Welcome to the Q&A Forum

I just made a similar response here.

http://moz.com/community/q/localize-homepage-or-service-pages

You do not need a physical location to rank but it helps. You can rank for location keywords like Essex or Cambs. There is no easy way to do this if you want to keep it legit.

Things you can do.. Get a business location in the locations specified, tie them into separate parts of your site dedicated to that area.

Widen your service area on google places to cover all these areas specified. Make your places account keyword rich and you will start to come up. With a good amount of reviews, people call even if you are far away.

I have started a new website for sub zero refrigerator repair after years of using other website with funky permalink structures. I really wanted to make this one perfect using all the keyword data i have compiled from adwords, chatting with customers and the google search box.

I found that sub-zero repair was my most popular search term by a long shot. No location info given. So my url is.

http://subzerorepair.com/

Now, people also searched service maybe 1 out of ten times.

so... next was to specify my service

http://subzerorepair.com/service

Now, states. we service multiple states, and a lot of times people specify which state they are in while searching.

http://subzerorepair.com/service/new-jersey

Now, even more rare, but allows me to specify more specific areas we work in and write nice content, ideally tying each page in with google local accounts listings, is counties.

http://subzerorepair.com/service/new-jersey/bergen-county-nj

I am not a professional, but years of looking at search results led me to try to organize my permalinks into this specific path. This is my two cents, I think this is the best structure I could have.  iI anyone can give me a critique it would be much appreciated !

Now, I also own a home. A home with a hundred year old barn I am having completely restored and modernized. When looking for a builder I really scoured the internet hard. I have narrowed it down between two or three companies who specialize in this type of work as it is more of an investment as lets say, refrigerator repair. So, my point is that while your permalink structure is important, you want to come up when people specify an area, your content, quality of workmanship, pictures, information given and general awesomeness of website is going to matter more than coming up first. I mean, who goes with the first builder they click on on google?

I think it depends. Obviously having solid content is the best way to gain a natural following thus increase your ranking. It has been mentioned recently that small businesses should not look for un-natural web links and focus more on creating good content. The reasoning behind it is to eliminate any black-hat link techniques of the past once and for all. I don't buy into the idea that good solid links to good solid content won't help you. I think the future of search will probably be creating a natural mix of all of the above.

To answer your question, I agree and disagree. It's not like good links are going to hurt you. However, it should be more important to develop the content to get those links in a natural way.

What is your URL?

There is a million reason why it could not be showing up. No one can even begin to tell you the reason without having a look at it.

Do not hesitate to really hone in on locations in Adwords and customize ads for towns and areas! I saw my CTR go up drastically on some of my websites that were highly dependent on location targeting. Tie that in with a google Local listing with some nice reviews and business will be booming!

There are many factors besides links that can influence rank. Have you looked at their content or quality of their website for example, how long the website has existed? I sure haven't but it is something to consider. As mentioned above, you can report anything you find to google if you really feel they have shitty links.

Also, if you are using wordpress please check out the Yoast SEO plugin, there you will find very easy and straight forward ways to edit your title tag and create relevant snippets for google.

Blogger is a great platform and with great content it ranks accordingly, what platform are you using now for your blogging? If you are using something similar like wordpress I would not worry about what platform you are using as much as what content you are producing and where it is ending up/ who and where it is being linked to.

I would back up that permalink with a nice google local business location as well! Especially if you are looking for local traffic, people googling you will more than likely be in your specified area. Having categories like Andy mentioned is also a great idea and will benefit the layout of your website.

when i view the competitive domain analysis side-by-sides it says my competitor has 1400 total external links.

when i click go to open site explorer are check all external links it says the website has 80 links in total.

what am i missing here?

I would back up that permalink with a nice google local business location as well! Especially if you are looking for local traffic, people googling you will more than likely be in your specified area. Having categories like Andy mentioned is also a great idea and will benefit the layout of your website.

Blogger is a great platform and with great content it ranks accordingly, what platform are you using now for your blogging? If you are using something similar like wordpress I would not worry about what platform you are using as much as what content you are producing and where it is ending up/ who and where it is being linked to.