A Catch 22 in Yahoo

Okay,

I broke down a little while ago and agreed to pay Yahoo that outlandish amount for getting listed in their directory.

The reason we did this is because 1 of our main keyword phrases showed 98% of the top 30 websites were being pulled from the directory. It worked, we are now number 7 for that keyword phrase.

However, I have read over and over again that it is important that you get listed in the yahoo directory because of the high PR that Google gives the yahoo directory. Now, has anyone taken close look at the URL's in the yahoo directory. They point to yahoo themselves and then use a URL redirect to go to your website. This does absolutely nothing for passing PR to your website. I wasn't too happy about this discovery as this is mentioned nowhere I have ever seen.

Next, now that we are listed, although we are higher for that 1 keyword phrase we have dropped out of most of our other keyword phrases because now ALL yahoo looks at is our directory listing. They do not pull anything from our website anymore.

So what this does is allow you to write a title and a 1 line description that may or may not be accepted by yahoo. If you try to put too many keywords in there they will rewrite and GOOD LUCK getting it to be rewritten because they control that. So, I optimized the directory listing for that 1 keyword phrase, landed number 7, tried to send it in again to be reworded, YEAH RIGHT, like that will happen. They of course, got their money and have not touched my request within the last 2 months and now since Yahoo ONLY looks at the directory listing to bring traffic into the website we have lost ¾'s of our other traffic coming in from yahoo.

YAHOO SUCKS!

 

When I started at the company that I work for, I noticed the same thing about how all the keywords that I was targeting, weren't getting anything on Yahoo. I finally got our listing pulled out of yahoo and have since doubled the about of traffic that we get from yahoo every month. My biggest concern was that doing this would hurt our PR in Google, I was unaware about the re-direct, it didn't hurt our google listings at all. I must agree that getting listed in the Yahoo directory was a negative expirence for me and my company, and worst of all, we had to pay for this backlash.

 

The directory was changed to virtual links not too long ago... maybe 6 months or so.

There wasn't a big fanfare made about it, but I'm sure a search would turn up a fair amount of discussion.

 

Well I am thinking about pulling our directory listing as well.... but I cannot fathom the idea that if we pull it, our MAIN targeted keyword phrase will go back to being 30, not that it matters that much.. lol but. I would like to see our other keyword phrases doing well again in yahoo.... damned if you do and damned if you don't.... damn yahoo.

 

My interplan site has a Yahoo directory listing. It does very will in Yahoo SERPs for most of it's target phrases. I don't think the directory listing is having any negative impact. It doesn't make any business sense for Yahoo to harm directory customers in their search results either and Yahoo, Inc. is all about business IMO.

 

Actually, I can think of a reason why it does.

Little by little, Yahoo has been removing the advantages of being listed in the directory. The complaints about the directory description being used in the SERPs has been around for a long time without them doing anything to make their customers happy. They took the directory results off the top of the search listings, and removed any possible benefit from their algorithm. This was a huge decrease in directory traffic for paying customers. Now they've taken away the PR benefit that those customers might have enjoyed in other search engines - one of the only remaining reasons for being in that directory.

So the conclusion is: why would I pay $299 for a directory listing that does nothing more, absolutely nothing more, than give me - in the case of one of my sites - 700 visits a year. That's $0.43 a click, which is a calculation that brings me nicely on to my point: Yahoo wants you to sign up for Site Match.

The reason why they might turn the screws a little more on sites that are listed in the directory is that they know you've got enough cash to blow $299 on a directory listing with very restricted benefits. With this approach many people who cannot afford not to be in the Yahoo search engine will bite the bullet and sign up for Site Match.

That is a business reason, although in my view it's not a very good one.

I would love someone from Yahoo to tell me why I'm wrong.

I do continue to sign up sites for the Yahoo directory, use Site Match and will continue to do so. That's because my work is all based on CPC and it makes sense. It's a good model for me. But I can imagine there are a lot of people getting very turned off.

 

Yahoo is the easiest search engine to get listed on. I have Top 1 and Top 2 Placement under every term you could think of. Google I have trouble with. Yahoo, Msn and all the easiest aint a thing.

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