Local Link Building – How to Get Links for Local Business

Table of contents:

• What Is Local Link Building?
• The Advantages of Local Links
• Local Link Building Strategies – How to Get More Local Links?
  • Local Business Directories
  • Industry-Specific Directories
  • Talking to the Local Press
  • Reaching Out to Local Bloggers and Influencers
  • Sponsoring Local Events
  • Reaching Out Directly
  • Monitor Competition for Backlinks
  • Finding Broken Links
  • Offer Updated Content
  • Claim Unlinked Mentions
  • Link Internally
• Build a Local Brand with Local Links!

The main factor for local SEO link building is other businesses linking to your website. The more backlink you get, the more your reputation spreads and the more well-known you will become! Of course, this will also improve your SEO efforts, so it's a win-win situation! In this article, we will show you the best strategies for local link building.

What Is Local Link Building?

Local linking differs from regular link building –  it is predominantly a strategy to allow your business to develop its local presence. By getting more links from other local businesses, whether from their blog entries or from their storefronts, you will see your reputation and social standing grow. This has the effect of additional advertising, but also reputation and trust-building. When other local businesses vouch for you, customers are much more likely to come to your store! For this kind of linking, typical SEO ratings don’t apply in the same way. Things like Domain Rating (DR) and Domain Authority (DA) don’t have the same effect here, since your aim is to get more localized attention. Local SEO link building like this forms bonds and ber word of mouth – perfect for optimizing your everyday relations!

The Advantages of Local Links

There are numerous advantages to local links. SEO is a process that takes time, but local links are something that can have an immediate effect on the people around you. One of the biggest reasons to engage with your local businesses to improve the linking of your content is that the influence within a small market can be dramatic. With more eyes on your content than ever before, more people in your community will see your name and warm up to your business faster. This has a compounding effect as well – the more local businesses that talk about you, the more reliable your business becomes! This has dramatic relevance to your website and business as a whole.

Local Link Building Strategies – How Do I Get More Local Links?

There are numerous ways to encourage local link building within your community. By doing so, you will get your name out there to many more people than you thought possible, boosting your company’s presence in your community in a powerful way!

Local Business Directories

With services like the yellow pages still in effect, directories remain to this day a fantastic way to get more local eyes on your content. Other, newer directories (like Yelp, or even Craigslist), are also perfect venues to get your business more attention. [caption id="attachment_55721" align="aligncenter" width="1873"] Source: https://business.yelp.com/[/caption] These directories are important because they will allow you to not only advertise your own presence but also let you search through your local area to find businesses that may be interested and willing to partner with you!

Industry-Specific Directories

Much more honed than overarching local business directories, industry-specific directories still have the effect of boosting your company’s presence online and even with local clientele. If you are in Antique sales, for instance, Antiques.com is a great way to cross-reference with other companies and promote your own.

Talking to the Local Press

Every town, city, and village has a local newspaper, and it’s essential to get your name out there into it! Local newspapers are a great way to get a finger on the pulse of your community, and by connecting with them to advertise your business, you will be all but guaranteed an increase in local traffic. You might even be able to submit a press release with them, or perhaps organize an event – even just writing an article about recent community news. All of these will get your name out there and make your community aware of your brand.

Reaching Out to Local Bloggers and Influencers

If you’re a bakery looking for more attention for your new, delicious offerings, giving out some free samples to a local influencer or social media consultant is a great way to get free publicity. Try to give them organic content that they can use to create their own content:

• behind-the-scenes interviews,
• guides,
• informational content,
• event organization,

The brand recognition, social proof, and community trust that you earn will be well worth it!

Sponsoring Local Events

If it’s feasible, being able to sponsor local events will have a tremendous impact on your social proof, your reputation, and your business as a whole. Being able to make a ton of people happy while at the same time showing them what your business is capable of is a perfect way to win people to your side!

Reaching Out Directly

Sometimes the simplest strategy is often the most effective. Most local businesses around you will have some kind of website where you can immediately contact them about a potential partnership. By joining forces and cross-linking both of your sites, you will both benefit from the gains of local link building!

Monitor Competition for Backlinks

Using SEO tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs is critical for overall SEO management and a great way to keep up with the competition. Being able to see what content they are backlinking, and where they have their links coming from will give you a great idea of how to move forward with your efforts.

Finding Broken Links

Many local businesses are trying their best to focus on their own business and less so on their web presence. If you are able to detect broken links on their site, you might also be able to suggest to them to use your links as a replacement! This has obvious benefits and might even earn you a new friend with the help you provide. You can find broken links with Ahrefs, SEMrush, and various other SEO tools (alongside simply clicking their links yourself). [caption id="attachment_55718" align="aligncenter" width="1710"] Source: https://ahrefs.com/blog/local-link-building/[/caption]

Offer Updated Content

Sometimes other businesses in your area are too busy to update and maintain their articles, allowing you to offer to improve upon them with your own content! Not only will this give you the reach and links you were looking for, but you might also very well establish a profitable partnership in the process.

Claim Unlinked Mentions

There will be times when sites, local or otherwise, will use your business’ name or content without giving you a proper link in return. This is easily solved by reaching out and discussing the situation with whoever wrote about you in the first place. You can always ask people referencing your business to link to your site, giving you an untapped customer base in the process.

Link Internally

One of the most important link building practices for SEO is to link internally. This means you should continually cross-reference your content and string it all together to make it easier for the Google algorithms to better understand your content and website.

Build a Local Brand with Local Links!

Local link building is an essential aspect of any brand recognition. Having the local population on your side is a great way to expand your business and establish a great relationship in the region you’re operating in. Maintaining this reputation and continually delivering a fantastic product to your clients is the only way a business can succeed in a local community over the years! If you need help with your local SEO effort - contact us!