Content Section: Links present in this section are the most valuable and trusted.
Header Section: These links are also valuable, as most of the sites don’t engage in selling links here.
Side Navigation: Google tends to devalue these links especially external links due to large-scale abuse by link exchange.
Comment Section: This section can pass some value but due to constant spam they are of little value now.
Footer Links: These links are basically worthless.

Try getting links from the content section of the website as these are highly valued and have great impact on search engine rankings.

It will take something pretty special to take even a tiny slice of Google’s market share.

Anyhow, last week I went to update one of our clients listings and we were shocked to see that the only way to verify this change was to send a postcard to the listed address of our client. I did some searching online and could find nothing on the issue, including  Google blog.

Subsequently, I have tried listing from five other PC’s, on a different network & even from an Internet cafe’  & still the problem remains, thanks goodness it was not our accounts that are the problem.

So it seems Google phone verification may be a thing of the past, and it disappearing is creating a huge problem for businesses like ours. Yes, if you had not guessed it, we have lost a little of our control. Now, just to do the smallest change, we have wait until Google sends a postcard to our client (up to 3 weeks), then hope that is actually gets there & then they relay the information to us.

Surely this is not a cost effective option for Google.

I invite anyone who has had any experience with this change, or has any opinion, to share their experience with us as information on this issue is extremely limited at this stage.

Just a litle follow up on this article. If you need confirmation of this issue please visit Google Places Help.

In your research you should look at finding ways to estimate the traffic of your competitors, this is a very important component of competition analysis. There are many clever tools in the marketkplace that can give you a competitive edge and they should be investigates, some are free, some you need to pay for.

Below is a list of the kind of analysis tools you can find on the web, just bear in mind that if one of your competitor gets little hits most of these tools will not pick up the statistics:

• Alexa (click on “Get Details” button)
• Compete
• Google Trends for Websites
• Google Ad Planner (login using Google account)
• Quantcast
• SEM Rush

For PPC campaign, the tools to find targeted keywords and other campaign data are:

• Keywrodspy

• If you have not got, you MUST create a Google Places Listing for your local area
• Start an Adwords account
• When doing your first campaign pay particular attention to the field name “Ad Extensions”, this section is vital for effective local SEO
  

There are many tricks we use to give our clients better rankings in search engines on a local level, but, of course, many of those come at a cost. However, as a general guide, for those who are new florists to the world of online trading we would like to start you off by giving you a few basic tips:

1. Register your business with the Yellow Pages, this will also give you a strong Google Map Listing
2. Once you have listed in Google Maps, via the Yellow Pages, claim your Google business listing
3. Register your business on as many quality, Australian, directories as you can

Of course if you need help with any of this Local SEO Advice would be more than happy to assist.