Backlinks for local directory site?

14 replies
  • SEO
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Hi, I am planning to start a local directory site for my city but am a little concerned about getting the backlinks because I don't know if other site will even allow me to guest post and if i guest post in various niches, don't really know how google would feel about that.

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge about this?

How else could i get good quality links? (Don't want to use any PBN links - want to build a safe long term business without having a heart attack every morning).


Thank you.
#backlinks #directory #local #site
  • Profile picture of the author fastreplies
    Originally Posted by Realtawk View Post

    How else could i get good quality links?
    Why do you need backlinks for local directory in a first place?

    All you have to have 'Gotham City Directory' in your site's Title and I guarantee
    you will be on page #1 each time someone is searching for: 'Gotham City Gifts', or
    'Gotham City Bakery', or 'Gotham City Asylum' and so on, but even if you want to
    rank for 'Gotham City' alone, there is virtually no competition for top 10 spots so
    your internal links to Home page will do the job.



    fastreplies.
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    • Profile picture of the author irawr
      Banned
      Originally Posted by fastreplies View Post

      Why do you need backlinks for local directory in a first place?

      All you have to have 'Gotham City Directory' in your site's Title and I guarantee
      you will be on page #1 each time someone is searching for: 'Gotham City Gifts', or
      'Gotham City Bakery', or 'Gotham City Asylum' and so on, but even if you want to
      rank for 'Gotham City' alone, there is virtually no competition for top 10 spots so
      your internal links to Home page will do the job.



      fastreplies.
      This is probably the absolute worst advice you have ever given on Warrior Forums. Which, to be clear, you are totally unqualified to give, any advice on the subject of SEO. I try pretty hard to ignore your borderline insane conspiracy theories but I can't let you steer somebody that far off course. You've said some pretty interesting things before, but this advice is definitely the worst...

      So I title my page "New York City Directory" and I rank 1 automatically. Riiight...
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      • Profile picture of the author fastreplies
        [DELETED]
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        • Profile picture of the author irawr
          Banned
          Originally Posted by fastreplies View Post

          Remember bubbleofdelusions.com? No backlinks and yet on page #1 for terms
          bubble of delusions
          I'm going to ignore the rest of your post and I will continue to selectively ignore large regions of your posts until you can comply with the forum rules.

          The site that is #1 on the keyword "bubble of delusions" is ecobuddhism.org and it is ranking off the large number of backlinks it has. It is targeting the keyword "Bubbles of Delusion" which is not even the exact same keyword.

          In the top 100 there is actually only a single site targeting the keyword "bubble of delusions" and it is ranked #7. It is also important to understand that it does not rank in the top 418 visible sites on the keyword "bubbles of delusion" which would be the keyword where several sites are competing.

          So your site is ranked on a noncompetitive search term and does not show up at all in the competitive variation.

          I can not interpret your post as you being confused about this matter because it has already been explained to you multiple times.

          Please stop trolling this forum. You have collectively wasted an enormous amount of time.

          Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

          You are not going to be able to get local citations for a directory unless the directory actually has a physical location.

          OP, I am not a huge fan of guest posting, but it can work.
          It became clear to me recently that the type of site you are working on matters a lot here. For the WH stuff I do, which is mostly web-based entities that are content focused sites and are really "fluffy bunny", (think 2k+ word pillars and lots of pictures) the strategy is highly effective. It obviously can work for a professional entity such as a service provider, but I can see why somebody doing SEO for something like that would not feel the same way about guest posting.

          When your site is "a guide to solving a problem" a guest post is highly effective, since it brings awareness of the problem to a different audience.

          When the site is "a service/business that solves a problem" it feels more like an advertisement and it's much harder to get guest posts on sites with authority and I doubt it's an effective strategy to drive tons of traffic.

          I think it would work to get links for a local directory, but the only ideas I can come up with for posts is stuff like "did you know about this", historical, and "fun places" type content.
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          • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
            Originally Posted by irawr View Post

            It became clear to me recently that the type of site you are working on matters a lot here. For the WH stuff I do, which is mostly web-based entities that are content focused sites and are really "fluffy bunny", (think 2k+ word pillars and lots of pictures) the strategy is highly effective. It obviously can work for a professional entity such as a service provider, but I can see why somebody doing SEO for something like that would not feel the same way about guest posting.

            When your site is "a guide to solving a problem" a guest post is highly effective, since it brings awareness of the problem to a different audience.

            When the site is "a service/business that solves a problem" it feels more like an advertisement and it's much harder to get guest posts on sites with authority and I doubt it's an effective strategy to drive tons of traffic.

            I think it would work to get links for a local directory, but the only ideas I can come up with for posts is stuff like "did you know about this", historical, and "fun places" type content.
            Yes you are correct. I should have clarified my comment better. I meant that guest posting is not something I would put much of an emphasis on for this poster's specific project.
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            • Profile picture of the author irawr
              Banned
              Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

              Yes you are correct. I should have clarified my comment better. I meant that guest posting is not something I would put much of an emphasis on for this poster's specific project.
              No real need to clarify, I just meant in general. There's been discussion here before about guest posts being effective or not.
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    • Profile picture of the author Realtawk
      Originally Posted by fastreplies View Post

      Why do you need backlinks for local directory in a first place?

