According to a study by Moz, backlinks are essential to local packs and localized organic ranking factors, in short, they are the backbone of any successful SEO campaign.
Unlike general link building tactics, location has a bigger impact on local link building. Therefore, you need to get links from local sites that have local relevance to your site.
In this post, I’ll show you 6 ways to find solid local link prospects that will help you rank higher on Google.
How to build local links
Since the goal is to drive more local traffic to your website, here’s how to improve your ranking with local links.
1. Join your niche relevant trade association
One of the best ways to build local links is with niche backlinks. Niche backlinks are like targeted advertising. They help you reach your target audience and convert them in no time. You can get these types of links by joining your niche relevant business association.
Conduct a targeted search on Google or another search engine for reputable business organizations in your city. Because they have authority and the right local relevance.
Let’s consider the previous example of a pastry chef. To find relevant associations in your niche, type California chef association into Google. With an SEO tool, you can see the SEO metrics for each domain and page within the SERP. If you visit the page of any of the associations listed, you will find that they have URLs with outgoing links to their members’ websites.
In the US, there are trade associations that negotiate with the government and unions to give benefits to members. These associations have insane link values because they link to government sites. If you become a member of one of these associations through an application or subscription, you can get the backlinks you need.
2. Valuable, meaningful guest posts on local websites
One of the best off-page SEO tactics to gain quality backlinks is guest posting.
What you need to do is look for local websites in your niche to turn to.
Let’s say you’re a pastry chef, you can use an SEO tool to sift through multiple pages of content. Then filter prospects based on their SEO metrics.
Target these local sites with food and pastry blog posts because they will likely accept a guest post.
Then set a word count filter to show pages of at least 500 words along with a domain reputation filter. This process will uncover the websites that have adequate website authority.
With the few blogs left, you can start applying for a guest writing opportunity. Consider pitching blogs by emailing the editor directly.
3. Generate backlinks from social media
Social media is not only used to showcase your product but also to improve your website visibility. The truth is that with social media, you can generate as many local backlinks as possible using your profile.
This process involves adding links to your social media profiles, pages, and groups.
Let’s take Twitter as an example. Statista reported that Twitter had 7.1 billion website visits worldwide this year. The United States currently has the most Twitter users at 77.75 million. And states like California and Florida are among the top ten active Twitter users. Let’s say you’re in California, then you’re lucky to get enough clicks.
With the stats above, it is clear that you can get a good number of backlinks on this microblogging platform by creating a decent profile.
One of the best places to get backlinks on Twitter is in your bio and website box.
Do you know that your profile has a current field for your website? It does, and with its 100+ character biospace, you can share your link in both places. The benefit of linking to your website in your bio is not only that it shows up directly to your profile visitors, but also shows up in Twitter search results.
Sites like Klout help improve your Twitter bio information, but unlike Twitter, website links only link to http://.
Other places to put your site link are in your photo and video tweets.
4. Link building for local resource pages
This is one of the most popular link building tactics that has been around for a while.
Resource page link building is the practice of showcasing your site on webpages that link to useful industry resources.
Here are some example resource pages.
These are good resource sites as they link to other related websites.
To build links using this tactic, you need to create a resource that is of great value to your local community (shopping guide, travel guide), then find relevant resource pages. Look for websites with decent domain-level authority. Then visit the pages to look for external links to other websites. After reviewing the websites using SEO metrics, scan the remaining prospects and contact us to propose your resource. For example, Amit Raj received a link to a fish shop from a local university with a resource page.
5. Consider the backlinks of your top organic competitors
The idea behind this is to find backlinks that will help your competitors rank well on Google. You need to find common links between your competitors and reach those sites. Look for competitors in your niche that are located in your city. Then collect a list of these website domains using SemRush or Map Pack.
Make sure you’re dealing with your real business competitors’ websites and not directories.
Use a tool like Ahref Backlinks Tool or SEO Spyglass to see websites that link to your competitors but not to you. Check out the lists of websites and you will find plenty of link building opportunities.
6. Create content that resonates with your local audience
This is another great local link building opportunity. It involves creating relevant local content for a local audience.
The first thing you should aim for here is to get local keywords. For example, if you are a pastry chef in California, you can search for the most popular cookie recipe in California.
Use keyword planning and research tools like Google Keyword Planner or SemRush to get the most popular local searches.
Then your blog posts should be related to local events and activities at the local level.
It would be best if you also network with local influencers and bloggers to get mentions of them either on their websites or on social media. With this strategy, you can be sure to get local backlinks and clicks in your area. For example, after reaching out to a local influencer, you can be listed among the top 10 pastry chefs in California, increasing your reach.
last thought
Now it’s up to you to implement these strategies for your local link building scheme. Even if the process seems challenging, take it step by step. You can’t predict the algorithm, but you can at least try to be as creative as possible when building your brand’s SEO.
Start your journey to gain local relevance and authority in your niche using the tactics discussed in this post.
Guy Sheetrit is CEO of Over The Top SEO, an award-winning marketing agency providing bespoke SEO marketing solutions for e-commerce, local and Fortune 500 businesses. He can be found on Twitter @guysheetrit.
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