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Today we will always remember as the day that Yahoo! screwed over all of it's loyal Yahoo! Express subscribers.
Question is: Will we ever be able to optimize our sites for Yahoo again?
Answer: Only time will tell. But, in the meantime what do you all think we should do about going about optimizing for Yahoo once again.
give it 3-4 months and you will be crying a different tune. If you actually think that the Big Boys are not going to spend whatever money they have getting top listings you are deluding yourself!
It is the whole implied promise that is behind it.
Understood but I don't think that holds up in court.
Simply, if you get into the yahoo directory, you will have the chance to improve your rankings within the Yahoo Search Engine.
Yahoo never guarantees that.
It does not matter what exactly the Business Express contact states, it is what "Common Knowledge/Fact" that the whole idea of Business Express and the Directory has built for itself ever since Yahoo's Inception.
It does when you are talking legal issues. You have to prove that there is some kind of fraud involved. If you signed a contract with explicit wording as to what you will get, that is what you agreed to, not to any implied promises.
Although, why would people submit there sites to Yahoo for 300 bucks if there was not a meaning behind being a part of the Directory.
Yahoo is not responsible for what people do or what people think they are going to get.
The issue is that Yahoo has unethically abandoned the subscribers to there Directory. Those subscribers that have built Yahoo from the ground up! And now they turn and stab us in the back.
I agree that their ethics stink but that still doesn't mean they did anything illegal.
I understand your frustration but my point is that "Let the buyer beware." Everyone needs to read agreements carefully and know exactly the risks that they are taking before they shell out the cash. That is why I have never paid Yahoo and have not paid Looksmart in two years. If more webmasters thought this way then Yahoo and Looksmart would change their service. As long as webmasters are going along with their crummy, high risk offers, they won't change a thing.
But what happened here really makes for bad business...MAy be Arthur Anderson made this decision for them (another Enron like situation, report one thing and do another!)
BrAsS mOnKeY
I've urged my clients in the past to take a very cautionary approach to Yahoo, and I will continue to do so. For now, the question is benefits of PageRank vrs drawbacks of being stuck with a Yahoo title. For each site, I'd ask:
- Does the site need the PR, and how much PR will the likely Yahoo category deliver?
- Does the site have a Google title that is better than the likely or current Yahoo description? I have some clients, stuck with legacy Yahoo descriptions (which were in place before I came on the scene) that are so bad that I think they'd almost be better off delisting from the directory entirely.
>>All Mr. Big Pockets has to do now is spend his thousands of dollars optimizing for Google and he wins.<<
Quite often Mr BP doesn't have sense enough to do this. There are still companies that don't want to touch page content, and still insist that meta keywords are the answer. I think the little guy often can have some advantages... he can be faster and smarter... but yes, I'd like bigger pockets too, or at least pockets that are more full. ;)
So, I would think that those of us with Yahoo descriptions that are better than our ODP ones, and who don't show particularly good ransom notes for our main keywords, should be quite glad to pay for that Yahoo description.
Those with stinko descriptions but great ransom notes or ODP descriptions might have a reason to drop out of the directory at least temporarily, then try to get back in with a better description.
I guess we should apply to Y! to get the description and title changed. If Y! say we need to pay for the listing we would be ust as happy to see them delisted.
Paid description changes for those who choose to stay in could become a big source of "monetization" for Yahoo.
It has been up until now. That's why I didn't even mention the Yahoo title as an issue. I assume the title will be the company name.
With some clients, when I get them early enough, I've been able to persuade them to include a target phrase as part of the company name, where it legitimately works. Instead of something hip and cryptic like "ThinkSoft," eg, for a software company, I encourage them to name the company "ThinkSoft Development Software" or whatever, to at least get some relevance boost from the title.
This helps with linking in Google. For ranking on Yahoo directory search, it used to be crucial on anything competitive. It's still important in ODP. I'm not sure how it would affect current Yahoo directory search, or how many people will even use Yahoo directory search any more.
One thing to keep in mind is that it's not a good idea to use BizExpress as a way of changing the description. A Yahoo editor told me explicitly that they'd simply keep the money and instruct you to use the Change Form. Right now, the Change Form is free, but it doesn't always work. I just see a bigger demand in the future for changing those Yahoo listings, and was being a little bit flip about it as a way for them to pick up some extra millions.
>>added: Maybe I'm wrong, but spending $300 just to change your site title and description seems like a waste to me.
Does anyone think that the $300 may still be a good way to get some pr for my site? Luckly I am designing the site from the bottom up with a focus on google but should I reconsider a yahoo submission as a quick PR?
I would think about paying yourself $300 for a 10-12 hour day getting good incoming links. You'd be surprised how many you can get when you attack the problem. Yahoo can still be worth it, it depends on the site in question.
