$299 for the Yahoo Directory - Cost effective?

[johnegood]

When I started my business four years ago, I paid Yahoo $299 to list my site in their directory. And since then, another $300 per year.

They're now asking me to renew. My reaction this time is:

Why? And how come they don't bother to provide any data to me on why this $299 is a worthwhile expenditure. It's a lot of money. It feels pretty arrogant to me that they don't rationalize it all.

What do you think? Useful? Arrogant?


Dear Yahoo! Directory Submit Client:

We hope your business has enjoyed a fruitful year and that your
listing in the Yahoo! Directory has contributed to your success.
This is a reminder that the annual renewal date for your site is
coming up on:

Dec 6 2008

On the above date, your credit card will be charged the recurring
annual fee of:

299.00

Your listing will then be reviewed again by the Yahoo! Directory Submit
editorial team to ensure that your site remains relevant and is
properly categorized.

Currently, the URL of your site is:

http://www. time4learning.com/

Your site appears in the following category:

Business and Economy/Shopping and Services/Education/Homeschooling/Time4Learning

with this description:

Comprehensive suite of lessons and activities that provides a personalized educational program for preschool through eighth grade children.

[Valkerie]

I looked up your site. It has 20 DMOZ entries, is old - 11/2002, the front page has over 11K links, with over 20K links for the site, you have 6 EDU links for the front page and 36 for the site altogether.

You could look at this either one of two way. Yes, it's arrogant, because they don't explain anything to you. No it's not arrogant. If you started with a site and a listing, they've provided plenty of value to you over the years.

It all depends on your state of mind. If it's a business expense -write it off and don't think about it. It hasn't hurt.

If you can't afford it, cut it for one year and see what happens.

[ILiketohelp]

Valkerie if you don't mind me asking what site did you use to look up his site?

[fireworking]

I think that Yahoo directory is a very good investment. IT is well worth the 299. This is the only source that is allowed by google that is a paid link but you wont get penalized. If I were a millionaire. I would spend 5000 just on directory listings.

[dairyman]

I am of the opinion that paying $299 a year to get a listing in yahoo is not that much worth in terms of traffic or sales and the same view has been echoed by others who already got links from yahoo. Instead, go and spend the amount fruitfully for other means; Of course, it is my opinion...

[locux]

I'm going to agree with dairyman, paying $300 for a link is insane. Yahoo has lost their minds! I'm sure it does provide a small amount of improvement in your rankings on search sites which are actually used; however, based on Valk's analysis, if you have that many back-links already, it's probably not helping you out that much.

[Your SEO Plan]

$299 that's too much. I was saw someone selling yahoo listed $45 /year

[Devilfish]

Submit to one or all of the regional directories for free, i.e. uk.dir.yahoo.com

[Red_Knight]

After hearing the horror stories about paying the $300 fee and not being included - this sounds like too much of a gamble for a hefty annual fee.

Probably not worth it traffic-wise.

[indyguidedotinfo]

I Got my site listed on there last month. since then i quickly jumped from page 10 of google to page one for alot of terms. of course i have been doing other seo work but id like to think yahoo helped a bit. i also get alot more traffic from yahoo as well

[Rblakney]

$299 is a bit steep for a listing you may or may not get. I believe it may help new sites, but your site is already well established and it has diminishing returns...

[imeganetwork]

why would you pay for directories. Maybe do link exchange or free directories.

[GoGlobal]

My suggestion is you can try with Link exchange and also Free Directory.

[Obelia]

Spend that money instead on other directories. You will get better value, and some of those links will be permanent rather than just annual. The list on Aviva's blog is a good source of suitable directories for you to consider: http://www.avivadirectory.com/downloadblog/?p=341 .

[cool_78]

For $299 I'd rather buy more useful stuff like content. It's really not worth it.

[baboo]

I would think that it was not worth it. You may have more success with Adwords, Yahoo Search, and MSN.

[tarpon19]

Over time, I have not seen a huge difference in ranking by purchasing a link in the Yahoo directory. If you optimize your site correctly and don't list a ton of spammy links on your site, you can get into both Yahoo directory and Dmoz free. ;)

[fadetoblack22]

Google will treat a link in the yahoo directory the same as any other link. I don't think its worth paying for at all.

Just think, why would google give preference to a link that you pay for that belongs to a competing search engine.

IMO the money is best spent else where. I wouldn't even consider buying one.

[edcpartners]

I tried it a while back and it did absolutely nothing so I stopped paying and my link is off. No negative affect after taking the link off.

