Top 5 Strategies for Local SEO Link Building
Link building for local SEO is your ticket to being found by local customers exactly when they need you. A strong local link building strategy increases your brand’s visibility and credibility in Google’s eyes, helping you rank higher in local search results. It also means you’re more likely to be the top recommendation for ‘near me’ searches related to your services and area. Whether you run a local office supply company or legal firm, these connections are crucial to being recognized in your community.
In this post, we’ll explore five effective local link building strategies for growing your local presence.
Let’s start with the basics.
What is Link Building for Local SEO?
Local link building is an SEO strategy for earning backlinks from websites within a specific area to improve a business’s local search visibility. It focuses on building backlinks with small yet well-established websites relevant to local communities.
How do Backlinks Help Local SEO?
Backlinks from local websites signal to search engines that your business is highly relevant to the local market and enjoys the trust of local businesses. Each link helps improve your local relevance and drives referral traffic directly from the local sites to your site. Such a reciprocal relationship boosts your website’s visibility and traffic, creating a mutually beneficial ground for local SEO success.
5 Approaches to Link Building For Local SEO
There are many link building strategies out there. We will be discussing five essential ones.
1. Utilize Local Business Directories
Local business directories are trusted sources of information, helping search engines verify the legitimacy and relevance of your business in an area. Being listed in reputable directories assists you in gaining local backlinks quickly and easily. These might not be the most prized backlinks you will build but they will aid you in getting started.
How to Find Reputable Local Directories:
Search for terms like: [area name] business directory
Example: Chicago business directory
We have used a city’s name here, but you can also use a state’s name. The point is the more specific the area, the better. You can also utilize neighboring places’ directories and get backlinks from there.
Tip: Optimize your Google Business Profile by including your website and service pages. Additionally, encourage local customers to leave reviews. This will help you appear in the “Google Three Pack,” which is a format where Google shows the top local businesses for specific searches.
2. Creating Locally Relevant Content
Creating content that resonates with your local audience is a powerful way to construct robust backlinks and improve your SEO game overall. When you produce well-researched, locally relevant content, you attract more local traffic to your sites and backlinks from other local businesses and bloggers. To execute this content strategy, you can cover local news, events, case studies, etc. The key here is to create locally linkable assets.
3. Engaging with Local Media
The next domains you need to target are local media websites. Getting featured in local news and articles gives you visibility and credibility, all from the same backlink. To capture the attention of local media and give them something worth writing about, you can go for the following ideas:
- Community participation: Highlight your participation in local events, sponsorships, and charitable activities. For example, if your team has participated in any local clean drives, this could be a story worth sharing.
- Business Milestones: Press releases are great for announcing company milestones, new branch openings, anniversaries, etc.
- Human Stories: You can also share a compelling story related to your brand or team.
Working with media is also about having the right contacts, which means you need to first identify the local media outlets that cover business stories. Then comes the pitch, which needs to be concise and supported by images, videos, infographics, etc. And ensure that you follow up through emails.
Related Read: How to Get High PR Backlinks From the Biggest News Sites
4. Networking with Local Businesses
Building a network among local businesses can help you create beneficial opportunities that enhance your local online presence. To foster local connections, you can build relations by joining local business associations, events, trade shows, forums, etc.
Here are ways in which you can pitch your backlinks to other local businesses:
- Expert Quote: Having expert quotes on a blog post increases its value. Find blog posts of friendly local businesses where you can share a hack or a tip as a quote that adds value to their post. In return, you can ask for a backlink.
- Using Testimonials: Leave genuine testimonials for the local businesses you work with. They might feature your testimonial on their website with the backlink.
5. Guest Posting On Local Websites
Don’t limit your expertise to your website’s blogs. Share your expertise through guest posting on other local domains, news sites, and community portals. It is one of the best ways to tap into the established local audience of websites while adding an information-driven piece for them. Such articles highlight your expertise and boost your visibility in the local network.
Here’s how to find suitable local sites for guest posting:
Use search queries like “industry + city + blog” or “industry + city + news.”
For example, if you are a furniture store, you can work with local interior designers.
Search “interior designers chicago blog”
Tip: Keep these three things in mind while pitching for a guest post:
- Before reaching out, thoroughly research the website’s content to understand its tone, style, and topics covered. You can find some content gaps to fill in with your guest post.
2. Share credentials like relevant experience and some previously published work, which can be from other websites or your own, to showcase your writing skills.
3. Target local keywords in your blog post to enhance its relevance to the geographical area.
How to Analyze Competitor Link Building Strategy For Local SEO?
Understanding your competitors’ local backlinking strategy is crucial to win the ranking game. You’d need a dependable SEO tool to do in-depth research for this.
Tools for Local Link Building
Here are two SEO tools you can use for competitor research and keyword research.
● Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a leading SEO tool used to boost a website’s performance. It excels in backlink analysis, helping users explore detailed backlink profiles, which is essential for effective link building strategies.
The tool also helps analyze competitors’ best-performing content, backlink sources, and keyword strategies.
● Semrush
Semrush is a comprehensive SEO tool comparable to Ahrefs. It excels at keyword research, competitor analysis, and site audits. Through its many features it helps users optimize their websites for better search engine page rankings (SERPs).
The tool also offers content marketing and social media management tools, making it a great solution for increasing online visibility and driving more traffic. Both the tools have similar prices, so you pick one and start your competitor research.
Let’s see how to analyze a competitor’s link building strategy with the help of ahrefs. We will search one of Chicago’s local furniture businesses and analyze what type of backlinks they have.
Log into Ahrefs>>Site Explorer>>Put in your competitor’s site>>Search
Go to the Backlinks section. You will find all the backlinks your local competitors have from various sites here.
The list includes some good local domains from which Office Furniture Center has acquired backlinks. The same domains can be used by a competitor to create local backlinks. While doing competitor research, you should also explore how the local sites have provided backlinks to your competitor, whether through guest posts or expert quotes. It will help you create a better outreach strategy.
Related Read: The Complete Startup SEO Guide
Ready To Implement Link Building For Local SEO?
Link building for local SEO is crucial for enhancing your brand’s online presence and visibility in local search results. By enforcing effective local link building techniques, such as using local directories, developing locally applicable content material, networking with nearby groups, etc., you could drastically boost your local search engine marketing efforts.
Leveraging SEO tools to analyze competitors can open new possibilities for obtaining good local backlinks. However, such tools also require professional expertise. For this, you can take the help of link building professionals. At LinkPanda, we take care of all your link building requirements and make it easier for you to build domain authority. Share your queries today!
FAQs
a. What type of links should you care about for local SEO?
For local SEO, focus on links from local directories, news websites, blogs, chambers of commerce, and relevant local organizations.
b. What is the best backlinks strategy for local SEO?
To improve your local SEO, create high-quality backlinks from relevant local business communities and organizations.
c. Does backlink quality matter for local SEO?
Yes, backlink quality matters for local SEO. High-quality backlinks from reputable, locally relevant sites boost your credibility and improve your local search rankings.
About The Author
Anaan Masoodi
A skilled link builder specializing in ethical SEO practices, Anaan focuses on acquiring high-quality backlinks that enhance website authority and search rankings. With a deep understanding of digital marketing strategies, he leverages outreach, guest posting, and content-driven approaches to build valuable relationships and drive sustainable growth for businesses.
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