In case you’re not familiar with Google local results, this is what the old Google Place page results looked like:

And here’s the new integrated local/organic listing format:

While the algorithm is still as indecipherable as ever, if I had to guess why Google integrated local and organic result I’d say its likely as a result of increased Place page spam, using the titles of the business, categories, text in the place page — and the worst, spamming fake reviews.

I’m personally welcoming the new changes to the search engine results pages because it means less spammy, and hopefully more meaningful results that you can trust. I’d still view any Google reviews on Place pages with a grain of salt, however (and I’m not just talking about overly positive reviews).

So what do the new results pages mean for businesses? Danny Dover at SEOmoz covered it fairly well when he said,

“factors that have been useful for traditional SEO are now more useful for local SEO, which is a win. It means that if you are optimizing your website that you’re doing well in the local verticals and you’re also doing well in the universal search.”

Of course if you want to be doing well in local verticals its even MORE important to get a good local place page going. I’ve seen many highly ranked organic results ranking 9th on page 1 because they didn’t have an associated local page. Google wants more clicks on its network – if you don’t have a Places page then from a pure business perspective, Google isn’t going to want to rank you as highly. From a usefulness and trust viewpoint, it also means your customers aren’t able to review you and add their “ranking” to your business.

Long story short, the new local results seem all about less spam, more trust, and a better integration of local and organic search.

More resources on local SEO

Danny Dover’s (from SEOmoz) basic local SEO video:

An excellent post by Mike Blumental which analyses organic placement + local placement and how that tallies up into the new integrated rankings.

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2010/08/17/google-continues-to-test-integrated-local-and-organic-results/

Anchor tag image by Tagxedo.com

“Click Here“, along with “Next“, are two of the most common forms of anchor text used for linking pages and sites together.

What is anchor text?

Simply speaking, its the blue clickable text you see describing links to other sites or pages online. For example if I wanted to link to my SEO tools provider, SEOMoz, I’d use the anchor text, SEO tools, or if I wanted to write about the new BMW I’m buying, I’d use the anchor text, my new BMW (I wish).

These links describe what the document being linked to is about, and search engines like Google and Bing use that description to form an opinion about what the page is about.

Sometimes this can go wrong of course, and Adobe has been kind enough to (accidentally) give me an excellent example. Go into Google and type in, “click here”. Because Adobe and its excellent reader application have been around so many years, they’ve accumulated a massive number of inbound links with the anchor text of… you guessed it… “click here”.

Click Here tag cloud by Tagxedo.com

Click here is the worst way to link to web pages from an SEO standpoint, but probably one of the clearest ways to tell your visitors to click a link for more information — especially for your more technically challenged and less nerdy visitors and demographics.

The 1st Link Counts Rule

Firstly, keep in mind this rule:

When linking to your own or external web pages, only the first link’s anchor text “counts” when you link to the same location more than once.

An example (both links go to get.adobe.com/reader/):

To view this document get Adobe Reader by clicking here.

This first example is how you should be linking. The first anchor text phrase is the only one that Google counts when deciding what a page is about, so, tick! we’ve correctly described the page! The second link, “clicking here”, is a super obvious, “take this step” statement that anyone should understand, and because this is the second time we’ve linked to this page in the same document, it won’t negatively influence what keywords you’re trying to rank for!

Example 2:

Click here to get Adobe Reader, and view our prospectus.

This is how you DON’T want to link. The first anchor text is the only one that informs Google about what you’re linking to, and you’ve just told Google and Bing that the Adobe Reader page is all about “click here”, not downloading Adobe Reader!

So when should you need to remember this advice?

You’ll need to remember to use your descriptive anchor first whenever you’re writing editorially. So blogs, articles, interviews, guest posts… anywhere that you might link to the same location twice. Make that first anchor text link count! And make sure it uses your well researched, commercially important keywords!

Everyone wants to be numero uno.

Most SEO’s know this information already, but seeing it in chart form and seeing the amazing value of that number 1 spot can be eye opening for businesses new to promoting themselves online.

Another fact many businesses don’t know is that on average, any particular organic result will return 89.47% more clicks than pay per click (data from Enquisite).

Searcher’s trust the number 1 spot, and even perceive that business to have a kind of brand power just because Google has blessed it with the number 1 position. Certainly something that pay per click traffic does NOT benefit from.

My point is not that you should cancel all paid traffic in favour of SEO… but if your business needs more targeted visitors, SEO is you best long term bet.

Stop thinking gamey, start thinking useful. Photo by Freezelight.

One of the more interesting cases I came across recently was a client who bought dozens, if not scores of domains and redirected them to their business website.

The not so weird thing is that this business owner was advised to do so by a so called SEO expert. Traffic actually went up a good 20% the first month, and then fell 15% the next. We’ve since taken the domain redirects off and are now hoping Google doesn’t land any penalties on the site.

This example is good one to keep in mind for any business owners hiring SEO’s or getting advice from their web savvy uncle. After you receive any advice like this, ask the following questions:

1. How does that help my user in a natural way? For example no one is reading an article about my client, and then clicking a link for more information. Its just scores of redirected domains “gaming” the search engines.
2. Have you personally used this tactic on your own long term web site/s? What were the results? Can I see the web site you’re talking about?
3. How will my business suffer if I get removed from Google?
4. All things considered, is it worth the risk?

The answer to number 3 for my client is hopefully not a lot given the amazing referral network they’ve built. But for companies like e-commerce providers, such advice can literally ruin businesses, bank accounts and lives.

If you have a question about a particular gamey sounding SEO tactic, technique or piece of advice given to you, send me a line and I’ll feature it (confidentially, of course).

If you’re a business owner and think you have a question that would interest other businesses or readers, please feel free to contact us.

Or, if you’re looking for a primer on SEO and Internet marketing, head over to our SEO FAQ where we try and explain away some common misconceptions and set some foundations.

We also included some short articles written by Ian on how to move house with less stress, which contributed nicely to his search engine rankings.