Is it a good idea to have some backlinks point back to your business listing on the various directories?

[MFC]

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?

[MiriamEllis]

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

[JoshPugh]

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.