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    5. Do Citation Count As Backlinks / Referring Domains

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    Do Citation Count As Backlinks / Referring Domains

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    • InfinityTechnologySolutions
      InfinityTechnologySolutions last edited by

      I listed clients listed on about 200+ local citation sites and was NAP complaint. However, when I run a backlink checker using MOZ, SEMRUSH, etc it only show 8 -12 and none of them are the citations. Anyone have any pointers?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • InfinityTechnologySolutions
        InfinityTechnologySolutions @MiriamEllis last edited by

        Thanks Miriam. I kind of figured that and I do citations primarily so customers can find my clients. I just wanted to make sure that I was delivering as much as possible to our clients. Again, thanks!

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • MiriamEllis
          MiriamEllis Subject Expert last edited by

          Hi Max,

          For a tool like Moz OSE, it's a matter of depth that is likely preventing us from crawling through directories' millions of pages to find just one link on your particular listing on such a site. This does not meant that the links in your citations do not count as links - just that a crawl may not find them. Also, important to mention that the key point of building citations is not links - it's about ensuring that your business NAP is available and consistent on a variety of platforms. This makes you accessible to your customers and also strengthens search engines' 'belief' in the validity of your data.

          InfinityTechnologySolutions 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
          • PatrickDelehanty
            PatrickDelehanty last edited by

            Hey there

            Yes they do if links were built. Keep in mind that these crawlers from these services can only crawl so much and retain so much information. So, while you may not be seeing them in those tools, that doesn't mean they aren't there. You may also want to do an inventory check and make sure those listings and citations still exist, and if they are still relevant and not considered spammy at this point.

            Hope this helps. Good luck!

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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