Do business citations (without links) on penalised website have a negative effect?

[Kerry_Jones]

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

[PatrickDelehanty]

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!

[MiriamEllis]

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?