It is almost 8 years, since the time David Mihm and few others started a survey with experts of the local search. The crux of the survey is to find out from the SEO Experts, the main factors that are actually helping the websites move to the top on a local search. This valuable information, thus collected from this survey can actually provide us a very comprehensive report of what the websites are doing to reach rank high in the Search Engine Optimization . Even though the firm of David has been bought by Moz.com, nothing has changed relevantly. Data collected from this survey is still worthwhile for any SMB owners to study and implement things to actually benefit their own sites. One thing that is consistent in the local search results is “change”. Some of the major changes as identified by David which can help the website promotion is is as noted below:

1. It is observed that there is a very less correlation between the usage of a keyword on the page and the ranking. This might be because, Google probably understand what a page is talking about with the help of related keywords, analogues etc.
2. Breaking the myth, there are higher probabilities of getting a good google ranking if there are a number of links available online that lead you to a web page.
3. Amidst debate, it is also noted that the rankings of a page are raised with the increased number of share it receives on social network pages. While google algorithm does not primarily calculate the total number of shares. However, with each successful page share, there seems to be some gain through secondary SEO benefits.
4. Google Algorithm continues to consider the total links a site’s root as well as subdomains, hence, Links are still the most important factor for the site to stay on the top, in the ranking.
5. The rankings in the google have very little to do with the kind of top-level domain (.com or .org).