Just a quick heads up.
While going through access logs during a monthly site tuneup, I noticed entries coming from a specific range I know belongs to a popular business directory. Having a 100% bounce rate and not appearing in analytics as coming from the directory, I got curious and went over to the directory to investigate.
I don't have a brick and mortar business with that website, so being in the directory at all would be weird. What I found by scanning page sources related to the topic of my site was, sure enough, links to my site. They don't appear as backlinks in search console, all are noindex links and there is a tracking script involved to monitor outbound activity.
All the links have the anchor text "website", the businesses(I found 2, a www version and a non-www) using my site as their "website" both had the same characteristics. They didn't have a website of their own and they had phone numbers listed but the addresses were not legit either. I called them, both were mobile repair services, Both said the directory got the wrong website and that they hadn't signed up themselves.
Who knows what the deal is, but....
Both of the business entries were #1 in their section. It's like the directory is using the traffic metrics of the attached site in calculating their business entry rankings? Also, the number of years in business was the same for both as the age of my site. Is the directory using domain registration age or did someone else look that up from my site? Coincidence? Who knows.
I figured you marketing types probably already knew about this, but in case you didn't.... now you do. If you own a directory, you might want to be sure people can't enter sites they don't own just to climb in directory order.
I looked around other categories and found major brand manufacturer .com sites belonging to companies in other countries being used this way. This was a MAJOR directory, I won't name it, but you know it.
Have a great weekend.
Edit: I sure hope G isn't thinking my site is associated with a business because of a trusted directory entry, lol.
