Has anyone ever used a specific page (instead of home page) when building links in directories?
-
Instead of the home page, have you ever done (domain)/page-1 for the URL in directories? I figured this would be a good way to build some page authority up for deeper pages for small businesses that can't seem to garner any attention with content / links.
BTW, these directories are not considered spam directories.
Thanks,
Cole
-
Max,
Let me try to clear up this "deep linking" question for you. First, I do not use the term deep linking and am not sure the entire goal of it. If you are going out trying to set up links in some way and direct them to specific pages, IMO you are going to a lot more trouble than it is likely worth today.
Your content should be able to get you links. If your "deep" pages have good content they will get links, Period. Here is an example and it is one that for us was really irrelevant content.
One of our people did a post and included something on 3-D printing. We do not own a 3-D printer, I would not know how to use one, etc. Yet, we got people linking to that. Another was about 18 months ago or so, we did it a post on responsive design. The post was done just to talk about responsive design. We did not send it out to people to get links, we did not submit it to article directories, etc. Yet, it is one of our most linked-to pages on our site. The reason seems to be due to the image and people wanting to use it. BUT, we did not set out to get links.I would worry a lot more about ensuring you are creating content regularly and that it is not just content for content's sake. Make it readable, interesting, engaging. If you are "deeplinking" whatever that practice is, you are trying to create links to specific pages and I just think that is a waste of time 99% of the time.
Best
-
I understand you point and it's also my main doubt, is it natural or not? And... Will google algorithm find it “natural” or not? Which is not necessarily the same thing.
I fact, from my personal perspective if I write an article which talks about a specific product, I find a link to that product page with additional info quite natural, linking to the home and expecting the reader to search for the product to read the additional info doesn't sound natural.
But so far these deeplinks didn't move the needle in term of ranking for those product pages, so I assume google algorithm doesn't find them “natural”.
Has anyone a similar experience to report?
-
It was more in reference to directories & deeplinking. You also have to look at it from a what looks natural point of view, its pretty common when you link to a website that you link to the homepage so if you have a site that has an equal amount of links throughout the site, does it still look normal? Generally though wouldn't say it was bad it was more in regards to deep linking with directories etc.
Might want to be careful with articles aka "gust posts" as there was some trouble around them not so long ago.
-
I had already read Robert answer.
I was not referring to directories submission.
I was wondering why is a tricky line to deep link in general. We have back link campaign in place, but doesn't involve directories. We publish a guest post a week on blogs and sites with at least Page Rank 2 and Domain Authority 25, we always post 500/1500 words articles related to our business and we diversify the backlinks using deeplinking to product pages, category pages, according to the article content.
And I was wondering if there some cons about deep linking that way, or in general, or in which specific cases.
-
It's a tricky line to walk - I mean that really you can go either side of Google's favor and whilst you might end up with the desired small boost you might also end up with a penalty. I recommend you check out Robert's answer below its very helpful.
-
Could you articulate some more the "its a tricky like to walk"?
This kind of deep linking is something I have still not understood, and your answer intrigued me. Can you explain better?
-
Thanks so much to all who responded.
Robert, your post was very insightful in how I approach businesses.
-
Cole,
I see a couple of red flags here that you may want to be aware of. You state: "I figured this would be a good way to build some page authority up for deeper pages for small businesses that can't seem to garner any attention with content / links."
From this and from your profile showing you working with an agency, this work appears to be client work. First suggestion is this: For any business you are doing SEO for, start with "While we would all like overnight results, SEO will not provide that. You must be patient or risk having your entire site disappear from the search engine results because you/we did things to expedite the process that the search engines consider negative. We understand that some of your competitors may do these "negative" things and they may get away with it for a while; but, as your agency of record we cannot put you in harm's way for the sake of having you rank quicker."
Can't seem to garner... with content/links. This is where you derail the issue in that you are trying to gain attention and I would assume that means rank improvement. You are wanting a directory to provide this "attention," and if the small business is a restaurant in Lafayette and the directory is Yelp, then you are probably going to be OK, and I would want a link to the menu page specifically.
