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Hello good people,

I've read just about everything on SEOmoz about the value of the Better Business Bureau link and accreditation.   But at some point a business is so small that the ROI calculation doesn't make sense.

I'm trying to pinpoint when the BBB accred.  becomes a good deal.  Your input is greatly appreciated.

Here are some theoretical businesses based on my local clients.  Which businesses would you recommend BBB accred to for $350/year?

*Trial Law Firm - 4 partners.  Doesn't show up anywhere in the serps despite good industry reputation.  Big revenue.

*Metropolitan Massage Business - 2 contractors.  100k annual revenue.  1st page for most relevant serps.  But few #1 rankings.

*Dog Walking Service - 1 man show.  About 50k in annual revenue.  Has top ranking at hyperlocal level but doesn't show up in the larger metropolitan landscape.

*A crafting semipro -  Sells jewelry online about 10k annual revenue.  No presence in search engines.

Thanks for your help!

I noticed one of the negatively correlated ranking factors was length of URL.  I'm building a page from scratch, we are trying to rank for 'Minneapolis Fitness' and 'Minneapolis Massage'.

Is www.minnnepolismassageandfitness.com  just ridiculously long?  Or does the exact match outweigh the penalty for URL length?

Hi Takeshi,

Thanks for the input.  I'm a huge Jon Cooper fan and use that link building list regularly. That is in fact why I'm evaluating this BBB link (and the trust value you mention) for my clients.

One of my clients is in particular need of a powerful trust signal.  They have tons of raw links but are outclassed by their competitors in authority links.

The million dollar question is how much is this link going to move them up the serps?  Not something anyone can answer I realize.

If I knew if would bump them to #1 for a keyword that they are currently ranking 7th for.  That be worth about $800/year to their business.  That plus the increased conversion rates on the site make it a good investment.

But it is going to be difficult to sell them on it if I can't show them some tangible evidence that one link can make that big a difference.

Great point about the trust signal being more important to trades businesses.

Any business in which the customer is going to be researching heavily before purchasing I would imagine would benefit disproportionately from the BBB accred.

Hi Nakul,

No this is indeed quite helpful!

If I'm hearing you correctly you are saying that the conversion rate bump should be the main factor.  The SEO effects are minor in comparison.

The trial lawyers derive maybe 10% of their business from the webpage.  But the other theoretical groups derive most of their revenue from online leads (perhaps 80%).

The massage business makes 80k annually from online leads.  They traditionally convert about 1% of their local visitors into customers.   So if they could boost this to even 1.02% that would mean 2% total increase in revenue derived online or about $1600.  That is pretty good for a $350/year invest.

hmmm....   Thanks Nakul I think this is the clearer way to think about it.

I'm dipping my toes into infographic design.

On of my desired outcomes is to gain links by having other sites embed my graphic.

I'm considering using Tableau's interactive data visualization software to do so; thus creating a widget, embedding it on my blog, and including the embed code for others to post.

Is it possible to include a juice passing link in such an infographic?  I know its possible to include links inside the tableau graphic but not sure if they have straight SEO value.

If these links are not juice passing would it be better to go with a simple image link that passes value?

Hi Everett,

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer.

I think you are right that the main concern here is security.  Great ideas on how to screen for this.  There is no hacked message in the SERPs.  I don't currently have access to the their GWT but will make it a priority.  I did look at the source code in Google's cache and there is no sign of these terms.  There is not a single instead of "download" which is a common characteristic to all these queries.

It could be just an algorithmic hiccup.  The site does use some fancy characters to describe the Operas that they produce.  One example is the "i" with grave accent in the Opera _Così Fan Tutte.  _I suppose it is possible that with enough repetition of these types of characters Google may think the site has some relevant non-english content.

Thanks again for the thoughts.  Hope everything is going well at seOverflow.

Cheers Nagul!

Give it a go.  And let me know when you get ready to publish it and I'll share it around.  It would really be quite a useful topic to learn about.

