Although backlinks still appear to be one of the primary factors in ranking sites in the search results, it appears that the source of backlinks and authorship play a larger role in the weight of backlinks and how Google applies this data to any given site ranking.  The biggest change that I have notices is time.

I remember the days of optimizing a website to rank for a keyword or phrase, and I could implement a couple of changes with results showing up in days.  Some times it would take longer to see the results, but back then 3-4 days was typical.  It was rather nice, actually, because you new whether something was working to your benefit or detriment, and you could quickly make changes if necessary.  SEO’s and Internet marketers don’t enjoy that privilege any longer as results can now take up to several weeks or even a month.  It appears as though site filtering has been implemented, as well as the quality of the content that a given website author publishes.

As many of us know, local search results have been plentiful as Google has made attempts to provide users with results that serve them based upon geographical location.  The introduction of Google +1 has been paving the way to yet another highly relevant factor, and Yesterday Google pretty much let the cat out of the bag as to their sole intent of how search is going to be from this point forward. With their release of “Search, plus Your World,” Google is clearly indicating their intent of local based search, not only geographically speaking, but in the sense of our personal circle of friends and online sources that we frequent daily.

Can Google Eliminate the Backlink Ranking Factor from Search Results?

I do believe Google may have found their way around the SEO cheats in cyberspace without taking backlinks out of the equation, but I certainly wouldn’t lay hold to the idea that high page rank backlinks will always be the medium of search results ranking.  As a matter of fact I’m going to predict that 2012 is going to be the year that search results ranking based upon high page rank backlinks will have little or no value as personal and local results slowly consume the results we see.  I may be wrong, but the days of purchasing high page rank backlinks to boost a website up in the search results are coming to a close, and soon we will all be competing on a level playing field when it comes to ranking websites.

Back on May 25, 2011 Greg Sterling of SMI, a consulting and research firm focused on the Internet’s influence on offline consumer purchase behavior, wrote a post that conveyed some very interesting local search statistics.  In this post Greg conveyed how Marissa Mayer openly shared the following:

• 20% of PC searches ( 2.2 billion) in the US each month have a local intent

• local searches constitute 40% of all mobile searches

Essentially Greg (and Dan) “broadly estimate” that Google mobile searches are between 1.9 and 2.4 billion queries per month, with approximately 650 million to 795 million of them being attributable to local-mobile queries.
Collectively this data shows that some 440 million PC searches and 650 million mobile searches are conducted each month with the searchers intent on finding something in their local vicinity.  These numbers are staggering and cannot be disregarded if you are a local business owner.

Clearly, if your business can be exposed to these searches and receive targeted visitors for your products and services, your business sales will increase dramatically.

What is Local Search?

Local search is a list of search results that display only local businesses when you perform a search in Google.  Earlier this morning I performed a search in Google for the term “mechanic” and took a screen show of the results that were shown.  As the screenshot below illustrates, out of the 26,700,00 results that are available, the first results displayed are seven local businesses in the Waukesha area.

Notice that the organic search results fall second to businesses listed in Google’s local business (“Places”) results.  Now just imagine your business is Pearl Street Automotive at the top of the 7 businesses.  Think how many people looking for a mechanic click on Pearl Street Automotive to get their phone number, visit their website to get more business information.
Imagine your business listing being featured in the top 7 results!

Get Your Business Featured in the Top Seven Local Results

For several years Liberty Web Marketing has dedicated itself to maximizing client visibility in local search results. We know the value of business branding and how important it is to list local businesses so customers and new clients can find your business. With trusted techniques and invaluable knowledge we attain high local listing placement in Google places for all of our clients, and we place our emphasis on success!

Boost Your Business’s Local Search

In an effort to serve Waukesha businesses that have not chosen Liberty Web Marketing to design their website, we now offer a new service called Business Review Boost that guarantees your business will be listed in the top 10 results of Google Places.  This service is less than $35 per month — paying for itself with your newly found customers.  Please visit our website if you’re interested in this new Waukesha local search service, and we will be more than happy to put your business on the map!

I like results. Results serve as a sense of accomplishment for the task at hand, especially when they fulfill the process of outranking the competition. The overall sense of accomplishment ascends beyond my expectations on more occasions than I can keep track of, and the best thing is that I implement legitimate — albeit painstaking and onerous — web marketing methods that work. I have to admit that in some cases the end results take time, but as long as the goal is reached, time is a minimal factor in the equation.
I don’t want this message to come across as bragging, but rather as an example of how perseverance and patience pays off in the long run. In this case “long run” means a period of approximately nine months. Some people may judge that as long, while the circle of internet marketers that I associate with view it as a relatively short cycle in the overall “Big Picture”. What is the Big Picture, you ask? Ranking my website in the top three slots on the first page of Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. The number of results for this search term range anywhere from one-half million, to two and one-half million, so I set my goal at twelve months. However, it turns out that I accomplished my goal in just under nine months. Trust me when I say that earlier than anticipated results are humbly accepted.

As most of us know through life experiences, if you want to accomplish a goal it is going to take work, patience, and more patience and work. This life principle holds especially true in art of internet marketing. I’ll honestly admit that I like to see some type of immediate results, but in this trade I’ve learned that immediate results are usually short lived. As such, I set out to make the results more permanent and long-lasting, because that is what really matters. Just about anyone can get their website in the top five in the three major search engines, but not everyone can get a site there and keep it there. Just a few short years ago I struggled with maintaining first page permanency, but today I understand the fundamentals of how to attain practically permanent rankings and not on key words and long tails that are unpopular either.

