I’m very skeptical but, all other consideerations aside, if a paid inclusion ranks ahead of you, it affects your position, right?

And the company line is that inclusions are ranked base on their merits.

But what determines the merit of a paid inclusion? The title and description of the inclusion or the content of the page it points to? If something like this is what determines your ranking:

“Star Wars Party Supplies
Star Wars Party Supplies - Find your Star Wars Party Supplies at Birthday Express today.”

And you don’t have to worry about inlinks, actual content on the page, etc. then a paid inclusion haas a tremendous advantage when compared to an actual web page.

All we’re doing is pointing out some apparent inconsistencies in Yahoo’s statements and actions. If you can explain them away, I’m willing to listen.

Finally, even if there is no affect on position. These are paid ads and the person clicking on the link should be made aware of that.

I realize Yahoo says that it doesn’t but you’ll excuse us won’t you, if we’re a bit skeptical?

People inrolled in the program are not buying a certain position either. I have had clients in the Paid Inclusion service and then cancelled it. After cancelling, there was no drop in rankings which showed us that paid inclusion was not necessary as it just adds on a click cost to a ranking that you would have already had.