Don't pay for it again unless you have absolutely nothing you want to spend your money on.

A Yahoo directory link is pure rubbish.

[poseidon]

Naah, its not (http://nbridges.com/blog/getting-into-yahoo-directory-don%e2%80%99t-help-in-getting-more-traffic/) worth it.

[Axel1975]

Depends heavily on how much 'credibility' is wort to your site. $300/year might be VERY MUCH for a smaller site, or a site in a niche that does not rely heavily on it's credibility BUT I think it is nothing for your site being in the niche it is..

[SGBoise]

I wouldn't do yahoo directory. You probably have a better chance with business.com which is a ppc.

[pharmboy]

I wouldn't get it for the traffic. Depending on your site, though, it can be a very good deal for a highly trusted link.

[SGBoise]

That's one expensive link. I can find some other ways to increase traffic with that money and that would produce more conversions.

[Nutan]

299$ is too much man

[digitalguitar]

Not worth the money...

[markn26]

Really not worth it. Like someone said before, once you stop paying and your link is taken off, there really aren't any negative repercussions.

I wonder how much longer Yahoo is going to keep shilling their directory, it seems to be getting less popular by the year. It was better when it was free, many years ago. Now, it's just a big waste of money and you don't even get anything else with it, such as metrics or activity information.

The economy is to shitty to be spending so much money on trivial things. At least find a more worthwhile PR or article service if you need to spend $300.

[Gabri]

I think it's a lot of money...

[D-Block]

Well I guess most people don't understand why Yahoo charges $300.

If you manage to get in, after a few months you will see some clear results. It really depends on what category you submitted in, if you paid and got accepted into lets say a category like "Naruto"(which is a popular anime)

You will see the benefits within weeks. Naruto being the #7 searched topic this year @ Yahoo.com alone, if your web site is in the category, you have a way better chance of appearing on the 1st page of the result page even if your web site doesn't have a good SEO score.

Another category worth paying in is anything to do with technology. If your web site gets accepted for something like the IPHONE, within months you will see why people pay 300$/year.

It works for some, and no for others, from my experience(I paid yahoo for 2 sites) it has been very very important.

[jazzylee77]

Just think, why would google give preference to a link that you pay for that belongs to a competing search engine.

Because they know the competing search engine checks out those links?
(Just playing devil's advocate)

[coated]

I know the OP said that Yahoo doesn't provide any data on why they believe this is a good expense, but it would be nice to hear from the OP what/if any value he might have received from the listing. Did it get him direct traffic or leads?

[cct5rb]

Overall, if you have the money it seems like you should go for it, but at the same time, I don't think the Yahoo! directory is definitely not a necessity nowadays

[suabo]

$299 that's too much. I was saw someone selling yahoo listed $45 /year

[WebmasterWanabe]

I looked into the Yahoo directory a few years ago but from what I remember for initial the $299 was only for consideration in the Directory and that was NON-REFUNDABLE

[SGBoise]

I looked into the Yahoo directory a few years ago but from what I remember for initial the $299 was only for consideration in the Directory and that was NON-REFUNDABLE

If that's the case go buy some scratch tickets. You'll make some money out of them.:p

[bhavin]

I think Its 200$ worth to submit in yahoo. if u want instant result in yahoo.



Thanks

[webmaster68]

If you had success with your bussiness (website) listed in Yahoo I don't see why change that.
About some SEO Companies said "we can do the same for $45", let me tell you that is NOT TRUE, they just want your money.
I have most of my websites in the first page of Yahoo, MSN, Google and other search engines and truth me I know what I'm talking about.

[kenbrower]

I think it's more for sites which are just becoming established and need name recognition right away. For established businesses already having good rankings, probably not worth it to spend the money. But I remember when I just started out with one site, it helped a good deal.

[luyenphim]

I think it worth about $60 a year, would be reasonable. $299 is too high. Yahoo directory is not popular like it used to be. Not a lot of people use it.

[t2000q]

although steep, yahoo is worth it if you can afford it ...

[Bill_Stanbrook]

My thought is that a listing on the Yahoo directory is probably good value to help kickstart a new quality site. The main value of the listing is going to be in initially getting the attention of the search engines, etc, focussed on your site.

Once your site has matured and is receiving traffic and link juice from a large number of more organic traffic sources, the benefits of a Yahoo listing are likely to be diluted to the point where it may no longer be worth it.

The question is, do you have reason to believe that the listing is making you at least $300 in overall value. If so, you may as well keep paying for it.