While there is no list of bad directories per se, there are really only a few that are truly relevant to a given business IMO. The problem will arise in the number of "directories" you are using for this practice. The biggest negative will be around the link velocity for a given business. So, if your business has no links (attention) and two weeks from now you have put them on 30 directories no matter how great they are, you are creating a potential problem for them.
So, instead of "directories" I would suggest for your purposes you use some specific sources (I am only suggesting these as a substitute to what I fear may be less obvious directories.): BBB, Angie's List, YP, Yelp, CitySearch, etc.
Be very careful as well with any directories that you maintain some sense of control over the listing. There are directories that will put you in a sidebar, etc. in a paid listing and it generates a link from thousands of pages; you do not want this to happen to a client and it does.
I hope this helps you out, good luck,
Robert
-
There is no giant naughty list I'm afraid but the best advice i can give is as follows:
Will a user, find & use the directory?
if you think a user is going to find you through the directory (like yell.com etc.) then its a good link if you're just putting a link there for back link sake it's probably not as safe as you could be.
e.g. So if there is a local directory of all the best named companies called Pixel! and users are regularly using the listto find their favorite pixel company this would be good because the user is finding this link helpful but
if its a directory of all of the company on the internet - It's not so safe. Local directories (or very niche) tend to be a bit safer than most others too.
Hope that helps a bit more.
I think I found your site by accident the other day, small world!
-
Hi Cole
Yes, we use content page specifc URLs for any links we feel appropriate. Directories are not a highly thought of any more as a good SEO practice, as this became repositories for links links etc. This adds no real value to the user of potential user of a directory.
If the directory is something like Yel, we would want only parts of our site to link to their category heading where we are listed under. So we would not want our generic home page linking to a specific heading in Yel, as this is not useful to the end user, who would click the link and then have to start to search for what they really wanted.
Specific links at this level are liked by Google, because the link is 100% relevent to the user
Hope this helps
Bruce
-
Hey Pixel,
Nice name (I work for a company called Pixelbrush).
Are there documented articles or information out there on specific directories that Google does think is spammy?
Have you ever used directories to link to deep pages? For example, I would already use these directories to link to the home page.
Thanks,
-
What you are referring to is deep linking its normal as it helps build authority over a whole domain rather than just the homepage however its a tricky line to walk., Same for directories it can be a fine line, its not Whether you think they are spam directories its Whether Google thinks that and Whether you are willing to bet a penalty on it (or a competitors reporting you for having directories and again getting a penalty)
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
-
Best address to use on Google business listing for youth sports program
Hello, Moz Community! I'm helping a friend with some local marketing for his youth sports program. He trains his kids at a community center and a public park where court times are managed by the city. His address in his Google business listing is currently the community center, but that is shared with multiple businesses including the community center itself. I know he needs an address that is unique to his business, but he lives outside of the city in which his program is located. Our goal is to boost exposure in the city in which his program is located. Since 1) his business address is located outside of the city in which he conducts business and 2) the addresses at which he conducts his business is utilized by multiple businesses including the actual property owner, what options do I we have for an address that Google will recognize as valid and won't cause ranking issues? If there is nothing we can do in the current situation, what are steps we can take to address this issue for his business? Thanks a lot!
Local Listings | | Tony_GP0 -
Local Landing Page Optimization and Multiple GMB Listings
Hello, We’re building out a site for our business that has close to 100 office locations in different cities. Many of these are ‘partner brands’ that we have acquired under our brand. Similar to a franchise model. We want to be able to help users find offices near their location. Each office will have it’s own landing page with a physical address and contact information. We know we’ll have to build out unique copy and markup customized to the office/location. We’ve already read through https://moz.com/blog/overcoming-your-fear-of-local-landing-pages as well. We’re also considering ‘silos’ to build out pages for each location. To preserve authority and avoid cannibalization; our thought was having each location as sub-folders off of our domain (i.e. domain.com/locations/Partner#1/). The other option would be using a sub-domain (i.e. Partner.Domain.com/) which we noticed competitors doing and treating each sub-domain as their own independent site. Is all of the above the correct strategy? Any further suggestions? Should we fill out a separate GMB for each office and should they all use the same brand name? (in other words “BrandA” vs. “BrandA” - Brooklyn Office). In addition to GMB; would each location need local listings created (also all under the same name)? Any help or insight would be very much appreciated. Looking forward to hearing from all of you! Thank you in advance. Best,
Local Listings | | Ben-R0 -
Is there is any benefit to linking to the Google page from RFQ contact page?
