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The other day I was at one of my favorite burrito places here in San Francisco and was talking about internet marketing with the owner. When I mentioned the word "backlinking", I saw a confused look on his face. I suddenly realized that the term "backlinking" while clear to me, was Greek to the business owner. This lead me to write this post today. Some of you, depending on your internet marketing experience, may not understand the term "backlinking" so I'm going to define it for you. To put it simply, backlinking is the process of getting a link from one website to another. For those of you that want more, here is a more descriptive definition I found on the internet: "Backlinking is the process of creating links to your website. Each link means that someone is trying to inform others about some interesting page they have found. Therefore, the number of links pointing to your site is a measure of popularity or reputation of the page. The number and quality of backlinks is the basis of the PageRank algorithm used by Google?s web search. Backlinking is very popular and the main reason for this popularity is the fact that it returns relevant results for every possible search phrase, brings you more clients and more sales." Actually that sounds like Greek to me.  

Here's another sign that the Yellow Pages are outdated. The Yellow Pages now have a site you can go to stop delivery of their directory. They call it their opt-out webite. However, if you go there, it appears they are trying to convince you not to stop delivery. What do you think? Are the Yellow Pages outdated?

Google Instant Preview "Instant Previews provides a graphic overview of a search result and highlights the most relevant sections, making finding the right page as quick and easy as flipping through a magazine. To use it, click once on the magnifying glass next to the title of any search result and a visual overview of the page will appear on the right." Google Hotspot "[Hotpot is] a local recommendation engine powered by you and your friends. With Hotpot, we're making local search results for places on Google more personal, relevant and trustworthy."

It appears in addition to changing the placement of Google Places listings, Google also changed its ranking algorithm. Here's an excerpt that was reported to me by an associate: So Google changed the format of the Google Places listings – but what about the order (ranking)?  Did Google change the ranking algorithm too?  You bet your bottom dollar they did!!!  In the last Q&A session, someone mentioned that  Google was placing a higher value on the URL of the business owner.  To see if that was the case for my clients, I asked the account reps for 5 of my clients to give me a before & after picture (you can see the results below).  The numbers came in – but what does it mean?  Here is what I am seeing:       a.  Before the change, it didn't really matter if the business had a website.  Now the website SEO ranking seems to determine the Google Places ranking.       b.  Sites that ranked low in the old Google Places were catapulted to the first page via the new Google Places listings – IF the business' web site was ranking high in the organic results previous to the change.       c.   Sites that ranked high in the old Google Places have "dissapeared" if they did not have a website.  They are still showing in Google Places – if you click on the map – but they are not showing in the first few pages of the Google Places results.  Don't panic!  If you were building citations/reviews on the Google Places listing and backlinks to the site then you are going to be fine. If not – if you'd only been concentrating on the Google Places listing then you need to adjust your strategy to include a web site!

Why did Google change the location of their Google Places map? I informed my San Francisco Bay Area clients a few days ago, but look at the change Google has made in the placement of their Google Places map. It's in the right column now, right above their Adsense Ads. It appears it might be a strategy to make their Adsense ads more predominant. I personally like the old 7-Box look, but we can also take advantage of the new look. This new look might be a test because it's not universal yet. On the other hand, it might just be part of a rollout. Contact us if you want to take advantage of this change in marketing your website.