Adding a Directory to Website
-
Hiya! So we have an odd request and we wanted to see if want we want to do will add any SEO benefit. We operate a printing/design firm in Houston, Texas and have been thinking of adding a directory to our website. It would sit on our top level domain www.website.com/print-directory, it would much be a like a yelp directory listing all the print, design, and bindery shops all across the USA. We want to expand our footprint online and and to boost to our position in other cities. For example Yelp is always the top spot when you search for (CITY) + (PRINTING)/(DESIGN) the yelp directories pull up first. Now... i know why this is with their DA/UR off the charts. We have vendor that will provide all the info/data/images of all businesses in the USA something around 5K business so. The design will mesh with our current design and look seamless with the current design.The idea is that we would populate and optimize all the city pages for all those cities and provide content on each major city. So we can optimize with H tags, keywords and interlink all the other pages plus not to mention we have a great blog section and plan on interlink that throughout website. The catch would be..... is that we would put our listing first, on top of all those other local shops. Maybe we would do this for all of them but maybe a few of our target cities. We would use our addresses and nothing would be faked.
URL Structure www.website.com/print-directory/austin-texas/printshops/ABCPrinter/
Questions
-
Would this confuse Google and cause some issues with our current SERPS? We do very well in our home city and don't want to jeopardize all our hard work. Or real harm or benefit just seems to confusing people?
-
Could we get penalized?
-
Content would be unique (except listing information)
-
-
Properly implemented, curated, and maintained, there's not really a risk of problems with Google. It's just that for 99% of them there's so little-if any-ranking benefit to it, why bother. It's not necessarily great for your brand, either.
-
Thanks for the reply! I agree with you that its a risky proposition and marketing funds could be better used elsewhere. But humor me.... if lets say we have a small listings section of people we recommend or we work with will Google have an issue with this per se?
-
There are LOTS of potholes on that path because it is an extremely well-worn path and many a hopeful implementer have ended up wishing they'd gone another route. Take it from them--spend your time and/or money on building person to person relationships with your local business and figuring out with them how your businesses (and your customers) complement each other and work those relationships into links between your website brands. That's how real businesses do it and that's what the search engines reward. : )
Cheers
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
-
Which directories are relevant for UK
Hi there, I was referred to this community by Moz staff, as I was just wondering if all of the suggested listings in the online presence checker are relevant if you are based in the Uk? Many of them seem to be very much set up for companies based in the states and companies like Foursquare seem almost impossible to list on successfully, with no way to actually contact them. What I have ascertained is that the incorrect information that is revealed by the online checker is not necessarily incorrect it is just the order that Google lists the information over here is different. Lastly I just wondered if there are any drawbacks to using Brightlocal as a citation service, over and above other similar companies? They seem by far the most economical option... Thanks in advance. 🙂
Local Listings | | Frog-Marketing0 -
Should apartment management companies have a separate website for each of their properties?
I work for a company that owns and manages apartments. I would like to know which of the two website design decisions are better from an SEO perspective: One single website that contains pages for all of our apartments. (Example: http://www.equityapartments.com) Separate websites for each apartment and one main corporate website allows users to search through our apartments. (Example: https://www.greystar.com) I have spoken to three marketing companies have all recommended option 2. The best reason I have heard is because then the separate apartments are all more likely to rank. They say Google doesn't want to rank multiple pages of the same website.But Google would still know that I have an administrative relationship between the sites. (Source: https://moz.com/blog/how-google-knows-what-sites-you-control-and-why-it-matters-whiteboard-friday) So I don't know why they would treat multiple sites differently than one site?For what it's worth, it seems the majority of apartment management companies use a different website for each property.So should have a separate website for each of their properties?
Local Listings | | mikleing1 -
Bad Google Reviews - Should I Remove the Map From My Website?
I have a Google map on a website. Currently, there are only two 1-star reviews — which show next to the company name on the map. We added the map for local SEO reasons, but I’m thinking I should take it down because customer experience supersedes local SEO. Why boost search rankings if the content will drive people away from converting? So basically, customer experience > local SEO. Question: Do you all agree, or do any of you have any evidence that I should leave it? For example, it’s below the fold, so it isn’t the first thing they see, and we really need to boost their local SEO.
Local Listings | | BlueCorona1 -
Will using call tracking phone numbers in paid legal directories listing negatively affect our website?
I know it is important to have consistent NAP across directory listings but I would like to gauge the ROI on the paid "premium" listings in legal directories like FindLaw, AVVO and Lawyers.com by using call tracking and recording. Could using different phone #'s in these listings affect our website negatively? Same question for YELP ads (ads only, not organic yelp listing).
Local Listings | | SEO4leagalPA0 -
Would two telephone numbers on a website affect NAP consistency? One is the "actual" business number with Schema, the other is a call tracking number.
Hello! I have two telephone numbers listed on a website - one is the "actual" business number and is utilizing proper schema, while the other is a call tracking number featured more prominently on the site (both in the header and above the "actual" business number in the footer). The code looks like this: New Patients: 999-555-5555 Current Patients: 555-555-5555 Does Google prioritize the "actual" business number because it has the proper schema on it? Or would the call tracking number still be counted and affect NAP consistency for Local SEO? Thanks!
Local Listings | | nowmedia11 -
Is it possible to be penalised by automating directory submissions via Moz local
Hi, I am currently looking at the domain authority of the site that i have linked to Moz local and was wondering if you can be penalised by automating directory submissions and if so how one would recover? Thanks Nick
Local Listings | | SEM_at_Lees0 -
How many directories are too many directories?
Hello Moz World, I wanted to get some perspective on this. How many directories are too many directories to list a website. And what is a good Page Rank for submission. Thanks ahead of time for all of the awesome responses. B/R Will H.
Local Listings | | MarketingChimp101 -
Do business citations (without links) on penalised website have a negative effect?
Hi there I've been doing some research into directory sites that my clients are listed on and noticed that some appear to have flat-lined in organic search traffic indicating a penalty. I would like to know if clients with business citations on these penalised websites (without links to clients websites) will be having a negative effect on SEO? Thanks
Local Listings | | Kerry_Jones0