Links - the most important SEO strategy

[tonygreek]

Originally Posted by Turf Troll

This should get you up to speed with ranking in local search. At least it is a good starting point.
http://www.davidmihm.com/local-searc...-factors.shtml

Great link (it's been open as a tab on my browser for at least a week now. lol)

The #1, Physical Address, can't be overstated enough. Exact match across all web mediums is crucial to legitimacy cross-matching.

I'll be curious to see how the rankings change when they revise and take Google +Local into consideration.

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[Turf Troll]

I look forward to going over the survey every year. I'm glad you find it useful.

I usually can't tolerate the white hat, towing the Google company policy line, buy our seo services, Google butt kissing talk most seo companies put out.

Many folks with all white hat only seo practices to their sites got disappeared from the search results or put back many pages during the last updates and filters Google has initiated.

I wouldn't think any changes that occur from +Local will be to much to handle.

There are suggestions that Google organic search results will go to a paid format like the paid for the blue local maps letter listings.

I am of the opinion Google search results are less relevant now to the searches I am doing than when I use Bing.
Another way, I am getting better search results using Bing than using Google when I search. Go figure. Try it yourself sometime.

[headz77]

I am enjoying this conversation a lot. During the last 3-4 months I have been working on a lot of the methods mentioned here, with some success. I am in a decent sized market competing (on google at least) with larger companies with large marketing budgets.

Would any of you want to take a quick look at my site, rossnwwatergardens.com and give me a few pointers. What am I missing?

Just a random thought- I really wish posts from mobile devices could contain our signatures.
Posted via Mobile Device

[tonygreek]

Headz, I know I've taken a stroll or two through your site in the past as the red-eyed tree frog is quite memorable. My first suggestion is to start by flipping him horizontally so that he looks to the right. Google puts quite a bit of emphasis on the Tree Frog Gazing Metric... lol

If you won't mind, start a new thread for this and people can weigh in, without getting lost in this one.

[headz77]

But I like hijacking threads....

Posted via Mobile Device

[GreyFlames]

Originally Posted by Dave does lawns

Besides I have found in my experience that by me linking to other sites weighed just as heavily then those linking to me.

Focusing on relevant outbound links is important for more than just SEO. A visitor will see you in more credible light if you have links to trade organizations. They may even follow them and gain value from the site.

Linking to local businesses also provides value. Visitors may see it as a recommendation of a quality professional they may be interested in.

How about linking to a resource guide that is relevant to your services...

[Cedar Lawn Care]

I was going to hook a brother up, but your site is down. Sad.

[tonygreek]

Originally Posted by Cedar Lawn Care

I was going to hook a brother up, but your site is down. Sad.

The OP (original poster) has not been here since he made this post in June.