Will a cool mapping app be a good idea?

[AndyB_UK]

We have come up with an idea to add a cool mapping app to our website. This will enable users to find locations to be able to play a range of games in their local vicinity, such as pool/table tennis/pinball/arcade games/foosball.

Players and venues will be able to add locations to our mapping system. They can add a review, details, what machines/equipment is there, add photos. The owner can add any special offers or events.

Potential benefits:

• Community - finding places to play these games is hard. This would be great for everyone who loves these games to find new places to play them
• Engagement - visitors to our site will find this really useful and show us more love and respect
• SEO - this is the tricky bit...

If we ask venue owners to show a "We're listed!" logo on their homepage linking back to our mapping system will this be beneficial to us SEO wise?

Potential positives:

• lots of relevant homepage backlinks to us
• lots of relevant visitors to our mapping system who may choose to peruse the rest of our website

Potential issues:

• will this type of backlink be viewed poorly by Google?
• will the relatively low DA of the sites that will be linking to us weaken our link profile?

This will be a massive project for us to undertake, both financially to build the app but also for us to populate our maps by contacting all the relevant locations to invite them to participate.

Any insight, views or experience the Moz community can share with us on this would be gratefully received!

[MonicaOConnor]

Not a problem! Good luck!

[AndyB_UK]

That's great feedback Monica! Thanks for your insight.

Our view was also that if it's good for the user then it should be good for SEO. It feel like the right thing to do.

We're hoping that word will get round each of these communities that we are trying to locate every location and they will pull together and help us out trying to find as many places as possible.

We hadn't thought about including the USA, but I guess we could! We'll see what would be involved.

Thanks again for your response.

[MonicaOConnor]

I think that is an awesome idea. It is a very user friendly idea. Back in the day, the first mortgage company to add a mortgage interest rate calculator to their site experienced a tremendous increase in organic traffic and page rank. Tools like this are so helpful, therefore the engines like them. What is good for the seacher is good for the search engine.

To address your concerns -

• I don't believe you need to worry about a weakened link profile. There are two reasons for that, the first being these are going to be local businesses and that is never a bad thing to have. Secondly, even low quality links serve purposes. As long as these links generate traffic for your sight they are doing their job and you have nothing to worry about.

To address your positives-

• This is something I myself would use. You are right, unless you already know where the dwindling arcade is located, you can hardly find places like this.

• Getting local businesses to take part in this opportunity could significantly increase your traffic, which inevitably will increase your rankings. More impressions, more clicks, more traffic, = better rankings. The link juice passed from these other sites will help boost your authority. Sounds like you have a really great idea here. You will have to tell me when the app is ready, and if it will be available in the US

We added a generator sizing calculator to our site in September. We have several manufacturers who link to it and sometimes direct people to go to our site to use it. We have seen a 15% increase in organic traffic since. Apps, calculators, widgits, all great SEO tools.

Good Luck!