undefined
Skip to content
Moz logo Menu open Menu close
  • Products
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Pro Home
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Home
    • STAT
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Home
    • Compare SEO Products
    • Moz Data
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis
    • Keyword Explorer
    • Link Explorer
    • Competitive Research
    • MozBar
    • More Free SEO Tools
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
    • SEO Learning Center
    • Moz Academy
    • SEO Q&A
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • Case Studies
    • The Moz Story
    • New Releases
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • Products
    • Moz Pro

      Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

    • Moz Local

      Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

    • STAT

      SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

    • Moz API

      Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

    • Compare SEO Products

      See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

    • Moz Data

      Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis

      Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

    • Keyword Explorer

      Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

    • Link Explorer

      Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

    • Competitive Research

      Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

    • MozBar

      See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

    • More Free SEO Tools

      Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO

      The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

    • SEO Learning Center

      Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

    • On-Demand Webinars

      Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

    • How-To Guides

      Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

    • Moz Academy

      Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

    • MozCon

      Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
    Moz API

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

    Find your plan
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Small Business Solutions

      Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

    • Agency Solutions

      Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

    • Enterprise Solutions

      Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

    • The Moz Story

      Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

    • Case Studies

      Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

    • New Releases

      Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

    Surface actionable competitive intel
    New Feature

    Surface actionable competitive intel

    Learn More
  • Log in
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Dashboard
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Dashboard
    • Moz Academy
  • Avatar
    • Moz Home
    • Notifications
    • Account & Billing
    • Manage Users
    • Community Profile
    • My Q&A
    • My Videos
    • Log Out

The Moz Q&A Forum

  • Forum
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Ask the Community

Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. SEO Tactics
  3. Link Building
  4. Do Local Listings like Yellow Pages and yelp count for backlinks??

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

Do Local Listings like Yellow Pages and yelp count for backlinks??

Link Building
6
10
9.8k
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as question
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
  • DTOSI
    DTOSI last edited by Aug 16, 2012, 1:04 PM

    I am wondering if adding your company with url on a local listing like yellowpages.com, yelp.com, merchantCircle.com, etc. actually counts as a "backlink"? I'm thinking it is not considered a link because I have never seen one listing in Open site explorer, either that, or it is considered a backlink, just not one important enough for open site explorer to show it.

    Does anyone know for sure??

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • AU-SEO
      AU-SEO @JuiceBoxOM last edited by Jun 10, 2014, 5:45 AM Jun 10, 2014, 5:45 AM

      Depending on how many total backlinks you have coming to your client sites, you may not see the yellow pages one if it is marked with a nofollow showing up in GWT. You may need to dig a little deeper through MajesticSEO or AHREFs to see it. I doubt whether having a free or a paid option should matter. Isn't the link the same either way? Also, have you verified that your client's yellow pages pages with the link have been recently crawled by Google to note that the link has been captured / viewed?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • JuiceBoxOM
        JuiceBoxOM @OlegKorneitchouk last edited by Jun 10, 2014, 2:57 AM Jun 10, 2014, 2:57 AM

        Did you yellowpages link take long to show up in your linking root domains? I have a number of clients registered with a yellowpages free listing but none appear in linking domains. Also is yours a paid listing or the free option?

        AU-SEO 1 Reply Last reply Jun 10, 2014, 5:45 AM Reply Quote 0
        • topic:timeago_earlier,2 years
        • AU-SEO
          AU-SEO last edited by Dec 14, 2012, 5:49 PM Sep 12, 2012, 12:41 AM

          Even if they use a nofollow attribute - They are certainly counted as a citation and verification source for local SEO while additionally. The Nofollow vs follow theory is difficult for large directory sites as they have a double edge sword. If they followed every link - then they become spam, if they follow only paid listings then they become a paid link network, so if they no follow everyone they protect Authority and Google/Bing can utilize them as an authority reference point.  That being said your website is likely to be crawled more frequently just being on a local directory.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • topic:timeago_earlier,19 days
          • DTOSI
            DTOSI @DTOSI last edited by Aug 23, 2012, 5:43 PM Aug 23, 2012, 5:43 PM

            Okay, Thanks

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • MicahMMG
              MicahMMG @DTOSI last edited by Dec 14, 2012, 5:49 PM Aug 22, 2012, 10:52 AM

              I suggest installing a mod for your browser that will easily identify nofollowed links for you.  These extensions don't necessarily catch redirected links, so you'll need to hover your mouse to see exactly where that link is pointing.  If it doesn't simply say the website it's pointed at, it's probably redirected somehow.

