Research into citation and it's effect on ranking
-
Hi
I'd like to know if there has been any research into citation (brand mentions on external sites) and how it has / hasn't effected ranking, particularly Google Search?
If any body can point me in the right direction, that would be great.
Thanks
-
If your looking for numbers to prove that a text reference to a company on a website causes a site to move up in the SERP, then no I do not believe you will find it.
On the other hand, if you are wondering if a citation on a site causes people to type in a company name in a search box which in turn causes a spike in search traffic, which evidently will cause a movement in the SERP, then yes it does. This is what trending is based on.
Are there numbers to support this? Yes, but those numbers are based on what it is, where the citations are, whether there is a buzz about it, etc, etc,. Every situation will be different and unique.
SEO is about creating more traffic, so in essence if someone reads a post about company XYZ and searches for it by name, there is an increase in traffic.
This is probably not the statistical data you are looking for, and I'd love for someone else to chime in if they have supporting evidence to back up the contrary.
-
Thanks but this still doesn't provide any raw data proving that citation on 3rd party websites actually helps with SEO.
-
Ah ok, thank you for clarifying. What you want to do is watch this SEOMoz webinar by Rand which discusses exactly what you are looking for:
http://www.seomoz.org/webinars/what-signals-could-make-you-a-brand-in-google
-
It's not a local listing but a editorial mention. So for example, if someone interviews you and inserts your company name into the editorial but has no link back to your company website. This is referred as a citation. aka, brand mentions
-
If you are referring to a Google Local Listing you should check out the just released 'Local Search Ranking Factors':
http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml
If you are referring to a standard website, not a local business, if there is not a link to the site, but only a citation, it is hard to say. How is it a citation? Does it have a text link that is not a clickable link?
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
-
SEO for Facebook's search bar?
Hey everyone! Had a quick question for ya'. Does anyone know if there are currently SEO tactics that are in place to help a company's Facebook page rank in their search bar? For example: When I search "Idaho Auctions" into the facebook search bar, there's a multitude of results - ranging from groups, to events, to businesses. How do these get ranked above each other?
Branding | | TaylorRHawkins1 -
Brand Search Results- how do you make sure spammy links don't hurt your brand
We are seeing a spammer start ranking #4 for our branded search result on google. This could potentially be hurting our brand. Any suggestions that have worked for you recently? For more context we already have: Create Social profiles (Linkedin, G+, FB etc) which are engaged and frequently updated Analyzed Domain Authority, Links and recency of the spammy article. The domain and the page authority seems weak, and the spammy article is dated Dec of last year Looked at various posts on http://moz.com/community/q/reputation-management. Thanks in advance!
Branding | | SEMEnthusiast0 -
'The Guardian' Is Moving to a New Domain
'The Guardian' Is Moving to a New Domain according to this article on Mashable - http://mashable.com/2013/05/24/the-guardian-dot-com/ Interested to see all the thoughts from SEOs to see how you would suggest they could implement this correctly, without dropping traffic / rankings etc...
Branding | | Webrevolve0 -
How do I improve the ranking of a site, which already receives huge volumes of traffic?
I have taken over the SEO campaign for one of our largest clients. They already receive over a million visits a year due to the brand itself. However, I'd like to start targeting some new search terms to diversify the incoming visitors. Any advice on this type of situation, beyond traditional SEO best practices? Thanks in advance!
Branding | | underscorelive0 -
What is the weight of .pro domains? Will they rank?
.pro Domains have ben out there for a while but seem to as late started to be adopted. Thoughts and opinions welcome.
Branding | | bozzie3110 -
What's the best strategy for dealing with old ripoff reports that dominate your name rankings?
We are just now starting to work on our site optimization. There are a lot of old ripoff reports and other complaints that surface, specifically around our name search. Our competitors use this commonly and our clients come accross regularly. We have made management changes, and real changes in the business since then, but we don't know the best way to get our positive news to replace old negative news. Any ideas? Specifics would be great. Thanks,
Branding | | JosephFrost0 -
Video's Pros and Cons - YouTube vs My website or both?
This isn't really a question per say, but more of a request for advise. We are in the process of creating videos for our travel website. They are more informational and do not promote any products as such. I am aware of the options, and I am leaning towards creating a pro account with Vimeo so that the videos are available only on our website. The reason for this is so that we can at least get credit for our work, as when they are on you tube, anybody can syndicate the video without linking to our website. I am also aware that there are allot of searches happening on YouTube, and it may be worse if we choose not to upload our videos there as we would loose out on a big audience. it would be GREAT if we had the best of both options. And i had an idea i want to get your opinions on. Create the video and upload onto our website with "lower competitive" title / meta / body. Submit the video on YouTube with a "Higher competitive" keyword / title /meta and description. When someone finds our video, they might search YouTube to avoid linking back and wont find it, (although it is there getting traffic from a similar keyword) Branding is the number 1 objective for these videos, so you tube + many other video sites would be the way to go. However, i would also like our own "private" video blog on our site so that if web masters like the video, we can give them the option of embedding it on there site (like SEOMOZ do it on there whiteboard Fridays) Your comments and suggestions will be muchly appreciated. Greg
Branding | | AndreVanKets0