Backlinks & local search?
-
I'm aware that local search is mostly based on citations, and how well your Google places page is optimized, and the landing pages are optimized. But I was wondering if anyone could tell me if backlinks have any relevance in the local search results? And if they do, how much would you say the impact the local search results? could you estimate a % of total value?
Also if they do, does it help to have backlinks that point at your places page urls? or should the backlinks just point at your places page landing pages?
-
Thank you. I have been reading the David Mihn stuff it is a great resource!
-
Hey
I am no expert in local search, but it is one area I am spending some time reading up on and experimenting with at the moment so a lot of this is fresh in my mind.
One of the biggest and best resources around is the David Mihn Local Search Ranking Factors and it has just been updated for 2011: http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml
It's similar to the SEOMoz ranking factors in that they survey lots of big brains from local search and come up with the views and experience of many.
Top 10 Factors are as follows:
- Physical Address in City of Search(PLACE PAGE)
- Manually Owner-verified Place Page(PLACE PAGE)
- Proper Category Associations(PLACE PAGE)
- Volume of Traditional Structured Citations (IYPs, Data Aggregators)(OFF-PLACE/OFF-SITE)
- Crawlable Address Matching Place Page Address(WEBSITE)
- PageRank / Authority of Website Homepage / Highest Ranked Page(WEBSITE)
- Quality of Inbound Links to Website(OFF-PLACE/OFF-SITE)
- Crawlable Phone Number Matching Place Page Phone Number(WEBSITE)
- Local Area Code on Place Page(PLACE PAGE)
- City, State in Places Landing Page Title(WEBSITE)
None of which are links to the place page itself.
Basically, links to the place page are not an issue, but the quality of your actual site and the links to it are an issue.
The whole thing is worth a read and if you are looking for a buddy to bounce some local search ideas off, give me a shout back as I am in that head space at the moment.
Cheers
Marcus
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Local Really?
I've asked this question before and got some strong advice ( I think ) but the results have been not so strong. I'm looking for advice on local. I have this profile: https://plus.google.com/u/0/114370561649922317296/about That I need to rank for "austin wedding photographers" and I have yet to figure out a way to get it to move on the map results. I understand these things take time, but its been a couple of months, and as far as I can tell, its still ranking on page 10 of the "local results" (meaning you search for austin wedding photographers, then click under the map listings to see Google Maps with the listings to the left.) Furthermore, all my organic competition for the most part is now on the local results and the map is ranking higher than all but one organic. Suggestions would be a huge plus. Last time some folks analyzed the google plus local page and gave some tips. Since then a few things have happened. 1. I notice most of the Google Local listings that come up on page 1 in the map have a similar page when clicking "more info." They mostly have a map as their cover photo on their listing. 2. Google has merged my Google Places and Google Plus Local account so that when you click "more info" on the listing (on page 10) it takes you too the branded Google Plus Local page. I like this, but it worries me that most of the high ranking pages don't have this. 3. I have added a Geo Sitemap to Google Webmaster tools but it doesn't show as indexed yet. I understand this can take up to 6 weeks? Does this help? It came when I bought Yoast SEO Local and generated KML files. 4. The address for Google Plus local is real address of a home, so Google doesn't show the specific address. I used to have a mailbox center as the address but was advised to fix that. I have sense changed the address on as many sites as I could (Yelp, YP, Superpages, etc.) 5. Do I need an address on the website? The client does not want her home address listed anywhere for privacy reasons. Hope this is enough information for someone with knowledge to help. The website is ranking first page (3 or 4 organically) for the terms I need for the most part but Local seems to be stronger. Thanks in advance.
Image & Video Optimization | | jonnyholt0 -
Will it help/hinder our local seo by including our local adress on multiple pages?