              Tools here

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • DTOSI
                DTOSI @OlegKorneitchouk last edited by Aug 22, 2012, 10:09 AM Aug 22, 2012, 10:09 AM

                So if you have a link from Yellow Pages and Urban spoon, do you think some are followed and some are not??

                MicahMMG DTOSI 2 Replies Last reply Aug 23, 2012, 5:43 PM Reply Quote 0
                • DavidLenehan
                  DavidLenehan last edited by Aug 16, 2012, 3:09 PM Aug 16, 2012, 3:09 PM

                  they are no follow links but still worth having for local seo. They are also free and take little time to setup. Why wouldn't you do it?

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • OlegKorneitchouk
                    OlegKorneitchouk last edited by Dec 14, 2012, 5:49 PM Aug 16, 2012, 1:31 PM

                    Yup, they are counted. Yelp won't show up because it uses a redirect but I see merchantcircle, urbanspoon, manta, etc in my GWT links list. OSE is reporting less but i still have a urbanspoon and yellowpages backlink.

                    DTOSI JuiceBoxOM 2 Replies Last reply Jun 10, 2014, 2:57 AM Reply Quote 2
                    • MicahMMG
                      MicahMMG last edited by Aug 16, 2012, 1:28 PM Aug 16, 2012, 1:28 PM

                      Many of those listings do provide a link, but it's usually nofollowed or redirected somehow, so that it doesn't pass any juice.

                      They're still valuable listings to have for their citation value alone.  Local Search is critical for any business with a physical location.

                      I'd recommend using a Local Search product like Localeze, Axiom, ExpressUpdate, or UBL.  It's a lot less time consuming than going out there and manually updating all of your Local listings yourself.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • 1 / 1
                      1 out of 10
                      • First post
                        1/10
                        Last post

                      Got a burning SEO question?

                      Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                      Start my free trial


                      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.

                      • See all categories

                      Related Questions

                      • haris313

                        Backlinking Strategy

                        link building link building whitehat

                        I am particularly new to the field of SEO and Backlinking and I have recently started my own blog feel free to have a look (https://thehorseradar.com/). What I wanted to find out is how can I achieve a DA of at least 30. What should be my link-building strategy? & what steps should I take first? With an abundance of overwhelming info available online I have gotten really confused about what would work and what would not. If someone would lay out the steps needed to be taken, I would be extremely grateful! Thank You

                        Link Building | Feb 17, 2024, 6:13 AM | haris313
                        1
                      • landlwoof4

                        How to get rid of bad backlinks

                        off-page seo seo backlinks spam score

                        So I noticed my rankings going down and spam score going up. So under my spam score there are over 100 links for different websites but ALL redirect to semalt.com I researched it and it says they hijacked a bunched of backlinks but don't know much more. How can I get rid of all those backlinks? I was told I could use the disavow tool but apparently that can hurt my ranking as well. The semalt.com site has no backlink to me - it looks like the pages that have/had my backlinks, they've redirected to them. For instance this is one of the links http://www.oxvideos.xyz/indianantyphotoxxx 422005fb-9240-40a4-8b65-f5b1f5079dea-image.png

                        Link Building | Jul 19, 2022, 12:26 PM | landlwoof4
                        0
                      • Adab1

                        Sudden spike in backlinks - should we disavow?

                        A kitchen remodelling firm in Australia has noticed a big increase in spammy backlinks to their website since April this year. Majestic shows that referring domains and backlinks during that period have gone up from 400 domains (10,000 links) to 1,070 domains (47,000+ links). About 100 are sitewide links. The vast majority are "follow" links directed at image files on the site - ending in .jpg. Ahrefs now shows the number one anchor text (23%) is a period (full stop) "." Most of the links come from .us domains, eg: cowboysr.us
                        blackphoto.us
                        alldpic.com Google Search Console isn't showing any of these links, there's no penalty on the site and there's been no noticeable change in rankings (if anything organic clicks went up over May, June, July) ...  so we're wondering what action - if any - should be taken. Are these links likely to have a negative impact on the site and homepage? Should we disavow these links? Appreciate any advice. Thanks.

                        Link Building | Sep 22, 2017, 7:00 PM | Adab1
                        0
                      • btqkelvin

                        Are Sidebar Backlinks worth for SEO?

