Yahoo Directory Listing Worth the Money?

[TipPro]

Has anyone tracked their conversion rate with a Yahoo Directory Listing? Curious to see some results.

[PuReWebDev]

It's absolutely worth the money. If you get your site in there, you will not only gain additional traffic, but possibly a boost in your pagerank. If you can afford their submittal fee, I'd say go for it. Just make sure that you are being put in the proper category before hand.


Thanks,
PuReWebDev

[TipPro]

I am more curious about the additional traffic. I have never used yahoo directory to find Web sites, so I am not to familiar with it. I am wondering how popular the directory is.

[MamawDenise]

one thing to be careful of is even when you pay the money to be listed they can still opt not to do so and you lose your money read the full tos and everything before submitting

[PuReWebDev]

Yes. You should assume this of any paid directory listings. Although, for the most part, they will attempt to correct any error you may have made and place your submission.


PuReWebDev

[MamawDenise]

i personally and this is my opinion alone wouldn't waste my money, you can get better results over all if your site is done right, listed on the search portals including dmoz and optimised to be keyword specific for the market your looking to reach, the same in my opinion applies to AdWords, or any type of pay per click placement on any search portal.

[PuReWebDev]

See the thing is MamawDenise, that search engine optimization, pay per click, directory listings in general, are not supposed to actually cost you anything. The whole idea is that the return is greater then the investment. Pay Per Click should help you sell something and recover your expense, you obviously shouldn't do this to lose money.

The benefit of the yahoo directory is mainly that yahoo's directory pages typically all have a pr 6 and up, which if you know something about buying links, $300 for a pr 6 site, for an entire year is considered dirt cheap. Pr6 links typically range $200 per month.

The second benefit is that the directory is typically syndicated, so your one yahoo directory link, becomes many links as third partys will syndicate/clone the directory (with your link included).

When you have some budget to work with, these things should be done in combination with your natural search engine placement, absolutely. But not one or the other, you should do both if you have the option.


Hope this post helps.

PuReWebDev

[MamawDenise]

See the thing is MamawDenise, that search engine optimization, pay per click, directory listings in general, are not supposed to actually cost you anything. The whole idea is that the return is greater then the investment. Pay Per Click should help you sell something and recover your expense, you obviously shouldn't do this to lose money.

The benefit of the yahoo directory is mainly that yahoo's directory pages typically all have a pr 6 and up, which if you know something about buying links, $300 for a pr 6 site, for an entire year is considered dirt cheap. Pr6 links typically range $200 per month.

The second benefit is that the directory is typically syndicated, so your one yahoo directory link, becomes many links as third partys will syndicate/clone the directory (with your link included).

When you have some budget to work with, these things should be done in combination with your natural search engine placement, absolutely. But not one or the other, you should do both if you have the option.


Hope this post helps.

PuReWebDev
lol i understand all you have said here but still tend to stick with my opinion, i have been doing this since 1995 and i can take a site any site and in 6 to 8 months i know without a doubt i can drive more traffic into that site, keyword specific targeted traffic with purchasing potential, then can be had on these ad word and pay yahoo listing things, and it not cost Me nothing but my initial investment and in my case that's time and it will never cost me another red cent , my pr will increase and my site will do as it was set up to do , make me money.
now this may not be the case for everyone however in my experience when i seo a site, there is no comparison to the other options, and it as i said costs me nothing more then my initial investment. i have tried the other in the past and in no way does the difference compare, i simply make more money.

[TipPro]

Thank you guys for your replies.

I am not concerned about the SEO benefits of the yahoo directory. I did do a bit of research before posting this question and in my research I found several controversial opinions about if the directory is worth the money all stating different SEO advantages. I could not find any research that spoke purely about gained traffic directly from the directory. So what I want to know is if anyone had any experience of gaining referral traffic from the directory or better yet an actual conversion rate.

[autoecart]

Except from a possible SEO point of view its not really worth it. After all how many people actually use directories anyways thats what search engines are for.

[TipPro]

Hey autoecart thats what I thought to about directories too, but for the last two years I have purchased paid listings in a small no name directory and the results have been amazing. For the directory listing I spent about $1000 for the year and made that money back in about three weeks. With this directory doing so well, I started to scour the Internet for others. Which lead me to Yahoo's directory of this forum post.

