Featured citations vs. regular citations
-
Do regular citations have the same impact as featured citations for Google Local? or is it the higher a company is isted the more impact it will have on a google local page?
-
Great! My pleasure, Donnie.
-
Yes this helps thanks again.
-
Hi Donnie,
Okay, I think I get it. Sorry to be slow on the uptake. I believe you saw this page on Yext:
http://www.yext.com/products.html
Yext's PowerListing product is described like this:
PowerListings
Business listing management made simple. Easily add your business
listings to premier local search sites like Yahoo!, Yelp and WhitePages.It then goes on to list 9 directories for which they are charging you a certain amount and 30+ directories for which there is no price listed. I found the setup of this page to be very vague, so in the spirit of offering you a really clear answer, I actually phoned Yext just now and spoke with John, a Senior Account Manager.
As I understand it, you've got 2 options with Yelp. You can purchase the $499 deal which will apparently give you enhanced listings in a variety of directories. He described these enhanced listings as ones that you could purchase yourself from the listed companies, but the benefit is central management of all + a quoted 50% cost savings from what you'd be charged if you made direct purchases of the enhanced listings.
Alternatively, you can purchase the Emerging Package from Yext which costs much less and which consists of listings in all the non-priced directories on that page I've linked to, plus you can choose a la carte enhanced listings with from the priced directories, but will be charged the retail price for these. Again, the benefit here is central management.
Now, here's something nice. John asked me to let you know that if you would like to talk to him directly, call him at (917) 210-6709 and he will not only be happy to answer your questions, but he will also give you a discount if you decide to sign up. How about that?
But, to return to your basic question, Donnie - will having an enhanced listing in a 3rd party directory positively influence your Google Local rank more than a free listing? You know, I would be very surprised if this is the case. I have seen no studies to indicate this, but I can't answer this with 100% certainty. So, my approach to purchasing Yext's service would be that managing the listings would be easier and that quoted 50% discount off the list price for enhanced listings would intrigue me if my clients wanted enhanced advertising. My clients are, for the most part, too strictly budgeted to warrant this, so that's a factor.
Hope this helps!
Miriam
-
I don't think being placed higher on third-party directories via paid listings will boost your ranking on Places. As long as your NAP is consistent and crawlable on directories, then this is best practice. A free listing is just as helpful to your local efforts as a premium listing.
However, paying for a listing on a local chamber of commerce or industry-related directory might have more impact. Finding and obtaining listings from directories that are local and relevant to you is key for having the most impact on your google local page.
-
Yes we are making good talk I was under the impression that when I sign up for Yext they automatically get me featured listings in all those directories... Why would anyone pay $450 for a couple hours of work? crazy... Anyways, if I did manually submit everywhere and decid to get featured in a few directories, would being listed higher on these pages help with Google Local efforts?
Again thank you very much, you are awesome!
-
Hey Donnie,
We're have a good chat today, aren't we? So, now, I'm still trying to understand your intent here. You can't get free listings via Yext. You have to pay for them as Yext's service is a paid service. I just know I'm not catching your meaning here. Do you have an example to share of an offer you've seen or something like that?
Maybe what you mean is...is there any ranking benefit to paying Yext to get your citations vs. you getting them for yourself, manually. If so, my answer would be: not that I've ever heard of. On an agency level, tools like Yext's are time savers and thus valued, but I still believe that manual citation development is the best way to have the most control over what you are doing.
-
Hi again Miriam
I was referring to a regular free listing vs. a premium listing. If I were to use Yext for all my local citations I would get premium listings... Would these listings have a higher impact on my Google Local efforts?
-
Hi Derek,
Possibly, that is what Donnie means. Thanks for chiming in and we'll have to see what he says when he returns. I'm actually wondering if he means citations from certain sources over others, or something like that. We'll see.
-
I was thinking the "featured" listings meant the paid listings on directories like Yelp and YP.com
-
Hi Donnie, Can you please define the term 'featured citation'? This is not one I've ever come across. Please describe what you mean by regular and featured citations and I'll be happy to share anything I know.
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
-
How to Evaluate Original Domain Authority vs. Recent 'HTTPS' Duplicate for Potential Domain Migration?
Hello Everyone, So our site has used ‘http’ for the domain since the start. Everything has been set up for this structure and Google is only indexing these pages. Just recently a second version was created on ‘httpS’. We know having both up is the worst case scenario but now that both are up is it worth just switching over or would the original domain authority warrant just keeping it on ‘http’ and redirecting the ‘httpS’ version? Assuming speed and other elements wouldn’t be an issue and it's done correctly. Our thought was if we could do this quickly it would be easier to just redirect the ‘httpS’ version but was not sure if the Pros of ‘httpS’ would be worth the resources. Any help or insight would be appreciated. Please let us know if there are any further details we could provide that might help. Looking forward to hearing from all of you! Thank you in advance for the help. Best,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Ben-R1 -
Sub-domain vs Root domain
I have recently taken over a website (website A) that has a domain authority of 33/100 and is linked to from 39 root domains. I have not yet selected any keywords to target so am currently unsure of ranking positions. However, website A is for a division of a company that has its own separate website (website B) which has a domain authority of 58/100 and over 1000 legitimate linking root domains. I have the option of moving website A to a sub-domain of website B. I also have the option of having website B provide a followed link to website A. So, my question is, for SEO purposes, is my website better off remaining on its own existing domain or is it likely to rank higher as a sub-domain of website B? I am sure there are pros and cons for both options but some opinions would be much appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BallyhooLtd0 -
Ecommerce: A product in multiple categories with a canonical to create a ‘cluster’ in one primary category Vs. a single listing at root level with dynamic breadcrumb.
