Yahoo Directory - is it Worth it?

My position hasnt changed in yahoo. My intention was to hopefully improve my positioning within the Google SERPS. Now I know youre all probably wondering .."huh, you want to improve your position with google and you register with yahoo?"

I did a little bit of investigating. Nothing fancy. Just ran up a few keyword searches within both yahoo and google for "garage sales" The comparisons were interesting.

The yahoo directory listing and google search were very similiar.

I had the money - so I gave it a shot. Now its just a matter of seeing whether there is a relationship between yahoo directory and google.

Obviously it cant hurt any.

About 75% of my traffic comes from yahoo, and Im getting approximately 30 ads a week. Only a small amount - probably 5% of my traffic is coming from google which is something i desperately want to improve on.

Hope this helps.

RJ

HI guys,
Well its been some time now since I went ahead with this and I just thought I would recap on the subject.

Since listing my site within yahoo directory my page ranking has infact dropped (not immediately) from an initial PR of 3 to now 2.

My rankings within MSN and Yahoo are identical to that of what they were before listing on yahoo directory.

As for Goolge, well what can I say? My site is still ranking inconsintantly for the same keywords - between pages 6 to 11.

So in response to the original question....

Is it worth listing in yahoo directory?

My initial response would indeed be no, however there still may be a number of other issues that may indirectly affect the PR of my site.

However, for those thinking that being listed within yahoo directory will provide a quick and easy way of improving your PR - think again, as this is certainly not the case.

RJ

Ramone,

Although it's been 3 weeks, I just wanted to thank you for the follow-up, since nobody else did. You provided good info, and it helped me to determine the worth of paid directory listings in Yahoo. So, thanks.

-Tony

It still all depends on the industry. I will continue to highly recommend being included in the Yahoo Directory, but not for PR, and not for increased positioning in Google, but inclusion and positioning for Yahoo Search.

Thank you Ramone for your update!
I have a new client with an existing website that has never been marketed before. It is a real estate company in Panama City Beach using highly competitive keywords. I was able to get them on the first page in MSN within a week, however, they aren't showing up in Yahoo or Google yet. I think I'm going to do the Yahoo directory for the reasons that Veto has given.

Within the Yahoo directory, there are only a couple of Realtors in this market that pay for inclusion. Of them, at least one is ranking high in the SERPS. (Yahoo)

I've always done everything organically and never paid for inclusion but I'm going to give this a try.


I'll post any results


Staci

How does google decide the order in which it's listings are in a category? If I were to put my site in the directory, would it be at the of it's category?

Are you talking Google or Yahoo? Google's is by Pagerank and Yahoo's is usually first come first serve.

Yahoo's Directory.

Oops, I had meant to say Yahoo's directory, not googles.

Wow, this is an old thread!

Brought back some memories reading over this, thats for sure.

Its been over 3 years since lising in Yahoo Directory, and whilst I cant be certain it helped me, I do know now that Ive been number one first page in Google for the past 2 or so years.

How time flies aye?

John