October 16, 2009

Yahoo! Dropping Paid Inclusion Program at End of Year

Yahoo! has announced that it's nixing its paid inclusion program. The program has allowed websites to be submitted to Yahoo!'s search engine by ponying up some moolah. The submissions led to inclusion in the organic listings as the program is separate from Yahoo!'s Sponsored Results. Yahoo! has been criticized for its paid inclusion program, since the sites who do pay and those who don't are mixed in together.

Yahoo! provided a statement on the cancellation of the program:

We are committing our resources and efforts to our core areas of focus, including improving the search experience and relevancy of our ads to increase user engagement and ROI for advertisers, and as a result, have decided to exit Search Submit (see definition above). We have stepped up innovation in Search Marketing, recently rolling out search retargeting, Rich Ads in Search and improved matching technology, and in Consumer Search, with enhancements like the new search results page. These enhancements deliver value, control, innovation and relevance to our advertisers, leading to increased ROI. Yahoo! will exit Search Submit at the end of 2009. Yahoo! is providing those advertisers affected by the decision a sufficient lead time to assist in the transition. In addition, Yahoo! has recently announced a series of important enhancements to its Search advertising business and will work closely with many Search Submit advertisers to provide them with search solutions that will benefit their businesses.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

June 13, 2008

Jerry Yang Opens Up About Google Deal, Keeping Yahoo Independent

Jerry Yang has opened up about the non-exclusive search advertising deal with Google with a post over at the Yahoo! Anecdotal blog.

Yang started off by writing, "It's no longer a rumor." Considering Yahoo! issued a press release regarding a test of Adsense last April, I'm not sure rumor is the right word here, but let's move on.

Yang justified the deal by saying the move is part of Yahoo!'s open strategy:

"WebMD sells their audiences on Yahoo!, Yelp can customize how their local search results appear using Search Monkey, advertisers and publishers will buy and sell in an open marketplace with our upcoming AMP! from Yahoo!, and we're now opening our paid search results to Google."

Then, Yang offered assurance that Yahoo! wasn't exiting the paid search biz, but is instead positioning themselves better within the marketplace:

"As search and display continue their convergence, it puts Yahoo! in a better position to innovate and compete aggressively with Google and others for ad dollars."

One sentence stood out above all the rest.

"An independent search business is critical to our future."

Shareholders could grab onto that statement as a sign that Yang was never interested in selling to Microsoft, something Carl Icahn has been saying as part of his proxy board campaign.

Google also wants an independent Yahoo, per statements by CEO Eric Schmidt earlier this week. Though, we would assume that's for different reasons.

Of course, in order to make money from this deal, Yahoo needs to get eyeballs to their site and searches need to be conducted. But their numbers are falling in U.S. search queries, so they're going to have to do a lot more than a Google deal to save themselves.

Yang seems to understand this, "It is, of course, just one step. We'll continue to look at all of our alternatives to advance our strategies and enhance growth and profitability." But he doesn't have much time to prove himself before the August 1 shareholder meeting.

What do you think about Yang's statements? Is comparing Google to WebMd and Yelp like comparing apples and oranges? Did his blog help or hurt him with shareholders? Sound off in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 28, 2005

Yahoo Paid Inclusion Redirection & Hijacking Confusion

Paid Inclusion Making Yahoo Results Seem Hijacked? looks at the confusing situation one of our forum moderators Jeff Martin found when looking at some listings in Yahoo. They redirected through Business.com until winding up at sites that had nothing to do with that B2B search engine. Jeff also describes more here. What's up? I posted my thoughts in the forum thread. To me, it looks like Yahoo is taking a paid inclusion feed from Business.com -- hence why the click redirects through Business.com before hitting the destination sites. In other words, buy some listings in Business.com, and those are distributed also through Yahoo. That's a long-time tactic. LookSmart long did the same.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:33 AM | Permalink

July 6, 2005

Benefits Versus Reality Of Yahoo Paid Inclusion Pitch

The mixed messages of paid inclusion are still a hot point with me, even though I feel the issue has largely diminished for many others. So, it was nice to see Yahoo Paid Inclusion: Is this Story Authentic? from Andrew Goodman over at Traffick looking at the issue. He does a compare and contrast of "benefits" versus the "reality" for search marketers that don't leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. See also from me Yahoo Reawakens The Paid Inclusion Debate, The Paid Inclusion Dinosaur and Going Beyond FTC Paid Inclusion Disclosure Guidelines from last year and The Mixed Message Of Paid Inclusion from 2002.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 3:30 PM | Permalink

April 18, 2005

Overture Becomes Yahoo Search Marketing & Comparing Listing Products At Yahoo To Google

The rebranding promised in March has happened. Overture has officially become Yahoo Search Marketing, marked by the launch of a new Yahoo Search Marketing site that lists all of Yahoo's search-related listing products.