OK – bear with me on this… I am working on some pretty large ecommerce websites (50,000 + products) where it is appropriate for some individual products to be placed within multiple categories / sub-categories. For example, a Red Polo T-shirt could be placed within: Men’s > T-shirts >
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AbsoluteDesign
Men’s > T-shirts > Red T-shirts
Men’s > T-shirts > Polo T-shirts
Men’s > Sale > T-shirts
Etc. We’re getting great organic results for our general T-shirt page (for example) by clustering creative content within its structure – Top 10 tips on wearing a t-shirt (obviously not, but you get the idea). My instinct tells me to replicate this with products too. So, of all the location mentioned above, make sure all polo shirts (no matter what colour) have a canonical set within Men’s > T-shirts > Polo T-shirts. The presumption is that this will help build the authority of the Polo T-shirts page – this obviously presumes “Polo Shirts” get more search volume than “Red T-shirts”. My presumption why this is the best option is because it is very difficult to manage, particularly with a large inventory. And, from experience, taking the time and being meticulous when it comes to SEO is the only way to achieve success. From an administration point of view, it is a lot easier to have all product URLs at the root level and develop a dynamic breadcrumb trail – so all roads can lead to that one instance of the product. There's No need for canonicals; no need for ecommerce managers to remember which primary category to assign product types to; keeping everything at root level also means there no reason to worry about redirects if product move from sub-category to sub-category etc. What do you think is the best approach? Do 1000s of canonicals and redirect look ‘messy’ to a search engine overtime? Any thoughts and insights greatly received.0 -
HTTPS entire domain Vs. one URL
Long time no Moz! Ive been away with some server related issues, installing an AD at the company I work for, but I'm back. Our SSL cert just expired and I'm trying to determine the pros and cons of making an entire site SSL vs just the URL. Our previous set up was just a single domain. I know Google has hinted toward SSL preference, and I know its a little early to know for certain how much that's going to help, but I just wanted to know what everybody thought? It expired yesterday, so I have to do something. And we lost our previous credentials so I can't just renew the old one. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | HashtagHustler0 -
Better to publish regular new pricelist articles or update the existing ones ?
Hello Moooooooooooooz ! I could not sleep yesterday because of a SEO nightmare ! So I came up with the following question: "Is it better to release regular new articles or update the existing ones" I explain more. Our company release regular pricelists (every month new pricelists available for a month, with the same brands. ex: January pricelist for brand A, etc.) Right now those pricelists are ranking good on google. So I wondered: Would it better to do: Make the pricelist articles stronger: Our company - Brand A pricelist (title) blog/offer/brand-A-pricelist.html (url) -> every month I update the text. So I just have one article /link to work on **Make more content on the pricelist: **Our company - Brand A pricelist - January 2014 (title) blog/offer/brand-A-pricelist-january.html (url) -> So google keeps indexing new fresh content **Work on a extra category: **Our company - Brand A pricelist - January 2014 (title) blog/offer/brand-A/pricelist-january.html (url) -> So I work on one link over the web blog/offer/brand-A where Google finds lots of new relevant contents I know that Matt Cutts said it's good to udpate an old article but in this case it's a bit different. Has anyone experiment the same ? Tks a lot !
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AymanH0 -
Subdomain blog vs. subfolder blog in 2013
So I've read the posts here: http://moz.com/community/q/subdomain-blog-vs-subfolder-blog-in-2013 and many others, Matt Cutts video, etc. Does anyone have direct experience that its still best practice to use the sub folder? (hopefully a moz employee can chime in?) I have a client looking to use hubspot. They are preaching with the Matt Cutts video. I'm in charge of SEO / marketing and am at odds with them now. I'd like to present the client with more info than "in my experience in the past I've seen subdirectories work." Any help? Articles? etc?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | no6thgear0 -
Canonical tag vs 301 in this Panda situation - trying to wrap my brain around this!
Here's the situation. Let's say you have a development site that was created on a subdomain such as examplesite.webdesign.com. When the new site, examplesite.com launches, the developer forgot to remove examplesite.webdesign.com from the index. As such, two copies of the site exist. Because the development site existed first, examplesite.com ends up being affected by Panda and drops out of the search results. As a result only the development site is visible on Google searches. I've been trying to wrap my head around whether using canonical tags or 301 redirects would be best. On one hand you could insert a canonical tag on each page of the subdomain to tell Google that the correct version to index is examplesite.com. On the other hand you could do a 301 redirect from every page of the development site to to examplesite.com. Now, here's where it gets complicated. Because the new site has been flagged as a Panda site, in either case will it need to see a Panda refresh in order to be included in the index?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MarieHaynes0 -
Site Architecture: Cross Linking vs. Siloing
I'm curious to know what other mozzers think about silo's... Can we first all agree that a flat site architecture is the best practice? Relevant pages should be grouped together. Shorter, broader and (usually) therefore higher volume keywords should be towards the top of each category. Navigation should flow from general to specific. Agreed? As Google say's on page 10 of their SEO Starter Guide, "you should think about how visitors will go from a general page (your root page) to a page containing more specific content ." OK, we all agree so far, right? Great! Enter my question: Bruce Clay (among others) seem to recommend siloing as a best practice. While Richard Baxter (and many others @ SEOmoz), seem to view silos as a problem. Me? I've practiced (relevant) internal cross linking, and have intentionally avoided siloing in almost all cases. What about you? Is there a time and place to use silos? If so, when and where? If not, how do we rectify the seemingly huge differences of opinions between expert folks such as Baxter and Clay?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DonnieCooper7