~~Up date April 2015. Just spoke to a client who had a call from the local B.B.B. Sales representative who, just like in 2013 when we originally wrote about the Better Business Bureau claiming that the one simple act of joining their service and adding your web site link to your new B.B.B. listing will significantly increase your Google rankings. It’s not true. Very few if any single site links will make a significant change in your web site rankings, and the link the B.B.B. provides certainly isn’t one of those.
You would think that an organization based on trust would employ better standards in their sales organization…. ~~~
If you read this blog you know that we encourage business owners to use their association memberships for getting more Internet traffic, and boasting their sites popularity.
We just had a call from a better business bureau sales rep, who said, and I quote, “the membership is probably worth the money just in it’s SEO value alone”. Sounds like the BBB is jumping on the SEO band wagon. I hope Google doesn’t penalize them for selling links with this approach!
The reason to join any business association should be the value it brings to your business in the areas of education, promotion, and credibility. If it helps your Internet popularity as a result, that’s a bonus.
We recommend A BBB membership to most of our clients who sell to consumers. It’s a important “trust” factor. But buying it for SEO only doesn’t make all that much sense.
You can read more about whats happening in Local SEO on this blog .
1.) The BBB does not sell links. It is part of their membership.
2.) Every Directory such as Chamber of Commerces, Yellowpages.com, Superpages, Angies List, etc all have links! Nothing new!
3.) Google considers the BBB as General Advertising thus, not a paid link!
4.) Do your research on the PR and traffic the BBB gets. It IS a great link!
5.) The BBB has been offering links for the last 10 years, if Google had a problem, they would have d-listed them!
Good points Kenneth! Here is what the blog says: “We recommend A BBB membership to most of our clients who sell to consumers. It’s a important “trust” factor. But buying it for SEO only doesn’t make all that much sense.”
The only point is selling a BBB membership and saying it’s worth the price in SEO value alone is completely misleading. One link from any site isn’t worth the price of a BBB Membership.
Just for further clarification on the above comment by “Kenneth” who left no web site or email to respond to (so I assume he is a B.B,B. sales representative). The links from the B.B.B. site in Denver from the individual business listings are not of great value because the Page Authority is almost nothing on those pages.