I've been using this tool and its helping me get some link prospects.  I clicked on the link ---->money hoodies + "submit url"

This brought me to a page of search results which amazingly enough this very Q+A thread ranked #1 for!

#2 was the following URL: http://www.libanonchat.org/seo/info/341.html

Libanonchat.org has a domain authority of 60.  http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=www.libanonchat.org

You'll noticed Luke 1977 sells Money Clothing and has a listing on this page.  So you may want to submit your page as well.

Now where I get lost (I'm fairly new to linkbuilding) is whether it is worth to link to this site.  The word on the SEOmoz street is that you shouldn't link to too many low quality directories.

Can someone more experienced tell us if Lebanonchat.org is a high or low quality directory?  It seems like a 60 DA is very good so this would be a fine directory to submit to.  But there is no doubt something I'm missing.

p.s. I think part of your difficulty is that the word "money" ends up bringing you a lot of unrelated results.

Try using the site with: "Mens streetwear"  and I think you'll get more usable results.

Hi Bob,

There is actually some software in development that attempts to answer this question.

http://getpostrocket.com/

I'm on the waiting list and I'm excited to see what they offer.

Here are the things I do in order of importance to start building a following:

• Make sure my timelime, cover photo etc. are professional and interesting
• Develop a posting schedule and learn to measure the results (In FB insights you can get a picture of how many people are giving your posts negative feedback.  This is your spam-o-meter.
• Experiment with FB advertising.

Hope this helps.

Jesse

p.s.  Here is an FB page I built last month if you are interested in another example.  http://www.facebook.com/hawaiiperformingartsfestival

Thanks EGOL,

I also tend to think that this massage business has the most to benefit from the link.  It is poised to be in the top rankings and potentially quadruple it's relevant traffic.

I can't help but think that the trial lawyers would benefit as well as the investment is so small compared to their total revenue.  Here it is less about the SEO (this link won't do much against the type of competition they are up against) and more about the conversion rates.  One new contact as result of the trust signal is worth quite a bit to them.

I would imagine for your ecommerce site the higher the price point of your products the more benefit you'd get from the BBB.

Information based businesses on the other hand really only benefit from the SEO side of things as I can't imagine people visiting the site more because it is accredited.  So I would think the SEO benefits would need to be really large to make this a good bet.

Did you try majestic's fresh index?  It might be more helpful for particularly timely link research.

http://www.majesticseo.com/

Thanks for the encouragement EGOL.

I also appreciate how diligent you have been answering questions on the Q and A.   I've benefited from your answers here quite a few times.

Hi Dana,

Thanks for the input.  I think that what we are learning from all the fine experts who have posted here is that the SEO benefits of the accreditation are not the primary factor.   As you say there are plenty of other options that are less costly that create movement in the SERPs.

Get Listed and Whitespark are fantastic and I would recommend both of these resources as well!

The BBB accreditation may be worth it if it can move conversions even a slight amount.  So the question for most businesses is as Nakul says: How much do you make from your website?

and then

How much will the accreditation boost revenue through increased conversions?

The higher the price point of the service/product (and the longer the research cycle before purchase) the more those 3 little B's are worth the investment.

Thanks for contributing this GKLA and Robert, thank you for sharing your experience.  All of this confirms that gut feeling that I get in interacting with the BBB sales person local representative.

I haven't been impressed with how we have been treated.  A lot of hard sell and not much substance.  It's always just "Pony up your $350/year and people will trust you more".  It may be true but I don't think we should perpetuate the idea that buying an accreditation makes one business more trustworthy than the next.

Let's build our trust by being good to our customers instead of buying meaningless badges.

Hey Scott,

Thanks for the input.  I eventually decided not to advise the BBB to any of my very small clients.  For mom and pops with revenues of less than 100k I just can't see it being a good ROI (at 0.5% of total revenue.  And as much as 10% of the total marketing budget!)

That $500 per year could be better spent on a review campaign that would, I think, score a lot more trust points.

But a certain size I think the BBB does make sense but I'm not quite sure where yet.