If I check in at my sushi joint, am I going to affect their rankings, and end up in a crowded sushi dive?
-
In answering a question, I got to pondering something: When we check in with an app like a Yelp, does that affect the rankings? In other words, is more and more check in activity (assume without leaving any review first) going to have an effect like more and more click throughs? Has anyone done any type of study or measure of this? Thoughts? Ideas?
Interesting, Thanks,
Robert
-
Wait...doesn't EVERYONE read about SEO for fun???
Heh-heh!
Glad that was a good find for you, Robert!
Miriam
-
Damn Miriam,
What do you do for fun...read SEO?!?!?! Thanks, you always find the gems.
Robert -
Hi Robert,
Funny topic, and a good one!
Chris Silver Smith wrote a good post on this last year, in which he states:
It may not ever be possible to know for certain if Google is using quantitative check-in data for calculating rankings along with all of their other factors. As Danny Sullivan has noted before about this kind of data, "correlation isn't causation“.
I think you'll enjoy this piece, Robert:
http://searchengineland.com/are-check-ins-a-local-ranking-factor-112222
I've not seen anything more recently than this that made me feel anything has changed since Chris wrote that, so hopefully, it will be a good read for you about the current feelings on check-ins. Hope you're having a good weekend!
-
Loved your point re alpha and strange UI.
It all is something to ponder though. Thanks
-
The phasing made me chuckle...
Holding the obvious impact of normal conversations on marketing aside, one would guess higher positive social interactions would lead to a higher profile.
It wouldn't be a smart business strategy of these sites to not allow people to find hot spots but just continue to order by an arbitrary string of letters. (when you think about it, alphabetical order is really strange UI )
Given scheme.org has clear mark up for ratings, I would further assume this would impact the SERPs, particularly in that location. This requires that the SE can see the data and that the site has sufficient trust/authority )
Testing this would be tricky however since you are talking about brick and mortar places. It would be pretty elaborate and potential cruel to try making a fake restaurant out rank a real one. I would expect checkins from a single account would have limited effect or people would be gaming their listings.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Hi guys, I need to create a subscribe end-off to my YouTube videos. I need something like this - https://www.youtube.com/user/SeattleCoffeeGear - where the red gear at the bottom pops up with a bright red "subscribe" CTA. How do I do this?
Hi guys, I need to create a subscribe end-off to my YouTube videos. I need something like this - https://www.youtube.com/user/SeattleCoffeeGear - where the red gear at the bottom pops up with a bright red "subscribe" CTA. How do I do this?
Social Media | | Bev.Aquaspresso0 -
5 top things an eCommerce Site Can Do To Improve Rankings and Traffic
Hello, We are a niche eCommerce company with a limited budget but time on our hands to make changes and start projects. For our main keyword we rank 10th. It is a small to medium sized niche. Without knowing the details, I'm looking at the top 5 things I can do for Rankings and Traffic considering on-site, off-site, keeping in mind google updates. Also, what's the best or your favorite Ecommerce ranking/traffic articles? Thanks! Bob
Social Media | | BobGW1 -
Question about understanding Google Ranking System
Hi, I have too many question that I need answer to understand Google ranking system. I have been analyzing different website in different niche, but puzzling to understand how Google rank actually. Some websites have good number of backlinks with good SEO metrics, but some low SEO profiled websiites outrank good sites. I am here with my first question. I am working for one client website who sell sex toys online. So we are optimizing keywords like sex toys, buy sex toys, sex shop, sex toy store and too many keywords to rank on google.ca. My client website is cupidboutique.com. We have some competitors that I want to mention below: 1. PinkCherry: This is one of our big competitor. They have 2 domain one is for US and one is for Canada. Both websites ranking well for different keywords. Basically .ca domain is more successful than .com domain. But I am surprise why Google consider the websites for rank. If you see, both websites are identical, that means both website have same product, same category structure, and the most important all products description are duplicate on each domain. On google webmaster guideline, google mention that if 2 domain have identical content, then Google ignore the duplicate one in ranking. But still both websites ranking for different search term. I compare the SEO metrics of our domain and their .ca domain, there is not big difference. Our websites also have good number of links, good PA/DA, even more good number of social sharing than them. But our rankings are not even comparable with them. They are ranking within 20-30th on Google for different product category keywords, but not our. 2. Hushcanada: This is another website ranking well, but I a surprise how? This website is ranking on very high competitive keyword with very fewer number of backlinks. Their PA/DA, number of backlinks, social sharing all metrics are very few. Their business also established recently that is 2013, which I found through archive.org, whereas our client business has been running since 2003-2004. As a Ecommerce business website their homepage is not showing any product , their catalog can be found under "shop online" page only. There are even some more websites ranking well with very low SEO metrics in this niche. If Google is not looking for these SEO staff, then what other staff Google looks to rank website? Hope I will get some favorable answer of my question.
Social Media | | moonheart0 -
How to regain Facebook Page Authority - For page badly affected with spam users
Case- company Facebook page has more than 10K users and almost 50% are spam. When this happens, edge rank of the page is badly affected (because spam users are not interested in your shared content so they hide you/remove you from feed and of course never engage). Not to mention Facebook released an update end of 2014 where page will have less visibility anyway compared to user updates. Overall the Page updates get very less exposure / impressions Now only solution is to remove this huge no of spam users one by one or by an API. Question - Does removing the spam users regain the authority of the page ? Does that solve the overall issue ? What are the other solution to fix the situation ? Thanks.
Social Media | | Personnel_Concept0 -
Tool for checking open graph
Does anyone know of a tool to check open graph data, especially og:url and og:image? I use the og object debugger in FB, but wanted to know if there is a tool to load all URLs or crawl the site in one go?
Social Media | | MickEdwards0 -
I am going to change my blog from subdomain to subdirectory. Will I lose all my shares data (plugin)?
Hi there, I am going to change my current blog from subdomain to subfolder. Obviously, I am going to apply a permanent redirection (301) since all URL will change...I have a doubt related to all share bottoms. Currently I use plugins in order to show the total number of shares (on Facebook...on Twitter etc.) of my posts. So, by changing all URLs, will I lose all my data? I mean, would It be possible to save them? Thanks in advance for helping!! Kind regards. Francesca
Social Media | | Red_educativa0 -
Google+ Ranking Factors - Are Keywords meaningless ?
Hello Mozers! On the Conversation Marketing blog, Ian Lurie published a lengthy article called Google Plus Box Ranking Factors Report. In it, he claimed amongst other things, that "Keyword relevance of your posts: Totally meaningless. Write whatever you want. Seriously. Just make it good." What say you? Are keywords really meaningless? Thanks in advance!
Social Media | | ShivaS1 -
What are current SEO Treads to improve your ranking
What are current SEO Treads to improve your ranking and increase the website Au What are the factors impacting SEO and how?
Social Media | | diyawards
How do you win over these Factors to ensure you get good results?
How do you measure these Factors (tools you use)?0