Local SEO: Links with the citations so should I slow down?
-
Hello,
There seems to be some nofollow and dofollow links building as I add structured citations.
Is this a reason to slow down the building citation process if you want the links to count? Do they help organic SEO?
-
Awesome! Very useful information from Mr. Shaw.
-
Hey Again Bob,
Happily, I was able to catch Darren almost immediately. I have his permission to quote his replies on this topic. Very fascinating stuff here, I'm sure everyone will agree!
"Citation velocity isn't an issue. If I build 100 citations today, they will "go live" on the various sites at all different rates. 10 might get posted same day, some within a week, others within a few weeks, and others with months (or even years). So, citation throttling is naturally built in to the citation building process. I don't believe Google is measuring citation velocity as a positive or negative factor, but, the links can hurt you if you get too many at once.I have seen a case where one citation submission on one site spread to listings on THOUSANDS of other domains within the same business listings network. Rankings tanked.
"It's important to make sure you're submitting to quality sources. See: http://www.whitespark.ca/blog/post/12-how-to-identify-quality-citation-sources
"I think it's only a concern if you're not careful with the quality of the sources you're submitting to. You can only cause damage if you hit a site like the one I identified (it's a very nasty negative SEO source that I don't want to reveal). Building citations at 20, 30, 50, even 100 per day is no problem in my opinion because of the natural spread of when these listings go live."
Great feedback from Darren, no? I learned something today! I always learn something new whenever I talk to Darren and I appreciate the time he took to share his take on this with me. If anyone knows citations inside and out, it's Mr. Shaw!
-
Hey Bob,
I think you raise an interesting point, given that many citations do contain links and velocity of linkbuilding does play a part in Organic SEO. No one is citing this as problematic, in my experience, in the Local SEO sphere, but this doesn't mean there is no chance it has any effect. As you are using Darren's tool, why don't I give Darren a shout-out to get his expert opinion on this topic? I'll return with an update if Darren will be so good as to reply.
-
Bob,
Thanks for the feedback! I hope you find great success in local SEO! One side note is that services like Yext will submit 40+ instantaneously with no harmful effects. That's just an interesting data point since if you're doing them by hand there's no way you could ever do that In the same amount of time!
Yes, building citations is not the most exciting task in the world. However a lot of times you will see the added benefit of gaining new customers through the other sites where your business is listed. Good luck and keep the data consistent.
-
Thanks Casey,
I think it's time to let the citations play out for a while. I'm glad you think it's OK so far. I am using Roboform and your post.
I feel like I'm doing directory submission. I bet the time will come when the algorithm changes to something not so easy to do.
-
I'm just using Whitespark
It's bobweikel.com
It's the first SEO besides content I've done for the site.
I'll spend some time auditing the competition. That will be simple in my case.
Let me know what a good round number of Whitespark-found citations would be for a new non-SEOed site. I can work on nofollow blog commenting and guest posting for now or I'll see what my analysis turns up.
-
The new NAP is actually NAP+W (W meaning website). That's what they're teaching at local U Advanced and I agree. Basically wherever you have a citation you should try to get a link. Everywhere you have a link you can also try to get a citation.
Many citation sources will give you a no follow link but having a mixture of follow and no follow links is natural and good. When you add these citations it may take a while for them to get indexed too. Many of these directories are huge and put your listing deep within them. Long story short... If you are building citations manually (even using the Roboform method in my Moz Post to speed it up) you should have nothing to worry about.
You will be surprised to see how long some citations take to get indexed and then how long they will take to help you. Don't forget to submit your listing to the major data aggregates like Axciom, Localeze, Infogroup etc.
-
I think that's a little too much. Slow down. Revisit your link profile. Do a complete audit for yourself and the competition. See what you really need. Revisit your On-page and then fill the gaps. That's a little too many unless you are talking about an authority site/brand with considerable customer base, traffic, audience to justify this as natural. Are these all same kinds of links/citations ? Blogs/Blog comments/articles/press releases/guest posts etc etc ?
-
Thanks Nakul,
Maybe 10-20 citations a day for one site.
-
Thanks Chris,
So this isn't link building as well, the links won't help organic SEO and might not even be discovered if I understand you correctly
-
As long as you are not over doing any one specific kind of link building, I won't worry. A good mix is natural. Don't bother too much if there are certain citations, follow, nofollow. It's the normal nature of the web.
