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)
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
-
Unsolved Has anyone noticed the Google quote request response rate never changes?
We respond to almost 100% of our quote requests, yet every quote email that comes in from Google shows a 27% response rate and it never changes. Has anyone else seen this or have any insight into it?
Local Listings | | r1200gsa0 -
Google Is Linking to Wrong Local Page - How To Change?
Hi All Thanks in advance for any support. I've setup two "local" pages to target the next door town for one of my clients. One page targets "t shirt printing" and one page targets "embroidered workwear" However when I search for "embroidered workwear town in question" google connects the search to my t-shirt printing page and not the embroidered workwear page. Would it be possible to advise on what I need to do for the correct page to be linked to the search term? Here is a link to the search term in question **https://tinyurl.com/vvgr5r5 ** and the page that we would like to appear in the results, not our tshirt printing page https://tinyurl.com/s77md9o Thanks in advance for any help
Local Listings | | ruislip180 -
Why would a website link disappear from a Google Place listing?
Hi, a local non-profit recently re-branded their name from MacDonald Center to Maybelle Center. When they updated their business information their website link disappeared. They've updated from within and dashboard to no avail. We've requested edits/updates via Google Map maker but it says Denied. Here's a URL for the SERP result. Note the button for "website" would normally appear by the button for "directions" https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome-psyapi2&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8&q=maybelle center portland&oq=maybelle center portland&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i59j69i61.4316j0j7 Can someone please explain why this is happening and how we can fix it? They are a great community organization who's about to receive some media coverage and we'd really appreciate it if users hearing about the group be able to easily access their new website. They are aware of their duplicate listings but, typical of non-profits, have limited time and funds so are prioritizing to address more urgent issues first. However, I don't believe duplicate listings would cause such an issue but please let me know if I'm wrong here
Local Listings | | Flock.Media0 -
Is it possible to be penalised by automating directory submissions via Moz local
Hi, I am currently looking at the domain authority of the site that i have linked to Moz local and was wondering if you can be penalised by automating directory submissions and if so how one would recover? Thanks Nick
Local Listings | | SEM_at_Lees0 -
How to get Google to choose office location pages and not the homepage. Tips and Suggestions?
Hello Mozzers The issue I have is a client with a number of office locations (six) across the south of England and they want each to rank well for each location + the qualifier solicitors. IE Brighton Solicitors. Work has been undertaken on the office location pages to include the services offered from each location, full postcodes and phone numbers. These location pages are linked to from the footer of the website so have good internal links. The site has a DA of 49 and the office location pages have a PA of 33. Google in its wisdom keeps ranking the home pages for the searches. The result is that the site ranks well in one location (London) but poorly in all the majority of others (2nd,3rd and 4th page). Were it does pick up/choose the location page the rankings are better than the homepage. The other locations are less competitive than London according to the Keyword difficulty tool. Any tips on to suggest to Google that it should rank the office location pages and not the homepage for each location? Thanks in advance 🙂
Local Listings | | highwayfive1 -
Multiple locations and local directories
Hello, A client has opened a new office in another city. I have created a local landing page for this city. Now I want to build citations for it. However, I have already set up directories like Yelp/Yell with the primary/original address in the original city. Is it OK to set up new citations using the new city local address. The company name stays the same obviously. So I will have duplicate listings on the directories for the same company. Will this work? Thanks for any help
Local Listings | | AL123al1 -
Same Back Links To All 20 Pages On My Site?
Hi All I have researched 20 plumber blogs and citation sources all have page rank 1-8 and good trust and domain age. Would it be wise to have a backlink to each of my 20 web pages from these 20 different blogs? plumber blog a backlink to all 20 pages on my plumbing site plumbing blog a backlink to all 20 pages on my plumbing site how to fix leaky tap blog a backlink to all 20 pages on my plumbing site how to pick the best gas boiler blog a backlink to all my 20 pages on my plumbing site and so on as my website is united kingdom and serve UK only, should i not use USA blogs & citation sources as this might not help increase my organic rankings? thanks
Local Listings | | nickowain0 -
Is there any data about how user interact with the local 7 pack listing, do they scroll past it or use it like a normal SERP ?
Does any one have any data about how users interact with the local 7 pack listings in regards to position to CTR ratios, do everyday users tend to scroll past it to the normal SERPs as they might do with adwords ads (as the local pack is formatted slightly different to normal SERPs) ? bMvtUSe.png
Local Listings | | Sam-P0