We have a large website that targets the whole UK. It has landing pages for every town in the UK. For the towns that this particular business has a bricks and mortar hq, we have set up a local/places page. We then added the corresponding places adress to the appropriate town page on the website. This is just a handful compared to the 3,000,000 towns our site aims to rank for. Question: Would it help or hinder our SEO efforts to add the local addresses to other town pages in close proximity to the original? For instance say we have a places address for croydon in London. Would it hurt to add this address to pages that target towns near croydon, such as Mitcham. All opinions greatly appreciated. Cheers!
Image & Video Optimization | | Silkstream0 -
How to add local
When you have reviews of local stores, how can you upload them to Google+ Local (former Google Places) so they will show up on stores/compagnies Google+ Local page? Like this one for example: https://plus.google.com/116525083278574120722/about?hl=nl. It says 'Revies from internet: schilder-adres.nl'. So schilder-adres.nl somehow imported there reviews to Google+ Local. How can you add your local reviews?
Image & Video Optimization | | Men4Media0 -
Ranking Differences for Google+ Local vs. Places Listings
I'm seeing some odd behavior with Google+ Local and Google Places listings for clients. I'm wondering if anyone else is seeing it... Here's the situation: We've recently bought on 4 new clients that all have duplicate listing issues, and, weirdly, all have both places and a Google+ local created listings. For three of those four, the Google+ local listing is outranking the Places account for a brand name search (e.g. Dr. John Doe). Weirdly, in one instance, the Google+ local account that is outranking the Places page is named in a less accurate fashion. e.g searching for "Dr. John Doe" the rankings look like this... A) John Doe Plastic Surgery, P.C. - Dr. John Doe B) Dr. John Doe, MD Anyone else seeing this sort of behavior? How are you creating local listings for clients these days - via the places dashboard, or Google+ Local?
Image & Video Optimization | | BedeFahey0 -
Local SEO
To date local SEO seems to be the weak part of my SEO efforts. Are there any good references for local SEO?
Image & Video Optimization | | casper4340 -
Google+ Local/Places isn't displaying my suite #. Should I leave it out of NAP on other directories, too?
HI All, For some reason Google is not displaying the suite # for a client of mine in Google+ / Places. I've entered the suite # in the back-end of Google+ / Places and it shows there when I log in, but the public version of the listing omits it. So the question is, should the NAP in other directories omit it as well? Google knows it exists, but is choosing not to publish it... Thanks! Zack
Image & Video Optimization | | HammerandHand0 -
New Local Tracking Number for Places vs an 800 Number.
I am having a problem with local search for my business. I submitted the same NAP (Name, Address, Phone) info to Google Places as I have submitted via LocalEZE and Universal Business Listing. Here is the issue. The local number that is being used does not have any way to track calls, meaning the phone company (xo communications) does not give us the number of incoming calls. To add call tracking to the local numbers through our PBX system is very expensive, $2000 per store. Also to transfer this local number to a call tracking company (like callsource or whoiscalling) is a lot of trouble and not an option either. I need to track the call count somehow so I have two options left. 1) Get a new local number (that is also a tracking number through a phone tracking company) and then submit this to Google Places, LocalEZE and Universal Business Listing. The issue with this is that all of our citations will be re-set with a new local number, basically we'd have to do local SEO all over again. 2) Use the main 800 number in Google Places, this can be tracked. However, then our local number is on all of the NAP citations and Google Places will be the only web property with an 800 number. What are your thoughts?
Image & Video Optimization | | qlkasdjfw0 -
Local seo, business in multiple cities?
Hello Everyone, What is the best strategy when it comes to optimizing a website that services more than one city. So, say I'm in computer fixing business and I have offices in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Miami & Dallas. (took me a while to come up with some US cities) - how should I structure my website so that I look relevant for every city? Is it possible to display specific information for users coming from specific cities, say someone browsing from San Francisco will see my main page optimized for San Francisco (containing a real address, phone number all the necessary stuff). I'd really appreciate your thoughts on this. Thank you in advance, Alex
Image & Video Optimization | | pwpaneuro0