Is getting listed on local directories useful for an online web site?
-
I recently came across Yext. Seems like a convenient service to get listed on local directories. Why I thought this would be useful are the backlinks, not necessary local searches. Are link juice good enough to justify spending the time to get listed?
And what about getting listed on BBB.org?
-
While I agree in general with what the others have said, I would say that the new MozLocal is worth pursuing for this, at $49/year. Presuming you have your G+ page set up correctly with your business address, a local phone number, etc., it'll take you just a few minutes to make the CSV file and submit it.
-
Given your goal is link acquisition versus gaining exposure and solidifying your presence in your local market, I agree with Miriam that "your efforts would likely be better spent earning links that are relevant to your industry rather than your geography." Directories don't pass along a lot of link juice and Google doesn't value them highly.
I'm also not a fan of the paid directory submission services.
- They're expensive.
- They're time boxed, meaning your listing disappears when you stop paying.
- They're limited in their distribution - not every service hits every directory.
- They don't deal with duplicates.
- You still have to do some of the work anyway - the better directories require manual verification to ensure the requester is an authorized representative of the business.
Whitespark is the exception. They're reasonably priced, get you permanent, quality listings, and because they're manually built listings, they address data inconsistencies and duplicates along the way.
As to the BBB, that's a judgment call and the thread Miriam points out will help you decide which way to go.
-
The only directories that I would pursue are relevant, human-run, curated lists. Ignore those junk directories that accept every submission (paid or not).
Think about it like this. Say I'm a local restaurant. I find a local food reviewer and blogger who publishes a list of his favorite restaurants in my city. I would naturally want to be included in his list because it is authoritative and valuable. I would not want to be included in a junk directory that contains every site in my city.
The more selective that a list or directory is, the more authority that Google is likely to ascribe to it.
-
Hi Huisjames,
Yext and other local submission services are intended for physical businesses rather than virtual ones. They really are not a good fit for location-less businesses and your efforts would likely be better spent earning links that are relevant to your industry rather than your geography.
The BBB is a different story as they do have categories for e-commerce companies. You might like to read this Moz Q&A thread on a similar topic:
http://moz.com/community/q/at-what-point-does-bbb-accreditation-become-a-good-investment
Hope this helps!
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
-
Can anyone recommend an Link building agency that has possibilities to publish article or infographics on very strong travel related sites?
We're looking for an Link building agency. We are looking for possibilities to publish article or infographics on very strong travel related sites.
Image & Video Optimization | | Aftle1984
Can anyone recommend reliable contacts?1 -
Do random listings effect Google Local Rankings?
So my clients business name is "Photojennette Photography" and while researching citations to correct I have found a completely random issue. There's an actress named Jennette McCardy that apparently has a ton of photos on the internet and with that are page titles like "Brand New Photo : Jennette McCardy" and "Look at this Photo Jennette McCardy" My question is, would Google be sending my listing down because of this? It's completely random and has nothing to do with the business. Thanks in advance.
Image & Video Optimization | | jonnyholt0 -
Merging Google+ with Google Local
Greetings Mozzers, I'm having a tough time merging my Google+ page with my Google Local page and wanted to see if anyone could give me some additional information/advice for progressing on this. Google+ Profile: https://plus.google.com/112342618763108384372/about?hl=en Google Local: https://plus.google.com/104995472630988321277/about?gl=us&hl=en Both of them have been verified and "managed" via postcards, however the Local one never seems to get "managed". I look forward to hearing back on any guidance/advice. Much appreciated,
Image & Video Optimization | | MonsterWeb28
Ryan0 -
Duplicate Video within site
My questions is about duplicate video content. I haven't been able to get a clear understanding from reading the previous threads. We are hosting our videos with Vimeo and embedding into our site. I want to embed them in 2 locations - on our features page with Java (Can be seen here http://simpletexting.com/features/). I also want to embed them in our resource section so that we can link to them directly. I am wondering what the best way to do this for SEO and whether there is a chance that google will penalize us for duplicate content? If leave out the videos on the features page in the XML sitemap, does that address the problem? There are 2 threads I saw on the topic and they have somewhat conflicting opinion from the same person. http://www.seomoz.org/q/duplicate-video-content-question --Duplicate video on the same site is not a problem http://www.seomoz.org/q/duplicate-video-onsite-how-do-you-treat-this-in-sitemap -- Duplicate videos are a problem as google can recognize them as such due to audio wave patterns, video length etc. Thanks
Image & Video Optimization | | SimpleTexting0 -
What are you most concerned about or interested in for Local Search?
Hi All, I'm speaking to a local SEO meetup at the end of this month. If you were attending (hypothetically), what would you be most interested in hearing about for local search? The audience is a mix of SEO professionals, web developers, internet marketers, and business owners. I suspect that there will be a number of people who understand the foundations of SEO, though not all of them will be practiced at implementing it. I believe the number of people who get really indepth with Local is quite small. At the moment, I'm thinking about covering things such as: The local search universe in general--which data sources are doing what these days, where it's heading. Google Local+ recent changes Migration to Local+, data cleanup, merging (or not merging!), and other Local+ nuances Current ranking factors, and where I think they're going. I'd love to hear, and greatly appreciate, any ideas you might have. Cheers, Bede
Image & Video Optimization | | BedeFahey0 -
What is the best way to embed a link back to our site in our video embed codes?
Our site has over 100 great videos. We are currently streaming them all from our YouTube channel. I noticed SEOMoz is using http://www.wistia.com and that when I copy and paste a video from SEOMoz that code has a link back to the SEOMoz site in it, which of course is awesome for SEO. My question has several parts: Is this possible to do with an embed code from YouTube? Specifically directed towards SEOMoz: Which of the 3 types of player did you choose, HTML5, Flash or javascript? Why? Is Wistia just creating a video feed, or are they actually hosting your video content too? Our goal is two-fold: 1. We want people who embed our videos to be also embeddding a link back to our site and 2. We want our videos to be found in SERPs and have those direct people to our site instead of our YouTUbe channel. I'd welcome any comments regarding video SEO in this thread. Thanks!
Image & Video Optimization | | danatanseo0 -
Video Site Map Question..
Hi ! It's really good guide... I have few questions... We own ecommerce site. we are in process of building videos realted to our niche. I'm planning to host videos like this 😆 www.ecom.com/videos where videos folder i m going to manage with wordpress and wordpress has plugins like :- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-video-plugin/ I am planning to host video on youtube and vimeo. as both will have same videos. which service provider i should use for my own sitemap... we know both can rank in google and my ecommerce site too.. Keeping SEO benefits and traffic in mind. what should i do... Thanks vinku
Image & Video Optimization | | vinku0 -
How to get my forum to be listed on Google in the Discussions section?
I'm running several community sites with forums (for example http:// www.finalstitch.co.uk). All of those sites have a forum section like http://http://www.finalstitch.co.uk/forum/ So far Google didn't recognize the forum. When I search for the site and click the Discussions filter on the left, no forum topics from my site show up. What should I do to change that? Thank you. 20110616-gu1beph7p673x1jkgahy1q63r.jpg
Image & Video Optimization | | asmirasro0