Yahoo have given notice that they intend to drop their Paid Inclusion program, now known as Search Submit Pro. As of 31 December 2009 this, always controversial, option will cease to be available.
Paid inclusion has always been a controversial issue. The ability to pay for a listing in the natural search results has, for some, reduced the value of the Yahoo search engine. To a great extent this opinion has stuck. Despite Yahoo affirming that Paid Inclusion only guaranteed a listing, as opposed to a better rank, many in the SEO industry remained unimpressed.
The effect of this move will be significant. For Yahoo, Paid Inclusion was not a big earner, being worth around $100M a year. However a significant number of advertisers and agencies will be affected by the change and will need to adapt their strategies accordingly.
The SEO industry will welcome this move. It is widely considered that Yahoo produces highly relevant search results, often better than those returned by the other main search engines. Absorb’s brief in-house investigation using the BlindSearch tool backed this belief. However the paid nature of some listings has always cast doubt over these results. By freeing itself from the controversy of Paid Inclusion Yahoo will remove this doubt. Whether that leads to greater market-share remains to be seen.
Posted: October 19, 2009 @ 4:45 am