Do business citations (without links) on penalised website have a negative effect?
-
Hi there
I've been doing some research into directory sites that my clients are listed on and noticed that some appear to have flat-lined in organic search traffic indicating a penalty.
I would like to know if clients with business citations on these penalised websites (without links to clients websites) will be having a negative effect on SEO?
Thanks
-
Hi Kerry,
Excellent answer from Patrick. I just want to add a bit to it. For local businesses, directories are very much still part
of the picture. I, too, am curious about the nature of the directories your client is listed on. I'm assuming they are not
major directories like HotFrog. Would these be niche directories, specific to your client's industry, or something along
those lines? If so, do you sense that there is something fishy about the directories or the client's presence on them?
-
Hi Kerry
To answer your question, you should be fine. I wouldn't be too concerned if there are no links, but I would keep an eye on it nonetheless, especially if you see historic data that concerns you.
Can you provide a few examples of the types of directories you are looking at? It doesn't have to be your client's citation. Sometimes it's easier to gauge when seeing a couple of examples and looking for a pattern or clue if it's a spam site or not. Something to consider:
Is this citation providing an real value to my business?
In my opinion, if it's not, and it's not relevant to my business, I would ask to have the citation removed; link or no. With Google tightening up quality standard, it's important that citations or mentions are relevant, even if the site is not linking to you directly.
If one of these directories are linking to you
The last few years, directories have had quite a bit of bad press in the way of "spam" and link schemes. That's not to say all directories are bad, in fact, some are incredibly helpful and relevant, having great metrics and providing real value to a certain industry or user type.
A couple of things to consider for your client's site and these directories:
-
Do a quick read about Link Schemes
-
Note the URL
-
Do the words "free", "directory", "directories", "links", "search", "money", "xxx", or pills / porn / poker appear at all in the domain or URL?
-
Run a few of these directories through Open Site Explorer and Majestic
-
Take a look at their backlink profiles / anchor texts / overall topic of their backlink profile (Majestic)
-
Does it appear to be spammy, not relevant to your industry/client, or just "doesn't feel right"?
-
Run your own site through OSE and Majestic
-
Note your own metrics
-
Note the sites / domains that are linking to you
-
Note the anchor text they are using
-
A great link removal resource from Moz
Just something to consider as you look at these directories. I don't know the link to no link ratio, but I figured I would add this in here just in case more questions popped up. Hopefully this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions or comments. Good luck!
-
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
-
Local SEO: How to get local business showing up in Google Local
Hello, We moved to a small town in Council, ID. It's interesting. None of the businesses around here are showing up in Google Local - map, phone number, hours, etc. Nothing. It's all Yelp and stuff. Is there some sort of collective local SEO that has to be done to get Council, ID on the map? It's kind of strange that no businesses show up. I want to help local businesses, but I don't know if Google will even register them. We can get a group of local businesses together if we have to. Let me know what we can do. Thanks.
Local Listings | | BobGW0 -
Local SEO Tasks When Closing One Branch of Multilocation Business
I would appreciate the opinions of my fellow SEOs on this one. I haven’t seen any other threads on this exact subject and others that touch on it are somewhat older so I am hoping this also proves to be a good resource for others going forward. I have an existing client that I did local SEO for about a year ago. They are a propane service provider and they had multiple locations. So we did local SEO for the company primarily by updating NAPs and creating more individual content for each of the branches such as specific landing page for each branch on their website and individual listings in citations for each branch. Now they have sold one of the branches to a competitor and they need to remove all listings for it. I am trying to develop a comprehensive list of actions to take and I would appreciate any feedback on the best way to go about accomplishing this task. Here is what I have so far: Remove all mention of sold branch on client website, including specific landing page Delete any branch-specific social media accounts Some specific areas I have questions about are: What do I do with Google My Business listings for the sold branch? Do I try to delete/unregister/close them? Or should I just leave them be with an updated link to our website homepage? Should I even bother contacting the main NAP listing sites to remove the old listing or just leave it to fall off on its own? Thank you again for all your help!
Local Listings | | Ayres-SEO0 -
Google Business listing algorithm when listing the top 3 locations in Google Search
Hi, awhile back I decided to make separate website contact pages by location and Google Business listings(some being just a service location with no address displaying) for Greenshield Pest Control Inc to help better target per city key term searches. Please refer to screenshot A http://puu.sh/qxWjH/6153c0edf2.png and B http://puu.sh/qxWfJ/bff7ad02cf.png. A) Searching "pest control belleville" brings up the Belleville Greenshield business listing in the top 3 as desired. B) Searching "pest control brockville" brings up the Kingston Greenshield listing in the top 3. While they do provide service for the Brockville location we don't have a dedicated Brockville service location and listing setup. I'm happy the Greenshield listing shows up in the search for case B but my question is does anyone know why Google decided for two out of the top 3 listings(Greenshield and Enviro Guard Plus Inc) to use a non-Brockville business listing? Kingston is 45mins away from Brockville and Harrowsmith about 1 hour away. Is there a certain distance range a Google business listing has to be for it to have a chance to be included in the search besides the actual city I'm searching for?
Local Listings | | FPK0 -
What the best way is to find keywords for my local website
I'm wondering if there are any high keywords I might be missing out on and so I'm wondering what the best way to find keywords for my local niche and also if there's a way to find out who is currently performing best for those local keywords? Thanks
Local Listings | | michaelmouse2 -
Google My Business - bulk location upload vs. single upload
Hi there, I have a question regarding Google My Business listings: We currently have a business with few offices (less than 10). Each office has it's Google listing under the same Google account.
Local Listings | | OrendaLtd
We plan on opening new offices at a certain pace, let's say two a month, which means we'll have more than 10 listings in the near future.
As far as I recall, Google allows up to 10 listings per account, which means it won't suffice. On the other hand, We do not have 10 offices at the time being, which means we're not eligible for a bulk upload. Any ideas how to handle this situation?0 -
Missing Links
I've recently been researching local memberships and associations to submit my business information to as a way to get involved in the community and gain backlinks simultaneously. A specific listing I was looking into, Think Local First (http://thinklocalfirst.net/Members) has a DA of 37 with the listing page at a 26 PA ( and homepage at 42 PA). After checking out a few of Think Local Firsts's currently listed websites on OSE, I've noticed that not one of them is showing an inbound link from this organization. I would like to represent my business on this page, but would prefer to gain a link from doing so. Can anyone give me any insight as to why this isn't reflected in the business's backlinks? I did check a couple sites with majestic and Ahrefs with the same results. Thanks in advance!
Local Listings | | LMcLaughlin0 -
Local seo citation tools
Hi I have been manually adding my details to local/national directories in order to help my ranking in my google places placing. It is a bit of a grind, and I am aware there are tools out there. I was wondering if anybody has any experience with any of them? I am UK based. Also I was ranking for "Liverpool Photographer" on google places for a couple of months and it brought in quite a bit of work, although I have since slipped back to about 15th, so out of the visible results. I am mainly a wedding photographer so my home page was optimised mainly for "liverpool wedding photographer" Although I hired an SEO company who changed the home page title to "liverpool photographer", I cannot remember if I was ranking on places for this keyword because of this change or I was already in the results before the changes were made. So my question is how Can I rank for "liverpool photographer" and "Liverpool wedding photographer" on a places result at the same time? I hope this makes sense. Best wishes. David.
Local Listings | | WallerD0 -
How spammy are lots of links ?
http://www.themorrisagency.co.uk/ I have a load of links pointing localised clients to their area at the bottom of the site.. My question is: Does that look really spammy and how to solve it? Cheers from a stormy UK
Local Listings | | Agentmorris0