As Chris said, How many citations are you adding in what period of time?
-
My take on citations for local search is that they're dealt with by an algorithm other than the organic algorithm, one which looks to verify the correctness of the NAP and qualify the sites upon which the citations are found and that the sites where the citations are found are disregarded by the organic algorithm. So, if citations occur on a bunch of local database sites, like yp.com, for example, and they also come with links, the fact that it's a site dealt with by the Local algorithm means that velocity of links add isn't an issue.
I could be wrong though. I've been wrong before. : (
How many citations are you adding in what period of time?
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
-
I'm not ranking locally.....
Hello, We own the business BIM Fitness and Performance in Fort Myers, FL. However, when we do a search near us, we are down at the very bottom of the page. Can anyone provide some insight as to why this may be? I know SEO is the long game but is there anyway we can at least appear higher up locally?
Image & Video Optimization | | ash.gray0 -
How much can our page title, URL and alt-tag differ without negatively affecting SEO?
We are a bridal store selling wedding dresses and bridesmaids dresses. We are wanting to know how much our URL and page title can differ, whilst still optimising SEO. For example, for the category Wedding Dresses, the URL contains wedding dresses, so can we use " the best wedding dresses in Sydney" in the page title? For the bridesmaid dresses (URL is /bridesmaiddresses/) can we use " buy best bridesmaid dresses online in Australia"? Can we use terms such as "buy best black dress in sydney", "buy online in australia" or "shop online in sydney" in the alt-tag, additional from the page title .i.e. adding extra keywords in the alt-tag that do not appear in the title? Would this be classified as keyword stuffing? In our main categories .e.g. Wedding Dresses, can we add "best wedding dress store", "buy wedding dresses from best wedding store in sydney" in the alt-tag? Thank you.
Image & Video Optimization | | CostumeD0 -
Amount of time for info from local directories to show up in search engines
How long does it typically take for data to start showing up in search engines when you register on local directories and the yellow pages? For example, outside of google and bing, how long would it take for info to show up in the engines if I registered with the services on Get Listed?
Image & Video Optimization | | netlover0 -
A lot more citations than competitors OK?
Is it OK to have 2 times as many citations as competitors? I want to make up for factors such as less reviews.
Image & Video Optimization | | BobGW0 -
NAP - Name on a local website
From a local perspective, if the legal name of the business is "Rising Realty, Inc", when you added in your footer should I loose the "Inc" part to be consistent with all the other mentions of the business across the web, which are without "Inc"? Thank you!
Image & Video Optimization | | echo10 -
Google local listings question
im working with gutter installation company, and we're ranking for all the top keywords in google. the only thing that we're not ranking for is for the map results, for the keyword "gutter ma" since we're located in Springfield ma, i thing Google considers certain areas from Boston, because its more center of Massachusetts, What can i do to improve my rankings in maps for this keyword, because i know it wont work with PO box since i need to confirm an address? Thanks
Image & Video Optimization | | vladraush990 -
Video and SEO
I am planning on placing some short how to videos on my site. My question is what is the best way to implement video. Youtube Vimeo Self Hosted Video How do I ensure that the video can be viewed by all devices if it is self hosted?
Image & Video Optimization | | bronxpad0 -
Video SEO - Youtube vs. 3rd party hosting with Video Sitemap
We need some feedback on the best place to upload videos. Should we be uploading our videos everywhere (YouTube, Metacafe, Vimeo, etc.)? Note: Currently we are using a 3rd party video video hosting solution called Treepodia. Previously we used Wistia. Both host our videos, and submit a Video Sitemap through Webmaster tools. When one of these videos shows up in search results and somebody clicks on it, they are directed back to our website. Are we competing against ourselves if we upload videos to other networks like Youtube, etc. if we are already submitting a Video Sitemap through a 3rd party? I've noticed we rank higher in Google Videos search for our Youtube videos vs. our 3rd party hosted videos. Also, how do Youtube video views tie into this situation... we used to embed videos via Youtube embed code. Now we seem to be missing out on the extra views we were getting by doing so. Ultimate question: host videos through a 3rd party and submit a video sitemap OR host videos on Youtube and embed on our website?
Image & Video Optimization | | tennisexpress0