                        Hello! Let's use the following example: I have a blog (let's call it Blog A) and I find another blog in the same niche (this will be Blog B) that has higher DA and PA than mine. Will Google penalize me if the Blog B puts a link to my blog in their sidebar? Remember, the Blog A and Blog B are from the same niche. I ask this because Google says that links on sidebars appears in every page and in some pages the link may be useless. But if both blogs are from the same niche, there won't be pages where the links will be from different themes and with less relevance. So, is my thought correct: we can use sidebar links without caring about penalization ONLY if the blogs are from the same niche? Thanks in advance!

                        Link Building | Jul 27, 2017, 1:09 AM | btqkelvin
                        0
                      • poke1

                        Rankings Dropped After New Backlinks.

                        I have a low-traffic website (under 100 unique visitors per day) and I've encountered a strange issue started yesterday morning. I acquired three back-links, one of these back-links is contextual and the other two are site-wide. The site-wide back-links are from PA 40+ blogs. It looks like the back-links are already indexed by Google. Despite these new back-links, my rankings across multiple keywords have dropped several positions. I'm new to SEO, but I would assume new back-links would improve my rankings. None of these back-links are low quality links, they are from real established blogs with high domain and page authority values. Could anyone give me insights into why my rankings may have dropped with new back-links?

                        Link Building | Aug 15, 2016, 8:49 PM | poke1
                        1
                      • studio35design

                        Backlinks through dofollow commenting

                        I'm interested in building backlinks to my photography business site by leaving good, engaging comments on other photographers' DoFollow blogs. Is this a good idea? Is it worth the effort? Through a little research, I've managed to locate more than 40 dofollow photographer blogs that have a domain authority of 35+. The idea is to take an hour or so a week to leave 10-20 comments on their blog posts. Would you consider this a good strategy? I rank on the first and second page of most of my keywords that I'm working on, but I want to rank 1st or 2nd on them.  I used the keyword finder tool on google adwords to find the keywords that are the most searched for in my area. Surprisingly the competition is not large, so I'm fairly comfident I can get there. I've already optimized my site substantially and I'm looking into link building. Thoughts?

                        Link Building | Feb 8, 2015, 8:19 PM | studio35design
                        0
                      • BobGW

                        PR1 and PR2 backlinks

                        We're doing some content marketing. I've heard that it is a good idea to target even PR1 and PR2 sites (small DA sites). I'm concerned about these sites disappearing after a few months, as we've found that losing a backlink can sting a bit and be worse than never having it. Though this isn't as big a deal any more. Anyways, can somebody say when a PR1/PR2 backlink would be appropriate to go after? Some of them would be easy and if it's appropriate I'd like to include them. So far they would only pass our standards if they are Above PR0 Look like a white hat, quality site from the outside Have a clean backlink profile Look like they're going to stick around Successful Social Media Accounts a plus What are you guys' criteria for including these sites? Do you gain value from them?

                        Link Building | May 29, 2013, 9:58 PM | BobGW
                        0
                      • leadsprofi

                        Directory List -

                        Hi Mozzers, please write here the directories the strong directories you know please, make a fresh-list here. thanks

                        Link Building | Sep 28, 2011, 7:56 PM | leadsprofi
                        1

                      Get started with Moz Pro!

                      Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                      Start my free trial
                      Products
                      • Moz Pro
                      • Moz Local
                      • Moz API
                      • Moz Data
                      • STAT
                      • Product Updates
                      Moz Solutions
                      • SMB Solutions
                      • Agency Solutions
                      • Enterprise Solutions
                      Free SEO Tools
                      • Domain Authority Checker
                      • Link Explorer
                      • Keyword Explorer
                      • Competitive Research
                      • Brand Authority Checker
                      • Local Citation Checker
                      • MozBar Extension
                      • MozCast
                      Resources
                      • Blog
                      • SEO Learning Center
                      • Help Hub
                      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                      • How-to Guides
                      • Moz Academy
                      • API Docs
                      About Moz
                      • About
                      • Team
                      • Careers
                      • Contact
                      Why Moz
                      • Case Studies
                      • Testimonials
                      Get Involved
                      • Become an Affiliate
                      • MozCon
                      • Webinars
                      • Practical Marketer Series
                      • MozPod
                      Connect with us

                      Contact the Help team

                      Join our newsletter
                      Moz logo
                      © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                      • Accessibility
                      • Terms of Use
                      • Privacy

                      Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.