[PuReWebDev]

Yes, directories are definately worth the money, mainly because they get plenty of traffic and typically have a high amount of pagerank, which if you didn't know, they can actually give your site some page rank. PR6 sites can give a pr of 2, a PR4 site will typically give a page being linked to a pr of 3. So it yes there is a strong reason to use a directory for seo reasons, but at the same time, the additional traffic converts into higher sales, so to say that it's just for seo, would be a little short sighted.


thanks,
Genesis F.
www.livewebshop.com

[Ray]

I've been following the thread on this board and find it illuminating - for those that have had measurable success listing in the myriad of directories out there, are there any that stand out? I have heard good things about www.botw.com, www.searchturtle.com and a few others. Any other thoughts out there?

Thanks!

[PuReWebDev]

www.dmoz.org would be the first one I would try to submit to. A link from them goes a long way. Not only is it the biggest human editted directory, but getting listed in the automatically gets one a pr boost from Google.


thnx,
PuReWebDev

[Ray]

This is what I hear...

I submitted to them on July 25, 2006 and have yet to hear from them or see our listing in their directory.

Would you suggest re-submitting? I don't want to be seen as a spammer.

Thanks!

Ray

[Ray]

Also, do you know if DMOZ has an expedited/paid submissioin option?

Ray

[TipPro]

The only way I was able to get my site into the dmoz was to become an editor myself. It took a couple months to become an editor but it was worth it because I was able to add my site. Initially I submitted my site to dmoz and after a year and a half I realized it was never going to be accepted (I think because there was not an editor of the section I was applying for).

[PuReWebDev]

I'd re-submit. Even try a few different categories, as some are more popular then others. There is even the possiblity of being listed in multiple categories like Amazon is.

thnx,
PuReWebDev

[taw99]

I have found the Yahoo directory to be a waste of money for my site. Your mileage may vary.

Terry Weadock
<a href="http://www.instrumentuniverse.com">Instrument Universe</a> Site Manager

[Ray]

Thanks taw99,

Much appreciated.

Ray

[PuReWebDev]

At this point, I don't think people are using directories to find new sites like they did back in the day, so I wouldn't necessarily buy an entry with yahoo to get some traffic, I'd essentially use it for the sake of getting some pagerank from their highly ranked pages.

[The Old Sarge]

Also, do you know if DMOZ has an expedited/paid submissioin option?

Ray

I, too, am an editor for DMOZ. There is no paid submission. Don't even go there. lol Some that have even mentioned paying have had their sites effectively banned.

If you have not submitted your site since Dec 2007, you might try one more time. There was a system crash and a lot of sites awaiting review were lost.

You might also submit your site to the appropriate Regional section of DMOZ.

BTW, are you talking about the site in your signature?

[Ray]

Hi Sarge,

Thanks for the DMOZ information!

And yes, I am referring to the site in my signature - www.leadingwebsitedesigns.com

I will try to resubmit to DMOZ; hopefully, they will include us, as DMOZ seems to carry a lot of weight and additional credibility.

Kindest Regards,

Ray

[Younicycle]

I paid for it last month and so far have received precisely 4 clicks. One of them may have been my own. My guess is that it 'may' work for certain types of content. Just not mine.

Thank you guys for your replies.

I am not concerned about the SEO benefits of the yahoo directory. I did do a bit of research before posting this question and in my research I found several controversial opinions about if the directory is worth the money all stating different SEO advantages. I could not find any research that spoke purely about gained traffic directly from the directory. So what I want to know is if anyone had any experience of gaining referral traffic from the directory or better yet an actual conversion rate.

[wizardofy]

It's just part of the cost of starting up in business as far as I am concerned.

We old-timers remember a time when Yahoo directories were
the best way to find stuff on the internet. No longer, but
once you are indexed there you are there forever. I paid
for my indexing in 2000. So over the last 8 years it was
bound to pay off.

My complaint about the Yahoo directory is that our web page
contains a lot more than the narrow description that is
allowed on Yahoo.

best regards
wiz

[KKenny]

What is the difference between the Yahoo Directory and Adworks? I find so many people using Adworks but few on Yahoo.