Factors affecting google places citation indexing
-
I'm sure we have all been there; filling out yellowbook/yahoo/citysearch/merchant circle citations flawlessly, only to wait months and months for google to decide if they're worth 'attaching' to your places listing.
I still believe that the number one factor for getting them to stick is consistensy of information, however my question is what factors affect the speed of 'stickiness'.
I've implemented google alerts and rss feed/link pinging services to get citations from hotfrog and BOTW indexed almost the same day, however after examing the google places listing, I'm not showing them as listed as citations; which leads me to my next point; that google places could possibly have their own 'indexing rules and speed?'
I've heard several suggestions on how to accelerate indexing, and quite a few of them included building backlinks TO these citations to improve pagerank. Do mozzers have any 'foolproof' ways of getting these citations to 'stick' to google places listings within days, or weeks, instead of months?
-
I think he meant to say QDF. Quality Deserves Freshness.
See: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/whiteboard-friday-query-deserves-freshness
-
What is the DQF algorithm?
-
Thank you, i found this quite helpful.
-
I have experience the same as Darren. In my frustration I did a yahoo placement page for $10 a month, with excellent local search results. Well worth the money. Doing a free bing one now.
-
We have been watching this for a while. In our research we have tried linking to the citation sites, and have had little success. There is no doubt that the principles of places ranking are related to, but not the same as normal organic.
Reviews are very helpful, and next to the normal important areas (profile completeness, address and others) I would put reviews as top priority. Not only on Places, but Yahoo, Insider pages, city search, yelp, Angies, and even customer lobby. I am sure there are more. Recently Places started displaying reviews from the Places accounts owners web site. Seems if you use reviews or testimonial in the URL they may pick that up. This may be an attempt on Google's part, to slow down the number of duplicate reviews. (Those with ears , let them hear). <- not sure what I mean, but I have only had one cup of coffee so far.
Look at the simple fact, that you will rarely find a places account on the 2nd or 3rd page of results that have a significant amount of reviews.
We have stopped using the "usually suspects" for citations, as in the last 5 months they seem to have little value. What we do see working is citations on other "local" sites. Not directories, but related local sites. Much harder work, but Google likes it when we work hard for a citation or link... right?
PS- We are not all that large in SEO, just do local clients , so our research is very limited.
-
It would seem to follow logic that Google would count and attach citations from authoritative, trusted sources. It might help to build links to your citations, if that makes sense.
-
Hi Ilya,
It's a common misconception that the only citations that "count" (or stick) are the ones that Google lists on the Place Page. All the local SEOs I know, myself included, consider the citation listing in the Places page to be about as useless as Google's lame link: command. Google doesn't show you all the citations for your business. Doesn't have anything to do with them getting indexed or not.
Search for your business phone number plus the name of the directory in Google. If you see results, your citation is indexed, and you can move on to the rest of your citation building list.
-
Saibose
The authority sites are fairly established in most areas. They're the citygrid sites like merchant circle, citysearch, etc, also yelp, hotfrog, botw. Then there's the secondary yellow pages like superpages.com, yellowbook, angieslist, brownbook.
The question I'm asking is how to get those sources to STICK once you know what they are.
-
sadly, the Google places listing is one place where the DQF algorithm doesnt work. The things that are mainly considered 9when the user is logged in or personalized search is on is: Proximity of listing to the user or the user's query. No of reviews that are attached to the places listing. The amount of detail you have filled. The number of reliable sources where you have reviews for your entity. Now, the "authority" sources are a big question mark and differs based on the nature of listing you have.
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
-
Backlinks not indexed on MOZ
Why our backlinks do not show up? Even GSC shows a good amount of our backlinks and other applications show too. But in the case of MOZ, it still shows 0 backlinks and 0 organic visibility. Don't you guys think this puts a user of your software way behind in terms of competition and real data? If my backlinks will be considered by MOZ, when will it be❓
Link Building | | MariApps0 -
When link building yourself where would you advise are the best places to add links?
Hi I am not having much success with SEO companies so am looking at link building and doing SEO myself. Where would you advise are the best places to add links? Also is it better to add links to specific pages or just to the home page? Thanks in advance
Link Building | | Briggzy0 -
Can being on to many directories cause a penalty from Google?
If a URL is on hundreds of different directories would that be enough for Google to penalize a website?
Link Building | | PageOnePowerGang0 -
Rankings on Google compared to Bing &Yahoo
Does anyone have any information about the differences between the search engines, im ranking #1 on google but only about 3rd or 4th on bing and yahoo. Cheers
Link Building | | eirianprice
EP0 -
Will redirecting 250 linking domains to a new website from an old website freak Google out?
Prior to my accepting a project, the client decided to change the name of their company and purchased a new domain name to match. They hired a designer to build their new company site which has now been up and running for a little under 12 months. Up to this point they have done a good job of slowly redirecting small handfuls of linking domains from the old site to the new. They want to make one last push and point the remaining 250 linking domains from their old site to their new site. Will redirecting 250 linking domains to a new website from an old website freak Google out? If so, how many domains should be redirected at one time? My main concern is not wanting to upset Google and see the floor fall out on current keyword rankings, domain authority and page rank, etc.
Link Building | | 5outhpaw0 -
Do http:// links to a http://www. site count the same to Google?
In terms of links to one's site helping your position on Google, if your site defaults to http://www.example.com (automatically adds "www." even if it isn't typed), does Google count links that appear as http://example.com (without the www.) with the same "weight"? Thanks.
Link Building | | celife0 -
Is there a way to leverage paid advertisements placed in industry specific publications to get SEO benefits?
Is there a way to leverage paid advertisements placed in industry specific publications to get SEO benefits? I am looking to advertise in publications like trade journals or magazines, but want to also reap SEO benefits by getting a link. So I am avoiding buying banner ads, but instead trying to find opportunities for links from editorial mentions, quality article or editorial submissions, etc. Advice on the link proposition, or best way to approach editors, please? Many of these publications are traditional print publications, and their sites are really seo'd. Thanks.
Link Building | | larahill0 -
What is the length for Open Explorer and/or Google to pick up on Blogroll links?
I'm just a little curious about this and thought I would make use of the new Q&A system. This is my first open question. I recently acquired some blogroll links on 3 fairly popular and well trafficked sites, some with more authority and pages than mine (Get Right Music). I was wondering if anyone is familiar with the time frame in which I should start to see that affect my rankings in Google. Also, the time frame when I should start to see those domain links appear in Open Site Explorer. I'm just curious. Thanks everyone. Jesse
Link Building | | getrightmusic0