SEO, I cannot afford not to include a listing in Yahoo! as part of my offering. It makes business sense if you have a commercial website and for me, thats 99% of my clients.
Heres the million dollar question for me.
How will this decision affect current rankings as well as Yahoos method of ranking relevancy going forward?
I anticipate the following:
Overtime, current listings which fall outside the ambit of the per annum fee will be relegated to encourage marketing spend for those paying the per annum fee.
I expect this to happen gradually in order that the relevancy of the results are not perceived to be compromised. Expect the same timeframe that it took for the objective SE's to integrate PPC results as part of their mix.
Two ways to look at it.
1) If you have great listings which you have enjoyed for years and are not in the cycle of having to submit new sites to Yahoo daily, then I would be concerned. The security that you have enjoyed over the past couple of years may be under threat or you may have to bite the bullet and pay a per annum fee to compete.
2) If your website is languishing in the Yahoo! doldrums because of a poor title and description and cat selection, here's an opportunity to change that whilst some of the stalwarts which have held positions for years might well fall. For new website submissions, I see this as an opportunity for added exposure.
I believe that the relevancy of their results will be compromised somewhat by this decision. But, the brand awareness that they have created in the marketplace and in the unsophisticated internet users mind will allow them to remain a major player in the next couple of years. I for one, will be paying the per annum fee.
It'll go both ways I think. It might improve their relevancy a bit but it might also discourage submissions. I know I won't be submitting as many sites, but sites that do well I will pay an annual fee for.
I guess it'll depend on your market.
in practise, most site owners seem to want everything for nothing - they look for the cheapest domain names, the cheapest web hosting (free if possible), and will only list their sites where it's free to do so. ok, so they may be cutting their own throats, but that's the way they want to play it.
this leaves yahoo as a highly popular site with listings that will gradually become less and less relevant as fewer and fewer sites are submitted and listed.
i think i agree with pete in that yahoo will remain a major player for the next couple of years as far as inexperienced web users go, but the more experienced users will want relevant results and will look elsewhere for them. beyond the next couple of years, i think yahoo will have to change it's business model to survive.
