Short answer: No.
Long answer: Maybe.
When was the last time you used the Yahoo Directory to find a web site? Did you even know that Yahoo has a directory? Do you even know what that means? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Google has made Yahoo pretty irrelevant. In the early days of the web, before search engines as we know them today, Yahoo famously organized web sites on the Internet based on subject matter. This was not such a daunting task when most people didn’t there were only thousands of web pages on the Internet as opposed to billions. But now we rely on search engines like Google and Bing to find (almost) exactly what we’re looking for. But Yahoo’s directory of links still exists and it serves a purpose for webmasters and marketers.
If you are familiar with search engine optimization, you will know that backlinks are play an essential role in building your boosting your search engine ranking for keywords related to your website. Well, not all backlinks are created equally. Some backlinks matter more than others. And a backlink from Yahoo matters more than most. The question is, does inclusion in the Yahoo Directory warrant spending $299 for a (7 days or less) expedited review, when you can just wait three months for free.
Time is money. And nobody wants to wait around for three months for a backlink. If you have three hundred dollars to spend on a backlink and you feel you have exhausted every other marketing idea you can think of, go ahead pay Yahoo $299.
But before you do that, make sure you really have exhausted your options.
- Try buying a book on SEO and/or marketing.
- Perhaps hire an SEO consultant and pay them the $299 you were going to pay Yahoo.
- Find cheaper directories to list your site
- Place ads in the classified of community/special-interest newspapers