I have a Request for Quote contact page is there any benefit to linking from the Google + page? or the other way?
Local Listings | | ScottImageWorks0 -
Using same business number on different websites
Hello, I have number of websites in different locations with different business name and address with verified listings. However, I am thinking to use the same phone number on all the websites as it is difficult for me to keep track of all the numbers. So, is it okay to use the same phone number on different websites with different business name and address? Waiting for your thoughts. Brian
Local Listings | | BrianBotts.0 -
Google My Business page no longer appearing with search results
Title pretty much says it all--my company's local Google+ page has always appeared under our listed website information up until very recently. I'm also noticing the same with our competitors. Has anyone else just began to experience this? Our NAP, map, photos, and review are still displayed to the right of the results, but nothing is linked to the actual Google page itself. Am I missing something? Thanks!
Local Listings | | LMcLaughlin0 -
Is it possible to use sub URLs in Citations?
Hello, One of my client has business in 5 different locations so he has URL's like: "www.abc.com/city-service" for which he has listing verified in each location. I can certainly say that Google Business allow sub pages URL in citations (correct me if I am wrong). I am not sure if it is possible to use the sub URL's like: www.abc.com/city-service in different citations websites? Also, if this would be a good approach or not? Please help me. Sam
Local Listings | | BrianBotts.0 -
Local citations from business directories in other countries
Hi all, I normally work for clients in my home county (The Netherlands) and with local citation building I focus on Dutch websites or well know .com websites in the Netherlands. My rule of thumb kinda was, if it’s not known in the Netherlands it isn’t worth getting mentioned there. Since The Netherlands are pretty small and I think Google ain’t perfect I was wondering if it makes sense to list a Dutch business on any .com business listings that are internationally big, but aren’t well known in the Netherlands. Two reasons that got me thinking this direction: A big well known Dutch company offers a service such as Moz local and did integrate their service with several international business listing websites that I never heard off, since these business directories focus themselves on other parts of the world. Google ain’t perfect and I think they got more budget to identify trustworthy business directories with an international focus or a focus on America then with a focus on The Netherlands. So I’m wondering if it makes any sense to list a Dutch business on let’s say the top 20 international business directories (although these directories don’t have any brand recognition in The Netherlands).
Local Listings | | Bob_van_Biezen0 -
Brain Teaser - Dead Link Ranking in SERP's
Hello Moz Brains. Came across a site that is coming up for "caliber signs and imaging" which is a brand I'm working with, and a few things have me baffled: 1. The link in the SERP takes you to an error page (you can manually access it by dropping the www.)
Local Listings | | VanadiumInteractive
2. The entire site is setup with iFrams (header frame, body frame, and footer frame) navigating throughout the site keeps the single url and only swaps the body content.
3. The site if for a sign company but the blog area served in the iFrame is in Indonesian and seems to about some soccer matches.
4. The business associated with this site is in AZ, but they are coming in local (Irvine, CA) results with a dead page and no locally relevant content. I'm I missing something or is Google missing something? The site is "http://calibersigns.com/" and it belongs to a company in AZ. -- it comes up for "caliber signs and imaging" (in my case on the 3rd spot) or even worse "caliber signs and graphics" where it seems to be at the top, with all the surrounding content being the true brand -- which makes it look like my clients Google+ reviews and other endorsements belong to them. I have my local setting set to "92618", Irvine CA Would love some feedback on this and your opinion on how we should proceed? thanks in advance0