$299 for the Yahoo Directory - Cost effective?

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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...

 

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.

 

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

 

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

 

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.

 

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

 

$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...

 

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

 

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

 

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 .

 

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

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Naah, its not worth it.