Yahoo! Directory: Should You Pay the $300?

One question we get all the time is whether it is worth it to pay $300 to submit a website into the Yahoo Directory.

The answer is that it depends. If you have a very small e-commerce store, for example, with little margin for error in your marketing decisions, the $300 may not be worth it. Chances are you won't see a measurable impact in sales from the listing (even in terms of possible search engine ranking improvements).

If your online store or business website does enough business to allow some discretionary spending in marketing activities that don't have to provide immediate or measurable impact, I would pay the $300. It's just a good link. I would pay $25/month for a highly valued link. In this case, you are just paying that upfront.

Google has several trusted sources such as Yahoo! Directory and DMOZ (The Open Directory Project). Since these directories are edited by human editors, the descriptions, and more importantly, the keywords used in these descriptions, help Google decide what the relevant keywords are to your business. Of course, that has the potential to impact your rankings.

In a nutshell, figure out what your online marketing budget is and allocate some percentage of that towards long term search engine ranking improvements. If that number comes out to $500 or more, then start with a solid link exchange system and an express submission in the Yahoo directory. On top of that, spend an hour or two week adding new content to your website and another hour or two enhancing your link popularity with highly relevant websites. Over time, you will see siginificant imrpovements in your sites rankings.