The Yahoo Directory Listing Paid for Every Year

A renewal for a directory that closes today

Going through the year's expenses, an owner finds the annual charge for a listing in Yahoo's web directory, renewed every year since the website was new.

The directory closes today. Yahoo announced in September that it would shut it down at the end of the year, and the listing, its category and its link go with it.

For most businesses that paid, the loss will be hard to notice. It is still worth an hour today, because the same question applies to every other directory renewing on the card.

What the directory was

Before search engines were good at finding things, Yahoo's directory was one of the main ways people found websites: categories and subcategories, with sites listed by editors who reviewed them.

Commercial sites could pay a yearly fee for an editor's review, and many businesses did, often on advice that the listing would help them in search engines.

Over time, search engines became how almost everyone found almost everything, and fewer people browsed the directory at all.

What the link was worth

A link from a well-kept directory once counted for something with search engines, because an editor had looked at the site before listing it.

That has carried little weight for a long time. Google's guidelines warn against links bought to influence rankings, and they list low-quality directories among the examples.

When a directory few people visit closes, losing its link is unlikely to matter to where a site appears.

What to note before it goes

The listing disappears with the directory, so take a few minutes today to record what it held:

• The category the site was listed in, which shows how an editor described the business.
• The title and description, often written years ago and worth comparing with today's wording.
• The address listed, in case it points to a page that no longer exists.
• The renewal date and payment method, so nothing more is charged.
• The visits it sent, from Analytics, over as many years as you have.

A screenshot of the listing is the simplest record. The fourth item matters most: check the card statements and invoices to be sure no further charge appears.

Reading the visits in Analytics

In Google Analytics, the visits a directory sends appear under referrals, listed by the site they came from. Yahoo's directory shows as a source containing dir.yahoo.com.

Set the date range to the past year, then to earlier years, and note how many visits arrived and what they did: how long they stayed, and whether any reached the contact page.

For many listings the answer will be very few visits. That is not a failure of the website; it reflects how few people still browsed the directory.

A worked example

A marine surveyor on the Sunshine Coast inspects boats for buyers, insurers and lenders, working from a small office at a marina with one assistant.

The website went up more than a decade ago, and a Yahoo directory listing was bought at the same time. It renewed every year on a company card.

The surveyor also paid for three other listings: a general business directory, a marine services directory, and the member directory of a boating association.

Analytics settled the question. The Yahoo listing and the general directory sent almost nothing, while the marine and association directories sent visitors who read the survey pages and asked for quotes.

The surveyor noted the Yahoo listing's details, confirmed no renewal would be charged, and cancelled the general directory at its next renewal. The association and marine listings stayed.

The money and attention now go where boat buyers look, and to the website's own pages explaining what each kind of survey involves.

The other directories still renewing

Most businesses that paid Yahoo every year also pay somewhere else. Go through a year of card statements and invoices and list every directory, guide or listing service that charges.

Include the ones bundled into memberships or advertising packages, and the ones that renew so quietly nobody remembers approving them.

Note each one's fee and renewal date in one place, so the decisions can be made together rather than one surprise charge at a time.

Questions for each paid listing

For each one, ask whether people who might hire you actually use it to find businesses like yours. A directory you have never heard a customer mention probably fails that test.

Check what it sends in Analytics, and whether those visits do anything. Check that the listing's details are current, since an old address in a paid listing is worse than none.

Be wary of any directory that sells itself on search engine benefits rather than on the people who browse it. That is the kind of link Google's guidelines describe.

Directories worth keeping

Some paid listings do earn their fee. A trade association's member directory, a regional tourism guide or an industry listing that buyers consult puts you where customers already look.

Those listings serve people first. Keep them current, add photographs where allowed, and treat them as part of the website's reach.

Most also allow a fuller description and a link to the most relevant page on your site, rather than the home page.

The counter-case

A listing that sends few visits can still deserve its fee. Membership in an association may bring referrals, standing and a badge customers recognise, with the directory listing a small part of it.

And a few listings matter for reasons outside search: a list a large customer checks before ordering, or a guide that event planners consult before calling.

The test is not whether a listing helps rankings. It is whether the people you want to reach would ever see it.

Before the next renewal

1. Record the Yahoo listing with a screenshot today.
2. Check for any renewal charge still scheduled.
3. List every paid listing from a year of statements.
4. Look up each one's visits in Analytics.
5. Ask whether customers use it to find businesses like yours.
6. Correct the details on the listings you keep.
7. Cancel the rest at their next renewal date.

Step three puts the whole spend in one place. Listings bought one at a time over many years add up, and few owners have ever seen them side by side.

Reviewing the other links a business paid for years ago, and when a disavow file is the wrong tool, is covered in Penguin 3.0 and links bought years ago.

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West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.