Yahoo Directory - Some Results

[Rob_TID]

Ok, I was doing an SEO experiments to see how important the Yahoo Directory could possibly be.

Brand new site in competitive niche (voip). I went out and got a small amount of targetted incoming links via articles, hubs etc. And of course the Yahoo Directory listing. Within 6 months I ranked pretty well for at least one very competitive term (hovering around 10), top 30 for another very competitive term and top 5 for a heap of less competitive terms. A couple of number 1s and 2s for medium competition terms.

Then I decided to let the listing drop just to see what would happen. (all other links remained unchanged for at least 10 months) and I didn't change the site at all. No link building. No content creation. All rankings were pretty much stable for 6 months at least. The only recent change was the Yahoo listing was removed.

Now I only have a single top 10 term in Google and one of my MSN rankings for a lower competition term stayed at number 1. My main term dropped 40 places in Google. Some of my less competitive terms dropped 300 places. Some up to 500 places.

Note to self: $300 for a Yahoo listing is very much worth the investment.

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Rob! That's a pretty good note to self.

Actually good re-enforcement for me too. I just pay every year now without thinking, but IF I stopped to think about it today - IF it was time to re-new I think I maybe would have wondered how necessary and worth it a Yahoo listing is. I get hardly any traffic from Yahoo except what I pay for. But not sure I would have stopped to think about how it would affect ranking with other engines. Good to know.

[Rob_TID]

Yeah, I suspected it was worth it too (i just wanted to see it for myself rather than be told). I didn't really think my rankings would drop THAT far though. For that site, the Yahoo listing seems to have been the make or break factor.

[MrCat]

Hey Rob,

Thanks for sharing that info. Would be very useful once we would be launching a new site.

I guess that only shows that other search engine gives importance to Yahoo Directory in general.

A bit costly though