Getting links to a website is as essential with local SEO as with any kind of SEO because many methods are similar. Businesses looking to boost their local SEO efforts should implement a local link-building plan. Getting local backlinks requires extensive work and planning, but the benefits for a website make it worth all the time and energy.
This complete guide teaches you the ins and outs of local link building and provides information on how to use the right strategies to drive relevant traffic to your pages. Read everything, or jump to the section that interests you the most!
What is local link building?
Local link building is a method of getting backlinks from authoritative local websites. It helps your website improve its organic position for keywords that indicate a local search and helps it reach a wider local public. In simple language, it refers to the process of getting brand mentions, links, and references from other local brands. At the end of the day, local links are links from websites specific to a location. It means that if you’re a small business from London, you get high-quality links from local websites that target your ideal customer.
Local backlinks offer several benefits; we’ll discuss them further down in this blog. Before doing it, we want to highlight that local link building is paramount to your local search engine optimisation strategy. Local SEO implies optimising your online presence to attract more customers who run local searches on Google and other search engines.
Are local links important for businesses?
Link building services include local link building because it helps your website on the SEO level, therefore triggering more organic traffic and generating more revenue and leads for your company. Local links are truly beneficial if you get the backlinks from high domain authority local websites because it’s proof to the search engines that your website is reliable and offers valuable information. Hence, search engines favour your website because it’s more popular than others from the same geographic region.
Local link building enhances your organic traffic and helps your website rank for locally searched keywords. It enables you to attract a wider audience because local link building implies getting brand mentions, links, and references from other reliable online resources.
Here is a short list of the main benefits you get if you build local links to your website:
- Higher search rankings
- Better domain authority and reliability
- Improved local traffic on the website
- Increased click-through rate, conversion, and sales
- Lower bounce rate and improved visibility
- More social media followers and enhanced user engagement
Improved local traffic boost business that wants to rank higher in SERPs because it improves SEO scores and metrics. Working with a link building agency is worth it because it makes your brand seem more trustworthy to first-time customers, and your domain authority for your industry will improve.
How many local links does a website need?
Your business doesn’t need tons of links to rank in local searches. If you have a look at the SERP overview for a local query in Keywords Explorer, you’ll notice that most companies have an average of 150 referring domains ranking on the first page. Keywords Explorer also offers you a sense of your competition for particular keywords.
Key strategies to improve local SEO
As stated before, local link building, similar to other types of link building, requires perseverance, hard work, research, and creativity. Here are the most important local link building tactics you should integrate into your SEO plan.
Get links from other ranking websites
Online marketing specialists often refer to this strategy as Barnacle SEO because it implies searching for some relevant terms on search engines and contacting the website administrators to try to get links. Your aim is to get links that show up in results when someone searches the keywords you want your website to rank for.
And as you cannot get links from your competitors, look for directory or aggregator websites. When people shop for a range of products or services, they tend to consult these resources to find more about the offer. Most times, it’s easy to get a link to your website from these websites; you only have to create a high-quality piece of content.
Get the same links as your competitors
If you overview the links to your competitor’s websites, you’ll identify several locally relevant link building opportunities. You can use a tool like Link Intersect or consult a link building agency to help you find your competitors’ links. You’ll find a list of multiple links specific to your industry and numerous directories. Some of these directories are local citations that provide the public with business information, such as names, phone numbers, and addresses.
Create content relevant to your local audience
Content creation requires you to find topics that attract your public and publish content about those subjects. Considering that you aim to create local content, think about issues relevant to your niche and valuable to your customers. You can provide information about services in your area or create guidelines that help them improve their lifestyle.
Create social media profiles
Use platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google My Business to connect with your audience and create backlinks to your website. When you set up business pages on social media platforms, add your website’s URL address to build backlinks to your website. Social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn have high domain authority and strengthen your website’s backlink profile.
Are you ready to boost your website’s visibility locally?
In this article, you have all the information you need to grow your business company’s backlink profile. Building local links requires time and effort, but it provides a wealth of benefits for your brand.
