Backlinking Citations: Could it work? Has it been done before?

I just happened to be imagining a "link pyramid" aiming at a local business (in the organic sense) and then I wondered what might happen if someone tried to backlink the citations to that business. Has this been done before? Is there any documentation (anecdotal stories, or "essays" posted by experts, etc...)? Could it be dangerous (to the business)? What might it look like, i.e. what kind of backlinks might a person try to use to construct a pyramid pointing to the business's site via citations?

I don't quite understand what you mean by "backlink citations" but
citations are different from backlinks because they don't have hyperlinks at all, this is just text with brand name. They are used as seo strategy, but not as main part of portfolio.
On the other side is "backlink citations" that are simple backlinks with brand url, money anchors, simple anchors etc.. this is a strategy that is used by many people, you just need to determine what is the safe proportion for you with each method by analyzing your competitors.

Are you talking about sending backlinks to citations? Because I think that's a standard practice...

lbhbochc said:

Are you talking about sending backlinks to citations? Because I think that's a standard practice...

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Yes, and I'm surprised the way I expressed it seems to have caused so much confusion. I studied Local SEO here about 5 years ago, and as I recall the idea of backlinking citations was more "theoretical" than "standard practice", as there was some doubt as to whether or not it would actually do anything, and also if it might cause any harm.

What kind of backlinks are commonly used? Is it usually some kind of paid service, or do people "build their own"? Is it just straight backlinking, or are people building pyramids?

I'm also surprised that there doesn't seem to be much interest here, now, regarding Local SEO. As I recall there was an entire clique of people here that did nothing but Local SEO.

Tyrone Whitacher said:

What kind of backlinks are commonly used? Is it usually some kind of paid service, or do people "build their own"? Is it just straight backlinking, or are people building pyramids?

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Citations can usually take a beating. Xrumer or money robot links work just fine.