Linking from Citations w/ CID's

[CraigJMount]

Suuup guys,

Anyone here familiar with linking directly to a Google Maps CID from a citation as a Google Maps strategy?

Link to article here—Test Results - Using the GMB CID URL in Your Citations - Web 2.0 Ranker

I'm told this works. But I'm moreso interested in why, is this because the brand mentions on the citation source (e.g.—a newspaper), or is it from the equity being sent from the link.

I need light shed on this topic. Looking forward to your insights.

@whitespark

 

[whitespark]

Interesting. I've always believed that linking to your Google Maps listing had zero value.

The way they executed this test didn't convince me either way. They built out 100+ new citations for these businesses and then measured results. What's to say that any ranking gains weren't from the appearance of the citations (NAP info), and not the links? Would the results have been the exact same, or better, if they had linked to the website instead of the maps URL?

A better test would be to take two brand new business in a non-competitive industry/city and build out citations. Use the exact same sites for each business. Don't do any other SEO work. For one business, link to the website URL, for the other, link to the maps URL. Then see which gets better results. Maybe we'll test that.

 

[CraigJMount]

Almost exactly my thoughts, sans the test you just presented.

Also...

 

[whitespark]

Hahaha. That's a great meme. I'll keep you posted, Craig!

 

[BenFisher]

Yep, I agree with Darren. Also... the CID link is a 301 redirect to a maps surface, so most link equity would be lost if you follow the train of thought on 301's and link juice.

imho, I think linking to the CID or the map link is a worthwhile experiment and one I think could show results.

 

[Yan Gilbert]

Agree, with Darren. The algorithm could have been picking up the citations which was increasing the strength of the listing in general.

Another way to test would to create backlinks directly to an existing CID url. No citations on the page.

 

[CraigJMount]

CID link is a 301 redirect to a maps surface

Can you link me to some more information on that, specifically the "maps surface" (not 100% on what that means technically) portion? Is that from a patent?

 

[BenFisher]

Oh heh Googly jargon, you will hear that more when you become Gold Craig, a surface is just a unique interface. Android Maps Surface, Desktop Search Surface etc..