As this is considerably less than the US alternative (especially if you are VAT registered) what do you think this means? No more Yahoo.com visible in the UK? Or to appear in both you are going to have to pay both - like LookSmart!
I have a horrible feeling that it is going to be the latter :(
I also wonder if the recurring fees aspect had started to put off first-time submissions. After all, it's quite a lot of money, in relative terms, for a renewal.
Unless this changes, to be as looksmart, segregated results, the UK option looks good. The downside is that the UK sections of the Yahoo directory recieve less traffic.
I used to think that Yahoo et al. had a downer on the SEO/Consultant, but even from the end user client point of view, how can you budget and plan for a moving target?
It's not a great deal of money, but if it does become:
£199 one off this month (possible inclusion in .com and co.uk),
£199 recurring next month (for inclusion in .co.uk and .com),
separate recurring charges in .co.uk and .com in 6 months!!!
It makes the whole costing structure, and therefore the percieved value and professionalism of the media, a joke to the client.
A lot has been made about the relative cost/benefits of new media vs. conventional media, but at least conventional media has a professional method of structuring its charges.
People like Yahoo make the task of demonstrating the credibility of new media a constant struggle. The benefits are relatively easy to convey - the professionalism of the media owners is somewhat more of a challenge.
[added]>considerably less than the US alternative
$299 = £212, I'd call that a "smigden" less :)
Ironic, this benefit is obviously a significant opportunity that Yahoo have failed to communicate! ie. gain more sales = more profit = continued existence.
...now all they have to do review their 'Submission/Terms of Service' guidelines and I can start to refer sites :)
Even at 9th Yahoo.co.uk still had some 3.1 million unique visitors, so as long as the audience catered for has a UK flavour I'll be recommending both if that's what it takes to capture market share for customers.
That being said the case for Looksmart is becoming more compelling every time these figures get published
I have two similar sites (not totally the same) one .com another .co.uk
The .com has been listed ($299) for a while, I then submitted the .co.uk site to uk.yahoo and it was rejectet because:
"while the content is the same,
it may appear in Yahoo! UK & Ireland under a
different URL"
I have send an appeal request, a search with "Only UK" does NOT show the .com
You should be able to get the .com site to show up in UK results if it's suitably categorised.
The .co.uk was submitted to the corresponding UK category.
The .com is listed in uk.yahoo if you go through the directory, but not when doing a search for having UK Only switched on. The co.uk site is hosted in England.