      All you have to have 'Gotham City Directory' in your site's Title and I guarantee
      you will be on page #1 each time someone is searching for: 'Gotham City Gifts', or
      'Gotham City Bakery', or 'Gotham City Asylum' and so on, but even if you want to
      rank for 'Gotham City' alone, there is virtually no competition for top 10 spots so
      your internal links to Home page will do the job.



      fastreplies.
      I wish it was that easy but unfortunately its just not enough to do a little on page SEO to rank in the top spot.
      Local is lower competition but there are still some big boys playing and back links are still a necessity.

      I guess I'll just stop going on these forums so much.

      As a newbie, the more you get involved in these forum the more confusing it seems to get from some of these replies.

      I guess I'll just try to figure it out myself.

      Thanks.
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      • Profile picture of the author irawr
        Banned
        Originally Posted by Realtawk View Post

        I wish it was that easy but unfortunately its just not enough to do a little on page SEO to rank in the top spot.
        Local is lower competition but there are still some big boys playing and back links are still a necessity.

        I guess I'll just stop going on these forums so much.

        As a newbie, the more you get involved in these forum the more confusing it seems to get from some of these replies.

        I guess I'll just try to figure it out myself.

        Thanks.
        If I did local SEO, I'd tell you what I think would work but I don't do local stuff. There are some people around who do and maybe they'll find this thread.

        I understand the basic concept, I just don't have any actual experience.

        To be clear about this, since the site is technically not local, you might be able to do SEO like a regular site and just target local keywords.

        Say your location was Toronto, I don't think Google would give your site any special benefit if your page titles were "Toronto Dentist Directory". I think your site would rank as global and be competing against the local results, on say the keyword "Toronto Dentist" and probably not do that well.

        Again, not an expert here.
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  • Profile picture of the author jazbo
    Make sure your onpage SEO is spot on.

    Make sure you get a google local listing and mark it on google maps.

    Get local citations, search what and how to get them.

    Build some links, perhaps a few quality Web 2.0 blogs that speak of local events and locations and that "naturally" link to your directory.

    Find geographical categories in global directories and submit listings.

    Use social media to network with local businesses and try to get citations and links.

    Use your head basically.
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    • Profile picture of the author cbpayne
      Originally Posted by trigdfurry View Post

      Backlinks is very important for the site for getting more traffic on the site. Local Directory site is helpful to make useful backlinks for the site .
      Originally Posted by jazbo View Post

      Make sure your onpage SEO is spot on.
      Make sure you get a google local listing and mark it on google maps.
      Get local citations, search what and how to get them.
      Build some links, perhaps a few quality Web 2.0 blogs that speak of local events and locations and that "naturally" link to your directory.
      Find geographical categories in global directories and submit listings.
      Use social media to network with local businesses and try to get citations and links.
      Use your head basically.
      I guess neither of you can actually read. Suggest you start again and actually read the OP's post.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    Originally Posted by jazbo View Post

    Make sure your onpage SEO is spot on.

    Make sure you get a google local listing and mark it on google maps.

    Get local citations, search what and how to get them.

    Build some links, perhaps a few quality Web 2.0 blogs that speak of local events and locations and that "naturally" link to your directory.

    Find geographical categories in global directories and submit listings.

    Use social media to network with local businesses and try to get citations and links.

    Use your head basically.
    You are not going to be able to get local citations for a directory unless the directory actually has a physical location.

    OP, I am not a huge fan of guest posting, but it can work.

    When I build a new directory, there are two places I always go to when I want to build links for it. First, other directories. Many directories out there even have 'Directories' as a category. There are a lot of great paid directories out there to get into.

    Second, I look for websites that list directories. Do searches for things like "Top local directories", "Top business directories", etc.

    Contact those pages and try to get your directory listed.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    I'm not sure why this is complicated, all you have to do is look at the link profiles for directories in other cities to see their types of link sources.
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  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
    ROTFLMAO!

    The internet does not need, nor want, another directory.
    (Or any directory for that matter.)

    They are all useless, except to those that think
    theirs is going to be better.

    Newsflash: They aint.

    Paul
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    If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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    • Profile picture of the author irawr
      Banned
      Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

      ROTFLMAO!

      The internet does not need, nor want, another directory.
      (Or any directory for that matter.)

      They are all useless, except to those that think
      theirs is going to be better.

      Newsflash: They aint.

      Paul
      I would have a tendency to agree, you really do need to bring something new to the table for them to be of any value to anybody.

      I would mention Yelp but that's really just there to provide value to the shareholders.
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    • Profile picture of the author fastreplies
      Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

      The internet does not need, nor want, another directory.
      (Or any directory for that matter.)

      They are all useless, except to those that think
      theirs is going to be better.
      Useless. eh?
      Not good even as backlink source for new freshly baked sites no one else would spit on?



      fastreplies
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