If I check in at my sushi joint, am I going to affect their rankings, and end up in a crowded sushi dive?
-
In answering a question, I got to pondering something: When we check in with an app like a Yelp, does that affect the rankings? In other words, is more and more check in activity (assume without leaving any review first) going to have an effect like more and more click throughs? Has anyone done any type of study or measure of this? Thoughts? Ideas?
Interesting, Thanks,
Robert
-
Wait...doesn't EVERYONE read about SEO for fun???
Heh-heh!
Glad that was a good find for you, Robert!
Miriam
-
Damn Miriam,
What do you do for fun...read SEO?!?!?! Thanks, you always find the gems.
Robert -
Hi Robert,
Funny topic, and a good one!
Chris Silver Smith wrote a good post on this last year, in which he states:
It may not ever be possible to know for certain if Google is using quantitative check-in data for calculating rankings along with all of their other factors. As Danny Sullivan has noted before about this kind of data, "correlation isn't causation“.
I think you'll enjoy this piece, Robert:
http://searchengineland.com/are-check-ins-a-local-ranking-factor-112222
I've not seen anything more recently than this that made me feel anything has changed since Chris wrote that, so hopefully, it will be a good read for you about the current feelings on check-ins. Hope you're having a good weekend!
-
Loved your point re alpha and strange UI.
It all is something to ponder though. Thanks
-
The phasing made me chuckle...
Holding the obvious impact of normal conversations on marketing aside, one would guess higher positive social interactions would lead to a higher profile.
It wouldn't be a smart business strategy of these sites to not allow people to find hot spots but just continue to order by an arbitrary string of letters. (when you think about it, alphabetical order is really strange UI )
Given scheme.org has clear mark up for ratings, I would further assume this would impact the SERPs, particularly in that location. This requires that the SE can see the data and that the site has sufficient trust/authority )
Testing this would be tricky however since you are talking about brick and mortar places. It would be pretty elaborate and potential cruel to try making a fake restaurant out rank a real one. I would expect checkins from a single account would have limited effect or people would be gaming their listings.
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 rank Pinterest pins?
Hi, As I see it, Pinterest is a search engine. Does anyone have any tips on maximizing reach? Are there any resources that will help? Thanks in advance
Social Media | | SolveWebMedia0 -
How would you increase rankings if you were in charge of the SEO for this site
Hello, For the site nlpca.com How would you get them to the #2 spot for "NLP" and the #2 spot for "NLP Training" They won't do link building due to reputation in the industry. They're open to Google+ and the +1 button. They are willing to add stellar targeted authoritative content. They're adding a blog and comprehensive "What is NLP?" article. They are a "Top 5" authority in the field. Thanks.
Social Media | | BobGW0 -
Anyone seen REAL proof that White Hat & Social Signals leads to rankings ?
Trying to be a good, clean SEO, I have been spending the last two and a half years focusing a lot on building up solid social communities on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest and YouTube. Back when I began doing this, I believed that old school link-building was on its way out, and that, to stay on the 'clean', White Hat side of Google, social was the way to go for future success in organic search. But my main competitor is STILL buying links left and right, and has absolutely no social media following...and he's kicking my butt more and more in the rankings. And I seem to be losing out with my strategy. So I would really like to know: have any of you experienced proof, first hand, that you can win with SEO by focusing on social signals, and by letting NATURAL, earned links pretty much take care of themselves, by trying to create good content? Because I am FRUSTRATED. I thought I was being one of the good guys. I thought I was going the safer, risk-free way to success. And I knew it would take me longer to become successful this way...but it's been YEARS now, and I still don't see any signs of it happening any time soon !
Social Media | | masterfish1 -
How to Benefit from Author Rank if You Have Expert Interviews
We have several interviews with industry experts on our site. How do we get the benefits from Author Rank? If I link to the interviewee's Google Plus profile, will Google recognize that they contributed to the site. Or do I need to get them to add our site to their contributor section on their Google Plus profile to receive any Author Rank benefits? (I know Author Rank is not believed to be affecting rankings yet). Thanks!
Social Media | | ProjectLabs0 -
Does Traffic help improve my page rank?
I've learned many things to do to improve my page rank over the past several months (thanks, seomoz). Our website, www.farnorthkennel.com, has improved greatly thanks to your help. Here's my question. I have 13000 fans on FB. If they all read a blog post I put up, does this help my page rank? Does new visitors hitting up my website make the Google gods smile upon me?
Social Media | | Joshlaska0 -
Is social media going to be the king of SEO?
Hi, Bit of a discussion really, every article out at the moment talking about SEO mentions how Social Media will take over in 2013. Is this really the case, should every SEO be focusing a large amount of time of Social Media? Far as im concerned I do a few things, try and build the social lists on different networks such as Facebook & Twitter also trying to get the list to engage with my posts and secondly social sharing from onsite content. Thats it at the moment.
Social Media | | activitysuper0 -
Will becoming a YouTube partner get me higher rankings on the site?
One of the branded channels I run has been offered to be apart of YouTube's Partnership program. Trick is - I don't necessarily want to see ads pop up for my videos, as I imagine the revenue is fairly small. I would be wiling to join the program if there is evidence that joining the program helps our rankings on YouTube. I imagine it may - as YouTube likely would give preference for partnered channels, partly due to ad/revenue opportunities for them, and partly because partners have obviously proven to have better content. What do you guys recommend?
Social Media | | iinuser0 -
How Social media can help rankings?
How Social media can help rankings? what is popular networks to the curent date?
Social Media | | DiamondJewelryEmpire0