Top 5 Local Link Building Strategies For Small Businesses in 2019
Local Link Building Strategies – Building or “earning” links is one of those things that individuals/businesses can go whitehat toward organic traffic or blackhat and on the verge of a Google penalty.
Matt Cutts from Google spoke on this in the past –
“It’s certainly possible to do white hat Local link building. Usually, it’s called being excellent. Right…take Search Engine Land, you broke off from your old site, you started fresh. And yet, now…Search Engine Land is known as one of the most authoritative places to go on the web. You didn’t cheat, you didn’t take shortcuts — you went right up to the middle and you earned it, with sweat. That’s the best way to do white-hat Local link building in my experience — sweat, plus creativity helps a lot.”
This excerpt from Matt Cutts reaffirms the point that links are earned through whitehat practices and any shortcuts that are taken are shortlived. He also says that quality links are still at the core of RankBrain Google’s processing system when determining your sites standing the SERPs. (Search Engine Result Pages)
Local Link building is highly effective for all businesses but especially for small and local businesses. These businesses have a huge upside on reaching local customers through local link building practices and methods.
Whitehat local link building is a great tactic because there are lots of strategies to choose from that affect not only rankings/clicks but also direct referral traffic.
Here Are Top 5 Local Link Building Strategies For Small Businesses in 2019
Participate In Local Business Awards
According to Local Link Building Strategies, Most cities and towns, whether big or small, have entities like local newspapers with websites, organizations or even the chamber of commerce that organize awards in various business areas. There are different types of prizes you can participate in.
The most popular examples include the “Best Of” awards, awards based on age like the “Top 40 under 40” awards, and others based on the type of business that might include “Best hotel” or “Best boutique” among others.
The main aim for you is to find opportunities that best suit your business. In some contests, you will be required to win them for you to get mentioned while in others a nomination will be enough to get you cited.
The best ways of finding these links are by using google to search that will help you come up with a list of potential sources. Also, ensure that your search focuses on your specific location by correctly using search strings like “Top 40 under 40”+” Colorado.”
Once you have identified the potential sites, you can then send your pitch directly to them. Most of them have forms that will require you to fill out or a set of procedures that you will be required to follow. If this information is not available, you can get in touch with them to find out how you can enter.
Make Use Of Local Directories And Review Sites
According to Local Link Building Strategies, Times have now changed regarding how you can have your business listed in local directories. Gone are the days when you would be required to lay down an annual sum to have your business information cited on yellow pages.
Today, it is essential for any small business to ensure that they are prominently listed on various online directories for them to become and stay competitive. Currently, 4 out of 5 consumers in the United States use search engines to find local businesses.
In turn, it leads to direct sales as these people are capable of visiting your business on the same day and finding out more about your products or services.
As you pursue these local directory links, ensure that they focus on your specific niche so that they can add value to your business. Try to avoid links on broad, general directories that are not geo-specific, instead, opt for national directories that feature local pages.
Review sites will also go a long way in helping you get excellent links. This will need some patience from your side as getting quality reviews can sometimes be hard, and it will also take a lot of work to increase the number of reviews.
If you take your time and do proper research, you will get several important review sites and local directories that will provide you with a link quite easily.
Leverage Local Partnerships
According to Local Link Building Strategies, Forming partnerships with local businesses, organizations or other companies you do business with can offer a great opportunity of getting backlinks from their websites. For the case of existing partnerships, all you have to do is to get in touch with these partners and request for link placement.
Consider looking into your suppliers’ and some of your clients’ “vendors” or “partners” pages, and you will be surprised that most of them love to promote companies that they do business with. If your partners do not have these pages, you can also consider writing a testimonial to them, and most of them will be happy to receive it.
Some of them might not even have a testimonial page on their websites. This should not be a cause for you to give up. It could be because they do not have any testimonials. Instead, write to them and suggest that they add it to their website.
You will tend to have more success if you focus on locally owned businesses and franchises as opposed to big corporations.
You can also try creating new partnerships by reaching out to business owners and discussing with them on the ways you can help each other out. You can come up with an agreement that involves offering referral discounts for customers you recommend to each other.
You can also plan several events together. These types of partnerships will guarantee you natural linking opportunities along with other benefits you might have agreed to get from the business.
Come Up With A Controversial Topic And Get In The News
According to Local Link Building Strategies, When you sometimes need to get significant results, you have to get people talking, and the best way of doing this is to come up with a topic that will spark emotional reactions from an audience.
Most people who come across these topics will want to share with their friends, and bloggers who see it will also want to share it through links. This can, in turn, translate to essential links that will be beneficial to your business.
For you to succeed in this, you, first of all, need to come up with the idea that strikes up a chord with people and develop the on-page asset required to support this idea. Once this is done, you can then pitch it to a local newspaper.
If successful, try pitching it to other major publications and share it on social media with groups that might show interest in it.
Create Content About Some Of Your Favorite Businesses In A Similar Niche
According to Local Link Building Strategies, We all love it when other people speak positively about us. The same applies to businesses. If you talk positively about a specific local business or businesses, the chances are that your words might help them sell more.
For example, you can talk about some of your favorite dining restaurants and what you especially love about them. Someone reading this might be tempted to try out one of these restaurants to experience what they just learned from your blog.
Pick a few companies in similar niches that are not direct competitors to yours and write about them in your blog. Once you are done, write an email to each of the businesses you just mentioned in the blog letting them know that you said them.
You can also refer them on social media and request for a backlink or a social media mention. So that sums it up, 5 local link building strategies that will move the needle for your small business.
Spencer is a full-time affiliate marketer and founder of Buildapreneur. He loves affiliate marketing because he can teach people everything he knows for free, and make his profits other ways. He is the top affiliate for multiple software companies and sells one of the most well-known courses on affiliate marketing.
