Local Search Marketers Guesstimate 2013 Google Ranking Factors

Despite the annual changes in the local search ecosystem, the ranking factors that Google uses to determine its local search results haven’t changed much over the past year.

So say the 35 local search marketers that contributed to the 2013 Local Search Ranking Factors — organized again this year by David Mihm, and published this year on Moz.com (his employer’s website).

The survey looks at general local ranking factors first, then dives into a long list of specifics (more than 100 in all) and negative ranking factors — local search no-nos, you could call them.

The most influential general ranking factors, according to the survey experts, are

• Place Page Signals (proximity, having a keyword in the business name, etc.)
• On-Page Signals (keyword in title tags, domain authority, etc.)
• External Location Signals (citations from other sites, name/address/phone consistency, etc.)
• Link Signals (quality of inbound links, anchor text, etc.)
• Review Signals (how many, how frequent they are, etc.)

And getting more specific, the top local factors were some of the same that they’ve been in past years: using the correct categories, being physically located in the city being searched, high-quality citations and clear/consistent Name/Address/Phone information.

There’s much more to review in the full survey results, but that should give you a taste of what to expect. If you do local search marketing for yourself or for clients, it’s a must read (as it is every year).

Refferd by :http://searchengineland.com/local-search-marketers-guesstimate-2013-google-ranking-factors-169054

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Getting Quality Backlinks To Your Site


In the current times, the best way to do SEO is by having the highest quality content possible. In the past, one only needed to get a bunch of links to their sites in order to get a good rank, but as of late Google and the other search engines have reduced the importance of links. However, this does not mean that links are to be completely ignored when you are working on your SEO.

It is extremely important to concentrate on content in 2013, but it is also a good idea to dedicate some time to getting links as well. The only difference is that while in the past it was possible to get a bunch of links through shady means and be fine; Today, you have to be very careful about the kinds of links you get since they may end up harming your rank.

The key to making sure that you get quality links is by making a big effort toward having other people link your site. There are many ways that you can get people to link to your content, but the methods below are the ones that I found to be most effective.

Provide Factual and Educational Content
Bloggers are far less likely to link to articles that are subjective, unless they are extremely good. This means, that if you would like to get as many links as you can from your readers then you’ll have to provide content that is educational and factual. If you provide the most reliable information, then you’re more likely to be linked to as a reference/source in an article.

While it could be hard to do, the best content is “ground-breaking” informational content. Such as, releasing a study on an aspect of SEO that someone has never done before.

Exchange Links with Reputable Websites
This is one of the oldest practices for getting quality links to your site. You only need to find a site that is of good standing in your niche, and link to it. After you have linked to the site, you can then contact the owner and ask if they would be interested in putting your link on their site. If the owner is not interested, then you can easily move on to another reputable site and replace the link.

Focus on Quality and Not Quantity
When your site is informative, and easy to use then people are bound to link to it. This is the best way of getting backlinks to your content. As long as you concentrate on providing the best content (not the most); you can be sure that people are going to link to it, thus improving your rank.

In summary, getting backlinks is still something you have to add into your SEO strategy. Still, as time goes on content is becoming the main factor when it comes to ranking in the search engines. The best way to get quality backlinks to your site is through your content.

What are your thoughts?

Refferd by: http://www.seoupdates.net/2013/02/16/getting-quality-backlinks-to-your-site/