Key Insights
- Conduct a Competitive Link Audit: Analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles using tools like Ahrefs and Moz to uncover valuable backlink opportunities.
- Reach Out to Link Providers: Engage with blog owners, journalists, and media outlets to secure relevant and high-quality backlinks through personalized outreach.
- Create Valuable, Link-Worthy Content: Develop fresh, informative, and diverse content that offers value to the reder and that other platforms actually want to link to.
- Utilize Social Media Outreach: Leverage social media platforms to establish relationships, share valuable content, and attract potential backlinks. Promote content like studies, trends, etc. to attract more attention towards your content and higher the chance for a backlink.
When it comes to small businesses, most owners face unique local SEO challenges. While some solutions are readily available, others may be harder to find, especially when your business supports local communities' products and services.
Many look for quick fixes, but optimizing local SEO correctly from the start is crucial for small ventures. Building a strong backlink profile is not only essential for SEO but also for local SEO.
Local SEO focuses on creating visibility for “near me” searches and solidifying your lead generation plan. Backlinks from local sources are valuable as they signal to search engines that your business is credible.
Below, we share a robust local SEO link-building strategy to help you navigate small businesses’ unique challenges.
What Exactly Are Backlinks?
Backlinks are hyperlinks on external sites that direct users to your site’s content. Essentially, another website links to your website.
Why Are Backlinks Important?
Backlinks are among the top-ranking factors in Search Engine Optimization. When platforms like Google evaluate a website, they analyze your backlinks as they provide a vote of confidence. This helps rank your site higher because Google begins to see you as more authoritative. A backlink means that your content is perceived as valuable and helpful, prompting other websites to reference and share it.
What Types of Backlinks Should You Aim For?
Not all backlinks are created equal. Pay attention to the type of backlink and its source.
Do-Follow Links
These are the most valuable as they tell the search engine to follow the link to your website, boosting your domain ranking.
No-Follow Links
These instruct search engines not to follow the link. While still valuable, they have less impact on your link profile.
Spammy Backlinks or Backlinks from Irrelevant Sources
Be cautious of backlinks from less trustworthy websites unrelated to your industry. If such links exist, consider disavowing them in Google Search Console to avoid penalties.
Important to know: Purchasing backlinks or using private backlink networks is prohibited and can lead to penalties. This can result in a decline in rankings and traffic. Aim for organic links!
How to Get Backlinks?
Building mutually beneficial relationships takes time. Links can be seen as a currency since they are a crucial ranking factor. Generating backlinks requires a strategic approach, including creating high-quality content and continuous outreach to build a network around your business. Here are four valuable tips to start your link-building journey!
Link Building Tip #1 - Conduct a Competitive Link Audit
First, identify your competitors and analyze their backlink profiles. Tools like Ahrefs and Moz can help run competitive backlink analyses. For a comprehensive analysis, use multiple link-analysis tools that adhere to Google’s terms and conditions. These tools crawl competitors’ websites and uncover valuable backlink opportunities. Use them to your advantage to find hidden opportunities. Target domains and links with branded content shared among your competitors, especially local sites that feature content about your geographic area, such as bloggers, newspapers, and magazines. Once you have a list of potential external sites, you are ready to start link building.
Checklist with Things to Keep in Mind
- Aim for links from authentic websites.
- Acquire links from sources your competitors use.
- Get localized citations.
- Claim unlinked brand mentions (ask for a link where your brand is mentioned without one).
Link Building Tip #2 - Reach Out to Link Providers
One effective strategy is reaching out to organizations and individuals who can provide you with links. Focus on relevant links to boost your SEO ranking. Potential link providers include blog owners, journalists, and media outlets. Avoid buying links from agencies; instead, ensure high-quality links through guest blogs, advertorials, or branded content articles. Ensure the link is placed naturally with a good anchor text. Avoid bulk link purchases and always verify the quality of the website where your link will be placed.
Outreach Checklist
- Take your overview from your competitive link audit
- Create a spreadsheet and divide your leads into different sections (blogs, newspapers, influencers, etc.)
- Write down all the contact details (contactperson if applicable, e-mail adress, links to pages where you saw a link opportunity)
- Start by reaching out to the low hanging fruit: This can be articles where you spotted a dead link that could be replaced by a link to your website, articles where you can offer statistics, figures or information to make them more valuable to the reader; or simply reach out to journalists or bloggers and offer them a topic to write about.
- Write a press release: If you have something newsworthy to tell the world, write a press release and send it to suitable media outlets or journalists. If they are interested in your topic, they will write about it. This can be very suitable in case you have conducted a study that offers valuable insights into for instance consumer behavior, new products or trends. Anything that hasn’t been done before can be of high value.
- Offer guest articles: Request to publish guest articles on blog websites, newspapers or magazines. The media outlets receive free content and you receive a link in return.
- Don’t focus too much on just links: It might sound contradicting now but even if you just get a feature of your name, address, and even the phone number in online business directories can help you in your search engine ranking. Especially for local SEO, this is of high value.
- Create contacts in industry bodies like the chamber of commerce: Participate in their events and awards and recognition ceremonies. If you happen to get nominations for one of those awards, use them for your link-building advantage. Otherwise too, these organizations are guaranteed link providers, if you can make the right contacts.
- Contribute in crowdsourced post invites: Take out time to answer their queries, and while doing so, be detail-oriented.
Link Building Tip #3 - Create Valuable, Link-Worthy Content
To gain backlinks, you need to have high-quality content worth sharing.
Creating Link-Worthy Content:
- Become a thought leader by developing fresh, informative, and long-form content that others want to link to.
- Use diverse content formats such as videos, case studies, infographics, and guest blogs from professionals and experts.
- High-quality graphics and infographics can enhance your content’s appeal and linkability.
- Statistics and figures from unique studies can generate backlinks as external parties reference them.
Link Building Tip #4 - Social Media Outreach & Relationship Building
Social media helps establish, nurture, and sustain relationships. These platforms allow you to engage in meaningful conversations, listen, share useful information, and respond to queries. Regularly sharing content and engaging with your audience can draw attention to your website.
Steps:
- Set up accounts on all relevant social media platforms and observe your niche.
- Listen to what others are talking about, follow important people, and stay updated on key topics.
- Engage naturally and honestly to earn quality links from trusted contacts.
- Leverage social media to advertise your content, like case studies, to attract new audiences and potential backlinks.
Learn here how to increase your Instagram followers or how LinkedIn can help your business exceed in your niche. It is all about networking.
Recap
Link building is about fostering relationships with resources and web owners who offer mutually beneficial and high-quality content. Focus on providing high-quality content and strive to be a thought leader in your industry or niche. Create valuable content that others want to reference, as it adds value to their own.
Link building is a longterm effort and takes a lot of time and resources. Improving your online visibility with help of local SEO strategies requires more than "just" link building. Our straightforward local SEO tools help you optimize your entire business presentation across the web by automating important processes and keeping a neat overview in our centralized dashboard.
