Indexing corporate locator pages

[Tony Wang]

I have an independent insurance agent that is listed/linked on several big insurance sites, but very few of those links seem to turn up on ahrefs, for example. I suppose the design of these "agent locator" pages may make it hard or unlikely to get indexed, seems a waste of some good links, but is that just the way it is?

 

[CodyBaird]

Tony,
Some directories and publishers allow bots to crawl and index outbound links, others allow nofollow, others allow followed links. Worst case senario the publisher only allows business citation (name, address, phone, and category). It's also possible that hrefs hasn't indexed the link yet.

Using directories as link building strategy will probably not be sufficient in competitive industries or large cities.

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[Tony Wang]

Thanks Cody, I understand some of the companies will nofollow, but many of the insurance companies dofollow. Safeco, in particular, seems to be an easily indexed link I see for many brokers.

My understanding is that these "agent locator" type pages are usually dynamically generated using many search variables (eg zipcode, city, type of insurance, etc) which means the chances of ever getting indexed could be pretty slim. Is it mainly how the page is designed and how often the site is crawled? I suppose eventually it'll get indexed, just wondering if anyone had insights on improving the situation.

It's not isolated to insurance agents, any particular niche that gets links from vendors they buy from would be similar. For example a pet store might get links from dog good companies.

I agree that it shouldn't be the only link building strategy, but it's an easy start that many businesses don't do.

 

[CodyBaird]

I agree with your points. If your clients site is being indexed well by google you could list directory listings on the contact us page or home page that links back to each profile and get google to index it that way. For example, I will often create a page yousite.com/yelp that redirects to yelp or has a link to my Yelp profile from that page. Or contact us has links to yp.com, yelp, superpages, bbb, etc

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[Tony Wang]

Great tip Cody, that's what I was looking for!

 

[Scott ClientClicks]

Tony - Do you use Google's submit url tool? I use that one all the time after adding inbound links and directory listing for sites that I work on. It's a somewhat hidden feature of the search console. Just Google "submit url" to find it. You do have to be logged on to a Google account.

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[Tony Wang]

Another great tip, thanks Scott. I was only aware of being able to submit urls of sites you manage.

 

[CodyBaird]

Interesting call Scott. In fact, I haven't used G submit tool for submitting pages outside of the client website.

Are you saying that has worked on your directory listings as well? Very cool if you have.

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[Scott ClientClicks]

Hi Cody -

Yes, the submit url tool works great for any urls. I use it whenever I create a new citation to my client's sites to speed up the process. I've seen the citation appear live in the serps just seconds after submitting through that tool.

-Scott

 

[CodyBaird]

Very, very cool Scott. Thanks dude for the tip.

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