Thread: How Long Does It Take For Back Links To Show Up???

Waits for Dave & Steve.

1) Those are only submissions and not even guaranteed to get listed.

2) It can take weeks and sometimes many many months to even get listed after a submission.

3) Stop going after bait n switch companies.

4) Sign up with a real internet marketing campaign that actually works in our industry: http://www.truckmountforums.com/lp-seo/index.html

Remember too that not all links are indexed by Google.

For instance I have around 1000 backlinks.

But, only 40 are indexed and matter. The rest might as well not exist.

An easy way to find indexed links is to check out maplistings in competitive areas and register on those.

All links are not equal!!

Also additions to more about this place can take 2-3 months depending on the sites you submit to. And everything you submit is not going to show up. Some of the sites give Google a feed once a month so if you happened to submit a day before the feed gets sent your listing would not be sent for maybe 2 months and then I'm guessing it can take Google a month sometimes to update everything

It seems that Google is not as quick to update map citations as they once were. The process has really slowed down in the last few months. One exception would be is if your business is already long established or has an organic Google Places listing and all you need to then do is submit to additional directories, ask clients to add a review, etc. You may not want to even claim the listing in some situations, just let it stay 100% organic.

Post to as many directories as you can, make sure all info is accurate and be patient. In the interim you might want to work on your organic SEO as Tre suggested so you don't end up with all of your eggs in one basket.

Do some web research and you'll find that there is a wealth of information out there regarding maps. Take a look at the Google Places support forum as well.

Originally Posted by cleaningservicepros

You may not want to even claim the listing in some situations, just let it stay 100% organic.

I don't agree with this. Although I can see the potential benefit for it, there are a lot of sleazy people and if they come across an un-verified listing they might snatch it up and ruin it. So I would "owner-verify" it

Originally Posted by Tommy C

Update:

I learned that links don't always show up on your Google Places page but that doesn't mean they are not being 'counted'.

In Google Webmaster Tools you can see the links that are being 'counted' towards your overall ranking.

https://www.google.com/accounts/Serv...s/tools/&hl=en

Once you have signed up and completed 'add a site' you can open it and go to 'your site on the web' and then go to 'links to your site'.

It still took awhile for this info to show up on Webmaster Tools after I completed the 'add a site' procedure.

Just thought I'd chime in and try to clarify some things for people reading this.

A backlink to your actual website and a citation to your Google Places page are two completely different things.

So let's start with a backlink to your website...

A backlink is anytime a clickable link appears anywhere else other than your site and it is linking back to you. A good example of this is Matt's signature in this thread. Notice the link that says Carpet Cleaning Jupiter. If you click on that, it is going to take you to his website. That is what a backlink is.

Backlinks are a very important for your organic ranking. That is, the search results that show up below the 7-box or the Google Places resutls.

So if you participate in a lot of forums, make sure you include your link in your signature. If you comment on our SFS blog here, make sure you include your website address and that will also generate another backlink for you.

Now on to Google Places citations...
A citation is any time Google finds your business name, address, and phone number listed on any other website. Particularly other online directories. The key is to make sure that when you are filling out profiles for other directories to copy the information exactly as it appears on your Google Places page.

Here's a good list of directories you can sign up for: http://www.poweredbysearch.com/local...on-sources-us/

Here's an excerpt from a blog post I was reading earlier:

In the Local algorithm, these references aren’t necessarily a “vote” for a particular business, but they serve to validate that business exists at a particular location, and in that sense, they make a business more relevant for a particular search.

I hope that clears up any confusion between backlinks and citations.

Andres Tobar
SFS.JonDon.com <----- (I just created a backlink to the SFS website)

Originally Posted by Tommy C

Thanks Andres and I apologize if I confused anyone!

I am trying to learn as much about SEO'ing as possible and I know others would like to learn the 'easy stuff' too. With your SFS article on Google Places I was able to snag the 2nd spot in my area pretty easily!

www.servicetrust.com <<< is that a backlink?

Yep, good job!

Now to make it even more relevant, have one of your main keywords be the clickable text.

Like this: Carpet Cleaning Little Elm

That's called anchor text. You want the anchor text to always be the main keywords you are going for. Most people when they make a link, they'll make it "Click Here" or "Visit Our Website".

While these are still considered backlinks, they don't really give you much value because it's not telling Google what your website is about.

Now I took a look at your Google Places page and it seems like you can get some more juice out of it.

Right now you only have picked two categories, go ahead and add some more. Like tile cleaning, steam cleaning, commercial carpet cleaning.

If you add those 3 I'm pretty positive you will rank pretty well for those also.

You also want to make sure you have the 10 images and the 5 videos. It will really solidify your listing.

You have to remember Google's goal is to provide a positive user experience and they always want to show the most relevant results. By completely filling out your profile, you are achieving that goal.

Hope that helps,
Andres Tobar
SFS.JonDon.com

Originally Posted by shane deubell

1 book for you: Marketing in the Age of Google:
The author worked for google teaching businesses like us how to place high, pretty sure she knows her stuff

great book

Shane,

You are right that is an awesome book even for those who do not feel comfortable working on their optimization themselves. Fox also gives sites for the guys who want to delve deeper.

I also am in the middle of the 14 hour audio book Googled: End of the World as We Know It by Ken Auletta. They are an amazing company to follow.

Wow, Tommy. This is an example of an Internet discussion forum at its best. You are receiving so much help from a variety of experts above and all free of charge. I think Tre deserves a big round of applause for making this sort of help available!!!

Steve
www.SFS.JonDon.com

PS Tommy, you are so right to focus on Google and SEO. BUT let me remind you that traffic on it's own means nothing unless you have a great web-site that will "convert" traffic into bookings. Tre does a superb job on carpet cleaning web-sites and I would encourage you to give him a call. Web site improvement is the single best marketing investment you can make.

BTW, don't forget Facebook in your marketing mix. It is up and coming!