Importance of Links for Local Search
-
**According to an article about the "no no's for local SEO" links are not very important. Here is an excerpt: "**Local SEO is very different when compared to traditional SEO. The importance of backlinks in local SEO isn’t as important. In other words, links simply don’t matter as much when it comes to local SEO. Googles’ local search algorithm treats links completely differently than its standard algorithm."
How accurate is this statement? Wouldn't more links help your local pages rank better in non-local organic results such as the results outside of the new carousel?
-
Actually the current blended local algo - where the 7 pack shows up is primarily weighted toward regular organic ranking factors. Some still think it's based on citations and reviews but that's the old algo not this one.
I have a big post coming out tomorrow (partly due to discussions with Miriam on her newest 2 blog posts) that explains the local algo and proves that at least the top 3 in the pack are controlled by the organic algo.Then of course the "Venice" local results are based on the traditional organic algo.
So links 'can' play a part, however in local it's often not even needed because it's often not super competitive. If you do the Place page right and know how to do good "LOCAL" on-site SEO (which is slightly different than regular SEO) then it can make all the difference. I used to take clients on average from #16 to #2 just doing on-site SEO and local hooks. Never did citations or backlinks and many clients rank #1 even though they had no reviews and are furthest from city center.
So I say good on-site and Places optimization are most important. BUT if in uber competitive market like Atlanta Personal Injury Attorney, then you'll need links too.
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
-
More or less pages from Homepage? Linking 3rd hierarchy level pages from Homepage.
Hi Moz community, With the concept of preserving link juice, many websites stopped linking too many pages from homepage. We even removed our 3rd hierarchy level pages removed from our homepage. We didn't notice much change in rankings. Recently I have gone through some SEO articles where some experts suggested to link low level pages from homepage which indicates to Google the way we respect and prioritise those pages but not just homepage and very next level pages. This also works in internal linking it seems. Is this true? Can we add such low level pages from homepage? Which actually works Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Canonical tag on search.asp resultpage or what to do?
Hi, Im starting out doing SEO on my websites. My issue now is, that I have this searchpage called search.asp where it's possible to search for profiles on my website. When you go to search.asp the page displays all profiles as default, and it's then possible to change things like age, hairlenght and lots of small variables. When you submit the queries, the url would be some linke this:
Algorithm Updates | | KasperGJ
wwww.site.com/search.asp?agefrom=10&ageto=40&haircolor=1&area=Denmark and so... There is thousands of different "urls" it could change to, which is kinda bad in SEO i guess. ATM the title tag is always "Searching for profiles", but i plan to change that, so the searchquery would be part of the title. The problem is, that right now, this page generates tons of dublicate content. So, my issue is, what to do? 1. Should I create a or would that "harm" my site? 2. Other ideas? /Kasper0 -
Fresh content..how important to SERP position?
I've heard that fresh content helps boost your position in the serps. If i wrote all new unique content on some of my pages that havent been changed in several years, would i see a boost in the rank? If so, how many positions?
Algorithm Updates | | Ron100 -
Changes in Google "Site:" Search Algorithm Over Time?
I was wondering if anyone has noticed changes in how Google returns 'site:' searches over the past few years or months. I remember being able to do a search such as "site:example.com" and Google would return a list of webpages where the order may have shown the higher page rank pages (due to link building, etc) first and/or parent category pages higher up in the list of the first page (if relevant) first (as they could have higher PR naturally, anyways). It seems that these days I can hardly find quality / target pages that have higher page rank on the first page of Google's site: search results. Is this just me... or has Google perhaps purposely scrambled the SERPS somewhat for site: searches to not give away their page ranking secrets?
Algorithm Updates | | OrionGroup1 -
Loss of 1,000 links has negatively affecting rankings
Hey there, One of the clients we're working with has lost about 1,000 or so backlinks over the last two or three months - mainly old article and directory links - and it has massively affected the site's search rankings. The site was ranking for pretty much all of its keywords in prominent positions on Google (mostly first page) but has now seen positions dive to 50, 90 and even outside of the top 100. Is there any immediate action we can put into place to help restore our rankings?
Algorithm Updates | | Webrevolve0 -
Are press releases a form of paid links? Matt Cutts on paid links
According to Matt Cutts latest video about paid links everything that allows Page Rank to pass through is considered paid link and is against Google's rules. I think this is geared more towards directories but aren't 90% of press releases just another form of paid links? You pay to game the system, to manipulate the search engines. He goes on to say that if you "nofollow" the link there will be no penalty. It will be interesting to see how much their revenues will decrease if all press release websites & article distribution networks will have to nofollow their outbound links. He makes it very clear that paid ads are different because they do not manipulate search engines in any way. What do you guys think?
Algorithm Updates | | echo10 -
Impressions and search queries help
Hello, In the past month alone, my website www.shiftins.com has had a significant drop, about 50%, in my overall impressions and search queries (info from Google WMT). Now my target keywords have maintained their rankings but it looks like my site has dropped off the map for every other search term. I have not received any unnatural link warnings or anything of that sort so I don't think I have been penalized. Does anyone have an idea of what might have caused the decline and is there a solution to restore my prior status?
Algorithm Updates | | raph39880 -
Categories where "freshness" is of importance
I know that within the past couple of months, Google as made algo updates so that freshness of content is used as more of an indicator for relevancy, and hence, rankings. see: http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2012/06/search-quality-highlights-39-changes.html I understand that freshness is important across the board, but it is obviously more of a factor for certain search terms. My questions is, how can you determine if your product category (ecommerce) is one where freshness is becoming more of a factor? Is there any way to know which terms are considered to require fresher results? Any input is appreciated.
Algorithm Updates | | inhouseseo1