Although I don’t often share my secrets of this trade (some readers will already know a majority of these resources) I believe that sharing what works for me and helping others is vital to the internet marketing community as a whole.

Content
The content of your website should signify the distinctive brand of your business or niche. Most importantly the content should be unique, original, and personable.
I know that many businesses have static websites with pages that only contain limited text because there are only so many ways to describe specific items and services. Just because you only have limited products or services that mirror other businesses or products, such as an electrician or plumber, does not mean that you cannot be creative in describing your specific products and services. Personalize them by explaining why and how your products and services are better than the next business who offers the same products and services, and write these attributes with the passion that prompted you to start your business.
As I noted, many sites are static and do not contain a blog or live feed that can be updated on a normal basis. I cannot express strongly enough the importance of having a blog that features your latest products, specials, or even news items that are relevant to the niche your business occupies. Not only does a blog enable your website to expand on a particular product or service that you offer by adding more details or definition, but you can direct specific links from blog posts to your product and service pages, which helps to gain them recognition apart from the common static sites that serve your business competition. I understand that some people may not be real good at writing these blog posts; however, it only costs a few dollars to hire someone to write some decent content for your blog.

Business Listings
I think it’s safe to say that no matter what region you live in there are many opportunities to list your business or services in a free business listing. Here in the Waukesha Milwaukee metro area there are literally dozens of them available, and most of them impute a certain trust and reputation to your business via the trust attained by these resources from the search engines. Business listings display vital branding components to your business, such as your physical address and phone number. Remember, although you may offer a similar product or service, your business is unique in that it has a different location and phone number. Try this out once. Go in your browser search engine and type in your business address or phone number. Does your business appear in the first spot? If not, then your business has not yet acquired its unique brand, and this can be achieved through free business listings.

Backlinks
Simply stated, there is no better way to rank well in the search engines – even with the latest Panda monium of Google’s algorithm update – than through attaining backlinks to your website from other credible websites. You may or may not have heard about Google’s Panda update and the havoc it has wreaked on many websites, even very credible websites. The fact remains that as long as you utilize legitimate and sound backlink and internet marketing practices there is nothing to worry about, despite the hypothesis of so called SEO experts who do nothing more than speculate on Panda and lead you to believe that they actually know something. They’re selling dreams on the premise of doing things faster, and that is where the problems arise. To do things fast you have to cheat, and when you cheat you get caught.
Quite frankly, I have not changed a single thing that I do to successfully rank a website on the first page. Further, I have not suffered any negative consequences of Google’s attempt to eliminate certain websites from their search index. I don’t cut corners or implement techniques that are potentially risky. I keep things simple by portraying my unique brand, at my unique location, with my unique phone number. It works, it has always worked this way, and it will always prove to be successful.

When you keep things simple and brand your business with unique and fresh content, there is no reason that you should not be successful in the process of outranking the competition in your area.

Website development is more than the looks of a given website.  It involves the structural integrity from an invisible perspective that only the search engines see. (and people such as myself who analyze HTML markup from behind the scenes)  Structure, especially the linking structure of a website, is probably one of the most critical elements that I see lacking in most sites.  When properly applied the linking structure has a flow about it that makes navigation swift, practical, and never leaving anyone hung out on a page with no way out other that the “backwards” browser navigation button.

… we’ve detected that some of your site’s pages may be using techniques that are outside google webmaster guidelines.  Specifically,look for possibly artificial or unnatural links pointing to your site that could be intended to manipulate PageRank.  Examples of unnatural linking could include buying links to pass PageRank or participating in link schemes.
We encourage you to make changes to your site so that it meets our
quality guidelines.  Once you’ve made these changes,please submit your site for
reconsideration in Google’s search results.  If you find unnatural links to your site that you are unable to control or remove,please provide the details in your reconsideration request.
If you have any questions about how to resolve this issue, please see our webmaster help forum for support.

sincerely,

google search quality team

In a post at Search Engine Roundtable it appears as though numerous webmasters and the like are receiving notices which appear to indicate a distinction between buying and selling links. (i.e., inbound vs. outbound links)  Granted, it may be too early to discern whether or not these individuals did something silly, like buying 10k  backlinks in one shot and sending up the red flags.  Nevertheless, it appears as though

As late as this past January, Google assured website designers, developers and SEO’s that backlinks to your website cannot necessarily count against you.  The premise is that if such influence were possible, other webmasters looking to out-rank a competitor could simply sabotage the competitor by directing low quality backlinks from content farms and spam sites to competitors sites, thereby knocking them down a notch or two in the SERPS, or even worse, having the site deindexed.  Well, tighten up that belt and be prepared for some sad news because things may have changed with Google’s inbound link policy under the Farmer “Panda”) update!

Google has really been cracking the whip with Panda, and the algorithm changes  have been very unpredictable  for many SEO’s and webmasters alike.
Do you remember back in March when the likes of Panda classified Google Places as a content farm?  The nightmares of the Panda monium keep coming in from around the globe, and it appears that no one, not even Google itself, has immunity from the vicious karate chops being doled-out by this cute, fuzzy creature in its attempt to make web search a better experience.

What many of us do know with relative uncertainty is that the overall affect of Panda is anything but concluded, and it appears that perhaps more algorithm changes are being added and tweaked as we speak.   Why just last month Panda gave the karate chop to .co.cc domains with the contention that they are protecting users from malware, a measure I certainly endorse 100%!