Do citations count as backlinks?

[Berner]

Hello,

So I may have a simple question- do citations such as yp and manta for an example count as backlinks?

So if they do, would this be a natural link so good for seo? or a citation where it may be a backlink, but not very helpful for seo backlink profile?

Thank you to all

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Berner,

Good question and some thoughtful answers here. I'll chime in with my 2 pesos.

A citation is defined as a web-based reference to a local business' complete or partial NAP (name, address, phone). A citation does not have to include a link the company website. For example, a blogger could mention your restaurant's name and address, leave out the phone number and not link to the restaurant's website and that would still count as a citation, meaning that the business owner must be certain that the blogger has accurately published the restaurant's name and address.

On more standardized platforms, like local business directories, nearly all allow you to include a link to your website. This does count as a link, but whether it is nofollowed or not is up to the individual directory. So, this does bear on how much 'juice' a given link is passing your way.

Regardless, if your business is a local one, citations are a core part of the work you will be doing to promote your business on the Internet. If your business model isn't truly local, then citations aren't really meant for you.

I think you'll really enjoy reading the great section in the new Moz Local Learning Center that covers the ins and outs of citations. Tons of great resources here for you: http://moz.com/learn/local/listings

Hope this will help, and kudos to all on the good responses on this thread!

[LesleyPaone]

I am pretty much thirding what everyone else says, but with a little grey hat twist.

They help on both a local and a (not to the same extent) national level. One thing that helps them even more is having reviews attached to them. I owned a small business, it was a cabinet company. We went from doing about 80k a year to several million a year flatly because of SEO. The strategy I used in the beginning still works for small businesses. I created accounts at all of the local places, yp, yelp, angieslist, google, and so on. Then I sent the links around to friends, family, customers, ect, and asked them to post a review. Soon after doing that (because no one hardly reviews cabinet companies) we had the most reviews, so we were at the top of the lists. As far as I know this still works today and I would nail it if I was in your position. Because this is a grey area, I would also like to mention not to work with people that will "get" you reviews. They are buying them, if you get caught it might undo everything that you have worked for.

[MoosaHemani]

The thumb rule here is that any website that is linking back to your website regardless of it as a citation website or a blog or anything else will be call as backlink and will be consider as part of your link profile.

Will this help with SEO? Here if you are talking about Local SEO, the answer is YES! If you have a business listed in different citation website with consistent NAPs, then yes you will get Local SEO benefit for it but will this help improve your rankings in search engine from the targeted key phrases… may be a little but don’t expect this as your huge success.

Websites like YP.com, Yelp and few others… for them you have to think more than just SEO, your proper listing will more valuable then rankings because these can give you real leads then just traffic!

Hope this helps!

[DarinPirkey]

Just a little "FYI" any link to your site is a "back link".  But to answer your question, these definitely count and are very valuable in local seo.  To rank in local search in Google Maps, the number of these citations, the authority of the citation sources, and the consistency of your NAP ( Name, Address and Phone Number) is a major factor.  Moz just launched Moz local which helps populate many of these sources.  I'm on my phone or I would link to a few resources.  Google "top 20 local SEO ranking factors moz" and you'll see a post by Miriam Ellis which is definitely useful.