It's a good change that ought to help new advertisers. Rather than having to explain that they need to buy "Overture" to be on Yahoo, Yahoo can now direct them to a site that retains its branding.

But with rebranding can come confusion, so I thought it would be helpful to look at all the products listed at the new site and also compare them to Google products. In particular, an email I got from a reader prompted the idea:

I am trying to find the "comparable" Yahoo program to Google AdWords. Since their rebranding of Overture last week, I'm still looking unsuccessfully for something like Precision Match, but it looks as if the program has been axed?

We've been using Google AdWords since it launched and are very happy with the format and back office (most of all the results). Is Yahoo offering a similar program? Honestly, I've read about their "Sponsored Search" and it's simply not obvious.

Meanwhile at our Search Engine Watch forums, a thread on the rebranding shows similar confusion:

I thought Overture was being renamed to Yahoo Search Marketing, but this page boasts a range of products, including Shopping, Travel, Directory, PPI & Overture (sponsored search).

The chart below gives you a side-by-side look at all the products listed on the new Yahoo site, along with some other listings areas that I thought made sense to add. If you're a Search Engine Watch member, see this extended post that provides commentary and additional advice and information about each listing area.

Listing Type Yahoo Google Web Search Listings Yahoo Submit Your Site Add Your URL To Google Web Search Paid Inclusion Search Submit Express & Search Submit Pro n/a (but advertisers can get listing support) Search Ads (Paid Placement) Sponsored Search AdWords (search targeted) Contextual Ads Content Match AdWords (content-targeted; AdSense is name for PUBLISHER program) Shopping Listings Product Submit Froogle Feed (free) Travel Listings Travel Submit n/a Directory Listings Directory Submit ODP Submit Local Search Ads Local Sponsored Search AdWords Regional & Local Targeting Local Search Listings Local Enhanced Listings & Local Listings (free) Google Local Business Center News Listings Yahoo News Submissions Google News Source Suggestion

Want to discuss the change from Overture to Yahoo? Visit our forum thread, Yahoo! Search Marketing is Released. Also check out Yahoo To Buy Overture for background on Yahoo buying Overture back in 2003, GoTo Makes Overture To New Name for the last rebranding Overture went through, that of losing it original name of GoTo back in 2001 and GoTo Sells Positions, about GoTo's launch in 1998.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:48 AM | Permalink

December 8, 2004

Yahoo Offers Content Inclusion for Local Businesses

Yahoo quietly took the wraps off a new program today that provides U.S. based businesses with tools to modify or enhance their listings in Yahoo Local. Yahoo already has more than 15 million "basic" listings that it has compiled by crawling the web and pulling in data from feeds and other business information providers.

Today's SearchDay article, Yahoo Bolsters Local Search Business Listings, describes the new program. Businesses have the option of modifying a basic listing at no charge, or adding additional information, photos and links to promotional pages through an "enhanced" listing that costs just $9.95 a month--a steal compared with what yellow pages charge for even simple enhancements such as boldface listings.

Also of note: Unlike Yahoo's controversial Site Match paid inclusion program, which has both a fixed annual fee for inclusion as well as a cost per click fee, the new enhanced business listings program is a "pure" paid inclusion program with no CPC charges. All of this adds up to making participation in the program a no-brainer for virtually all U.S. businesses.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 1:00 AM | Permalink

October 4, 2004

Yahoo Paid Inclusion Can Be A Bargain

Fredrick Marckini looks out how paid inclusion on Yahoo can bring in traffic more cheaply than paid placement through Yahoo-owned Overture, in some cases: Paid Inclusion Beats PPC in Many Markets, from ClickZ.

Of course, it's also cheaper because the traffic is less predictable. You don't know if you'll actually show up for a term. If you do, you could be anywhere in the listings, rather than near the top. That potentially mean less traffic than with paid placement.

On the flipside, paid inclusion ironically is a paid route into the free or "natural search" results that searches are more likely to click on, as the article notes. That could mean more traffic for you, in some cases.

For the many issues paid inclusion raises, see my past article: Going Beyond FTC Paid Inclusion Disclosure Guidelines.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

See More Posts From:

This Week | This Month

Legal Notices, Licensing, Reprints & Permissions

Privacy Policy
Affiliates

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-564586-7"); pageTracker._setDomainName(".searchenginewatch.com"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); window.collarity_appid = "incmedia"; //> //>

Top Jobs

more Jobs