Is adding my business link to local business directory/listing good or bad for SEO?

Question

I'm wanting to boost search engine rankings for a business website that offers bootcamp fitness classes in a specific area of UK.

I'm aware that link building is a great way to improve search engine rankings, if not the best way, and have therefore thought about adding our link to local business directories to improve this.

However, I'm now also aware that search engines, in particular, Google, are now funny about building links with websites that have no relevance and can have a negative effect on our ranking.

As mentioned above, the business directories that we are looking to add our link to are in the same town as us or, at most, the same county.

Most of these directories are not relevant to our business with regards to the sport/fitness/bootcamp keywords but they are relevant to our business with regards to our location. However, some do have sections for 'Exercise Classes' and could be classed as relevant as their page title has 'Exercise Classes' written in it.

When Google says backlinks must have relevance, do they mean just our business sector or is location accepted as relevant too? Also, do they consider these business directories link farms/link factories?

Answer 1

First check the domain authority of the sites (business directories) from which you will get the backlinks.

If the indicator is good I would go for it. Being listed in business directories is something which is expected from local businesses so google should theoretically not punish webpages for doing that.

What you want to avoid are toxic backlinks. There are tools to check the toxicity of backlinks. You can read about this in several places e.g. Semrush blog