According to a statement from Yahoo, they will soon no longer be offering paid inclusion:
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. 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.
The search engine has announced that their paid inclusion program will come to an end at the end of this year. Partners have been informed already, and the change was confirmed by a Yahoo representative at the iProspect/Range Online Media Client Summit
The controversy over paid inclusion has long made people look suspiciously at Yahoo; former Ask.com CEO Jim Lanzone said accepting money for inclusion in ‘organic’ search results was “hypocritical”.
Those trying to access Yahoo’s paid inclusion page are now redirected to advertising.yahoo.com. The “Search Submit Basic” program with an annual fee for each URL and the “Search Submit Pro” cost-per-click program will both be discontinued as of Dec. 31, 2009.
Tags: inclusion, paid search, Yahoo