Yahoo Directory -Is it worth it?

[niallfred]

Is there still benefit to having a listing in the Yahoo Directory for $299.00 per year? It has very high domain authority.

Also does it benefit UK sites as much as USA sites?

[matbennett]

Hi again!

Despite how much people say SEO is changing, I'm not sure I would change my answer much from the one I gave just under 3 years ago. Let me update one statement at a time:

I don't think that there are many categories where the traffic sent warrants $299/year any more. In fact I would say that in most cases the referral traffic from a Yahoo directory listing is close to zero.

The above is still true, but even more so now.  Do you get any traffic from it?

As you say though, it has a lot of authority. It is also well established, tightly curated and is certainly known by those building engines. Therefore inclusion could at least been seen as a check that the site is not utter tripe. However, logically at least, a link in their directory shouldn't lend much more weight than that.

Any value on this front has probably diminished even further.  If it was seen as a special case that highlighted quality sites, I don't think that would be the case any more.  The overall quality has diminished, great sites don't bother listing any more and Google has had another 3 years to work that out.

I have not seen a measurable result from either adding or removing a site from the directory in recent years. It may well bring benefit as part of a bigger picture, who other than Google can really say?

No change there.  I probably haven't added a site to Yahoo directory since then though.

However I wouldn't expect to see an increase from adding your site - even factoring in the additional links from directories who use it as a seed.

People aren't really creating directories like that any more, and if they did then links from them would likely be more damaging than helpful.  I can't imagine that anyone would use the Yahoo directory as a seed for a quality site any more anyway.

It's worth mentioning that it is technically a different directory now, but I still don't think it is worth it.  Wouldn't you have rather spent that last $900 on something more tangible?

[niallfred]

I 1st wrote this question in 2012 and am still paying for the listing each year. Now it's 2015 I wanted to get peoples opinions again.....

Is there still benefit to having a listing in the Yahoo Directory for $299.00 per year? It has very high domain authority.

[niallfred]

Thanks for all your feedback - I think I'll give this a try.

[avassa]

There are 2 aspects to adding a listing in Yahoo directory.

1. It helps in SEO efforts for Yahoo aka Bing.

2. It helps improve the trust score of the site.

If your client has a budget for it, then go for it. It is one of those links that are still held in high-trust list. It could balance out a lot of spammy links in your site's overall backlinks profile.

[gcdtechnologies]

It is a high authority domain, and one of the few paid inclusion links that doesn't seem to fall foul of Google (probably because the fee is for an "editorial review" rather than the link itself). I've rarely seen a click coming through from the directory, so listing would be for SEO purposes only.

I've never seen any significant ranking increases as a result of listing with Yahoo (I'm based in the UK), but it can help increase trust. I would say that if you have a large budget it's worth a try, but if you're working with a small budget the cost probably doesn't justify the returns.

Good luck!

[matbennett]

I don't think that there are many categories where the traffic sent warrants $299/year any more. In fact I would say that in most cases the referral traffic from a Yahoo directory listing is close to zero.

As you say though, it has a lot of authority. It is also well established, tightly curated and is certainly known by those building engines. Therefore inclusion could at least been seen as a check that the site is not utter tripe. However, logically at least, a link in their directory shouldn't lend much more weight than that.

I have not seen a measurable result from either adding or removing a site from the directory in recent years. It may well bring benefit as part of a bigger picture, who other than Google can really say? However I wouldn't expect to see an increase from adding your site - even factoring in the additional links from directories who use it as a seed.