Do Yellow Pages and Yelp Listings Count as Backlinks?
Mostly no. Of 25 directory listings we checked, 4 gave the business a plain followed link. The rest were nofollow, went through a redirect Google is told not to crawl, or had no website link.
Yellowbook.com: now a small-business articles site. We found no business listings to link from.
Still list your business? Yes, for the customers who search those sites. Not for link value.
25 listings on 9 directories, read in a browser: 4 direct followed links, 7 marked nofollow or ugc, 7 routed through a redirect blocked in robots.txt, 7 with no website link.
Checked 9 October 2026. Yellow Pages, BBB and Angi blocked the check. Method at the end.
What makes a listing link count
A link on a directory passes value to your site only if Google can follow it and the directory hasn't asked Google to ignore it. Two things stop that:
- A rel value. Google's guide to qualifying outbound links says to use nofollow when "you'd rather Google not associate your site with, or crawl the linked page from, your site", and recommends the ugc value for "user-generated content (UGC) links, such as comments and forum posts".
- A blocked redirect. Some directories don't link to you at all. They link to their own redirect URL, which then sends visitors on to you.
Directory by directory
MentionAgent opened Denver plumber listings (restaurants on Tripadvisor) in a normal browser and read the website link on each:
| Directory | Listings with a website link | How the link is built |
|---|---|---|
| Tripadvisor | 3 of 3 | Direct to the site, no rel value |
| MapQuest | 1 of 3 | Direct to the site, no rel value |
| Nextdoor | 3 of 3 | Direct, marked ugc |
| Chamber of Commerce | 2 of 3 | Direct, marked nofollow |
| Hotfrog | 2 of 3 | Direct, marked nofollow |
| Yelp | 3 of 3 | Via yelp.com/biz_redir, blocked in robots.txt |
| Houzz | 2 of 2 | Via houzz.com/trk/, blocked in robots.txt |
| Manta | 2 of 3 | Via manta.com/urlverify, nofollow and blocked in robots.txt |
| Thumbtack | 0 of 2 | No website link on the profile |
Only Tripadvisor and MapQuest gave a link with nothing on it, and MapQuest showed a website on just one of three listings. Yellow Pages, BBB and Angi showed a Cloudflare block page instead of the listing, so they aren't counted.
Why a redirect passes nothing
Google's robots.txt introduction says the file "tells search engine crawlers which URLs the crawler can access on your site". On 9 October 2026, Yelp's robots.txt disallowed /biz_redir in its Googlebot group, Houzz disallowed /trk/* for all crawlers, and Manta disallowed /urlverify in the group that covers Googlebot.
So the website link on those profiles points at a URL Googlebot is told not to fetch. Visitors still reach your site. Google's crawler doesn't reach it through that link.
What happened to Yellowbook
Yellowbook.com's homepage is titled "Small Business Resources". A Google search of the site for "plumber" returned 10 results, all articles under /lrcontent/blog/ and none a business listing (9 October 2026). A "Yellowbook backlink" isn't something you can get there today.
Are listings still worth it?
For customers, they can be: a profile carries your reviews, and its website link still sends visitors who click it. For links, the table above is the answer. Google's local ranking help says prominence is based partly on "how many websites link to your business", and directory profiles mostly don't supply that.
A listing is still a citation, a mention of your name, address and phone number. For the difference, see do citations count as backlinks? and what citation packages cost.
Where local links come from instead
- Local news and blogs writing about your business (PR link building).
- Pages already ranking for "best [service] in [city]" that you can ask to be added to (editorial link building).
- Suppliers, trade bodies and partners that list who they work with.
- Your own profile pages pointing at your site, so the profile you control sends people to it (Google Business Profile backlinks).
Links that count, from sites in your area and niche
MentionAgent finds the publishers writing about your kind of business, pitches them your best page and follows up for you. From $99/mo.
Start Getting Mentioned On AutopilotMethod
- Listings: found with Google site searches for Denver plumbers on each directory (restaurants for Tripadvisor), up to 3 business profiles each, 25 profiles on 9 directories.
- Reading: each profile opened in Chrome on 9 October 2026; we recorded the website link's destination and rel attribute as the page rendered it.
- Robots rules: Yelp, Houzz and Manta robots.txt files fetched the same day.
- Not counted: Yellow Pages, BBB and Angi (Cloudflare block pages). Plain scripted requests got a 403 from most directories, which is why we used a browser.
Frequently asked questions
Is a Yelp listing a backlink?
Not one Google follows. On the 3 Yelp profiles we checked, the website link went through yelp.com/biz_redir, which Yelp's robots.txt blocks for Googlebot.
Do Yellow Pages links help SEO?
We couldn't check: yellowpages.com showed a Cloudflare block page. Of the 9 directories we could read, 2 gave a plain followed link.
Are nofollow directory links useless?
Not entirely: they still send visitors, and the listing still counts as a citation. But nofollow tells Google the directory would rather it not associate the two sites.