Issue now resolved

[sjr4x4]

This post is deleted!

[SEOKeith]

Why not have it linking internally to a profile page for the client then linking out from there?

[sjr4x4]

That's exactly how we used to do it, but there was a bit of a backlash against directories years ago, saying we were all reaping any SEO rewards from search pages, and chanelling them internally to our listing pages.

So to address this general criticism, we added a direct URL from the search results, which we have been praised for, but now seems to be causing a potential issue

Like I've said, I've nofollowed external links on the search results pages as a quick fix, but it does seem a shame. Obviously listing pages have follow links as normal.

Personally I can't think of another way of doing it.

[SEOKeith]

Another thought, create a page / category for national listings and place all the national listings there instead of listing them in every location category for the UK.

If they have offices in each town then advise them to create a listing for each office and point their link at their local contact us page for the area they wish to list in.

Make sense?

[sjr4x4]

Problem is the hook is that a National Listing will show up in all search results, as they can service clients Nationwide.

Some do go for hundreds of branch locations, eg Halfords, but most prefer a single listing with the option of showing up in National searches.

National Listing was an example, but same goes for even a Regional listing, where as it will show up in search results across a single county (towns villages etc) which is good, but each permutation creates a link which isn't so good.

Main question really is generating all these links a bad thing? If it is, does making them nofollow fix the issue?

[SEM-Freak]

Hi Steve,

Interesting position. I don't think the branded URL link on the advert matters. It's a URL link. with no keywords as part of the anchor text, next to a phone number and providing users with value. It doesn't look like you are trying to manipulate anything, worst that is going to happen is it will be discounted.

[SEOKeith]

The links are still going to exist, they are just not going to pass page rank once they have been no followed.

I personally don't see this making much difference, it might help you hang on to more page rank but the client won't see a benefit IMO.

From Google's prospective it might look a bit spammy having a large number of links from a single domain all at once, but then this start some times works... It is hard to say.

I guess for the client complaining about too many inlinks you could suggest they list in a category that is called something like "Nationwide UK services" then companies that have 1 office but want to provide a service to the whole of the country could list there.

I know this does not answers your question directly, but I don't think there is a definite answer to "will a lot of links from my site to my clients damage there rank" as in some cases it will and in some cases it wont. IMO the best practice would be to try and reduce the amount of multiple links to their site if possible using the suggestions above.

[sjr4x4]

Thanks Geoff, and also to SEOKeith

Guess my major concern was were we doing any potential harm to our customers, in which case I would simply remove the web link from the search results, rather than just nofollow it.

Obviously we also don't want to upset the Google god!

[NakulGoyal]

I think some people/client's over react. It's also easier for me to say, because I am not the client in this case. Maybe the client got penalized in the SERPS and their SEO said the bulk of links coming from your directory are causing the problem. I think this is the nature of the web and it's a natural link profile to have all kinds of links and I don't think this should/would affect the client's site. Again, I am not the client or their SEO. And the problem is SEO does not have a standard recipe or published guidelines. And if your client's site is penalized, he/she is probably going through all sorts of SEO On-page and Off-page audit. I think your nofollow is a good solution and if possible I would actually give the control to the users in their profile whether or not they want their links to be followed or nofollowed. That might be a good idea. But either way, follow or nofollow, industry links from niche directories are always good links. And they help a lot towards Local SEO. Even if it was not a link, it would still help as being a citation. An actual dofollow link is always better, but others help as well (presuming the directory is very strong which it sounds like it is).

[sjr4x4]

Thanks Nakul

I feel a lot more reassured! Prob am guilty of over reacting, but if we have an issue, I like to get it resolved asap.

Interesting idea letting the customer decide if they want their links nofollow, will give that some thought.

[Dr-Pete]

I don't think that multiple links back to a client from your site is a big issue. Plenty of sites have site-wide links - Google may discount those links after a while (5,000 links from 1 site isn't worth much more than just a few links from that 1 site), but it's not generally harmful unless it seems manipulative or is part of a larger pattern (like an obvious link farm).

For example, I once had a blog comment favorited on John Batelle's search blog, which meant it went into the sidebar and gave me, briefly, 1000s of links from his site. If anything, that was a net positive.

I have one concern, though - it sounds like this is happening because you're allowing any search that someone runs to become a page. This could have Panda implications and start to look like thin content. Google isn't really a fan of your internal search results (they want their search to land on deep content, not more search), so this tactic can spin out a lot of pages that look low-value. When you have 12+ Million pages in your index, this is something I'd look at closely. Even if you haven't been hit by Panda, you could be diluting your own ranking ability for pages that aren't very high-value.

Of course, that depends a LOT on the scope and how these pages are created. I'm not clear how they're generated or how many we're talking about.

[sjr4x4]

Good feedback.

I take on board what you say about  the internal search results. For this I tend to examine the industry leaders like Yell, who get their search results pages indexed, and the search results are a good source of traffic, so I'm reluctant to change them now, but will certainly keep a close eye on this if anything changes in the future.

[Dr-Pete]

Let me just warn that you shouldn't always take the industry leaders as a good example. Yelp has a brand and link profile that allows them to get away with plenty of bad or just mediocre practices. I think the Panda philosophy is going to continue, and it's not all-or-none - thin content and a bloated index can harm the ranking power of your other, more critical pages. You may rank for more long-tail phrases, but that can come at the cost of higher rankings on your money terms. It's a balancing act.