Is it a good idea to have some backlinks point back to your business listing on the various directories?
-
During my link building campaign Ive been doing competitive research. I noticed that one of my competitors, who ranks very well organically and locally, has several back links pointing back to his business listing page on the various directories, such as Manta, Yellowbot, and so forth. Ive seen one of their profile pages with a PA as high as 65, where mine has a PA of 1. They seem to be heavily involved in spammy and shady techniques. This is why I'm asking if this is a recommended practice?
-
Hello MFC,
Thanks for coming to Q&A with your question. If I've correctly understood your query, you are saying that you are seeing competitors doing linkbuilding to their directory listings. Is this right?
While I can't see a real problem with the idea, I'm also not sure it's a very good use of time/funding. Given that Local is so Google-centric, and that it is the strength of your website which is so big a factor in your rankings, building links to your own property (your website) is likely to be a much better idea than building them to 3rd party sites.
Also, of perhaps relevant interest is this recent discussion regarding building links to one's Google Place Page. I had a discussion with Mike Blumenthal about this, which he subsequently turned into a blog post. I recommend that you read it, including the great discussion below the post:
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/01/24/google-places-myth-linking-to-your-places-page/
Hope this helps!
Miriam
-
I think the crucial factor here is long-term goals over short term benefits. While using some directories such as the ones you listed are showing boosts in SEO for your competition, there is always the chance (and a likely one at that) that they are found for what they are by Google and other search engines.
Because of this, while there is a boost at the moment, it's quite possible that when they are found out to be using "black hat" techniques and subsequently punished for it, the sites they link to will also be punished. This has happened before with link farms and such.
My recommendation therefore would be not to use these, and instead stick to properly monitored and customised link building techniques. Directories are a fantastic resource for incoming links, and there are lots out there that are properly maintained; use them instead and you'll reap long term rewards.
This is a longer road, I understand, however you will be sitting pretty in the long term.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Bloggers Event Back Links
Hi, We are planning to conduct bloggers event for this coming 'Christmas. The purpose of this event would be to build relationship with top bloggers which might helpful so many ways to my website like improve my brand name, increase my social followers, increase my sale and chance to get back links also. Here my question is how Google considered if I get a back links from these types of bloggers event? Please guide me. Here we are not asking any bloggers to link back to my website. If they like they will link to my site. Thanks Satla
Link Building | | TrulyTravel0 -
Lawyer Directories
I am doing some SEO work for a lawyer and I am wondering if there are good legal directories I should be using to help improve SERP's.
Link Building | | kevgrand0 -
Link Requests in Order Confirmation Emails- Still a good idea?
I found this post from Rand from 2008 http://moz.com/blog/headsmacking-tip-1-link-requests-in-order-confirmation-emails 5 years later I'm wondering in a "no-follow" for all unnatural links in the google world we currently live in, is it still a good idea? Also does is really work? or does it annoy the customer? would it be better to use that space to up sell to your customer?
Link Building | | PaddyDisplays0 -
How long it takes to see backlink ?
We are promoting a law related website and I have posted a blog as a guest on a Law related blog which has PR 3 and Alexa Ranking 171.. It's been 3 weeks but when i run a backlink report from OpenExplorer or other tools that i use, i cannot see the link coming through at all. There is no no follow attached. I'd like to continue to post more articles on the same website but i need to make sure i am getting good links from it otherwise i will go somewhere else. However, i need to understand why do i not get links from that blog as it is very reputable and good blog. I appreciate if you can advise please? Thanks!
Link Building | | Rubix0 -
Webcam Listing Sites
Anyone have experience in getting clients' sites listed on webcam-listing sites for SEO purposes? If so, which sites would you recommend? What was your experience? Any tips or tricks? Any pitfalls? Thanks!
Link Building | | DanielFreedman0 -
Outsourced Backlinking?
Hello, I've been newly hired to head up a decent sized company's digital marketing initiatives. Between social media campaigns, web content development, ppc management, etc. I've been a bit overwhelmed. It looks like until my team gets a bit larger we may have to outsource link building, but with the new penguin update I'm worried about choosing the wrong company and ending up with a ton of spam links that gets us nailed. Does anyone happen to have any good recommendations? Thanks!
Link Building | | JFritton0 -
Question on Links from Directories…
Hello,
Link Building | | inhouseninja
When I do an OSE back link analyses of some sites that are listed in some directories we are considering, for almost all the directories and companies in them, the directories are listed in the OSE report, listed as followed, and usually have decent domain rank and page rank. So this means that the link from the directory is obviously being picked up by OSE and it’s listed as a followable link. My question is just because the link is picked up by OSE does that mean that the search engines value it too? Or could Google see the link ok but throw it out of the equation, presumably because it does not “like” the directory? Hope this makes sense
Thanks!0