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
-
Partner outranking main site in local
I've been working on local for a client, and it looks like the partner's name and one review is outranking the firm name and it's 20 reviews. The firm's GMB profile is better, but they're still buried. Any advice?
Image & Video Optimization | | julie-getonthemap1 -
Do putting all keywords in a sentence affect seo?
Hi for example i wrote some content for my front page and putting all key words in one paragraph for example phone case, phone x, phone life, phone battery, phone charger. does it affect my seo by putting all these keywords in one sentence?
Image & Video Optimization | | andzon1 -
Local SEO Question: Domain Wide Vs Specific Page
Hey Moz Community, Question about Local SEO authority and how it applies to a domain vs. landing page. Let me elaborate... Company is launching a new local out reach sales channel and merging it with our inbound sales channel under one brand. The plan thus far is to create a targeted landing page for local customers/leads. I have been tasked with creating the written content and making sure we are optimized as much as possible for this landing page to show up for our city. Funny enough for a lot of relevant terms we are already in the top 10 with little optimization (Also due to low competition for most of these terms) Two questions: 1. Should the whole site be optimized for local - appropriate schema markup, G+ business local set up, contact page with correct address formatting, building citations/local links etc.? To accompany our targeted page? 2. Will taking a local first initiative hurt reaching our non-local target market? If so will a very targeted landing page for local customers do the trick minus rest of local optimizations ? I guess what the question really boils down to is will optimizing for local hurt our broader inbound search reach/ranks in the long run? I want to be sure we are competitive to our broader audience and local audience on the same site with trying to get into sub-domains or considering re branding what is essentially the same department but for local purposes. Responses and sharing previous experience would be greatly appreciated 🙂
Image & Video Optimization | | paul-bold0 -
Local.com
Hey guys! Is there any way to edit a business listing, for the first time, on local.com without paying Yext?!
Image & Video Optimization | | AmberRobinson0 -
Local SEO Issue: Google Places Listing on Page 8
Hello, I'm having an issue with a client's Google Places listing. It's showing on page 8 for one of the main keyword terms but their main site is on page 1. Having looked into competitors' places listings ranking above, I've ruled out the following; lack of citations inconsistent citations incomplete profile incorrect category listing details not matching places landing page incorrect location and any form of keyword stuffing Other places listings ranking above have fewer citations, incomplete profiles, details inconsistent with their main site, one is no longer trading as a business and one has no website! In the past, our client had had two listings simultaneously but we addressed this waaaay back. Is it possible we could still be getting punished? I'm at a bit of a loss otherwise. Any thoughts would be hugely appreciated. Thankyou!
Image & Video Optimization | | jasarrow0 -
Local citations | Local search
What is the best way to find local resources to gain reviews and citations from to help with strengthening your position in Google Places?
Image & Video Optimization | | echo10 -
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 -
Do citations in foreign languages help for local SEO in English?
Hi, All! If you're doing trying to get a foreign site (in English) to rank for local SEO in that country (in English),.do citations in the native language help? Google does seem to know that the business name in English and the foreign language are the same (e.g. if you search in English, it will return some results in the foreign language with the business name in the foreign language bolded). And addresses Google can also tell are the same, as evidenced by Google map searches in both languages pinpointing the same location. So - are citations in the foreign language relevant to help the page rank higher for a local query in English? Any thoughts? Thanks, Aviva
Image & Video Optimization | | debi_zyx0