Backlinks & local search?

[adriandg]

I'm aware that local search is mostly based on citations, and how well your Google places page is optimized, and the landing pages are optimized.  But I was wondering if anyone could tell me if backlinks have any relevance in the local search results?  And if they do, how much would you say the impact the local search results? could you estimate a % of total value?

Also if they do, does it help to have backlinks that point at your places page urls? or should the backlinks just point at your places page landing pages?

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey

I am no expert in local search, but it is one area I am spending some time reading up on and experimenting with at the moment so a lot of this is fresh in my mind.

One of the biggest and best resources around is the David Mihn Local Search Ranking Factors and it has just been updated for 2011: http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml

It's similar to the SEOMoz ranking factors in that they survey lots of big brains from local search and come up with the views and experience of many.

Top 10 Factors are as follows:

1. Physical Address in City of Search(PLACE PAGE)
2. Manually Owner-verified Place Page(PLACE PAGE)
3. Proper Category Associations(PLACE PAGE)
4. Volume of Traditional Structured Citations (IYPs, Data Aggregators)(OFF-PLACE/OFF-SITE)
5. Crawlable Address Matching Place Page Address(WEBSITE)
6. PageRank / Authority of Website Homepage / Highest Ranked Page(WEBSITE)
7. Quality of Inbound Links to Website(OFF-PLACE/OFF-SITE)
8. Crawlable Phone Number Matching Place Page Phone Number(WEBSITE)
9. Local Area Code on Place Page(PLACE PAGE)
10. City, State in Places Landing Page Title(WEBSITE)

None of which are links to the place page itself.

Basically, links to the place page are not an issue, but the quality of your actual site and the links to it are an issue.

The whole thing is worth a read and if you are looking for a buddy to bounce some local search ideas off, give me a shout back as I am in that head space at the moment.

Cheers
Marcus

[adriandg]

Thank you.  I have been reading the David Mihn stuff it is a great resource!