According to a study by Moz, backlinks are essential for local packages and localized organic ranking factors, in summary, is the backbone of any successful SEO campaign.
Unlike general link building tactics, location has a greater impact on local link building. Therefore, you need to get links from local sites that have geographic relevance to your website.
In this post, I’ll show you 6 ways to find solid local link prospects that will help you rank higher in Google.
How to build local links
Since the goal is to drive more local traffic to your site, here’s how you can improve your rankings with local links.
1. Join your trade association relevant to the niche
One of the best ways to build local links is through niche backlinks. Niche backlinks are like targeted advertising. They help you reach your target audience and convert them in no time. You can get this type of link by joining your niche-relevant trade association.
Conduct a targeted search for legitimate trade association sites in your city on Google or any other search engine. This is because they have authority and the right local relevance.
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 will see SEO metrics for every domain and page within the SERP. If you visit the page of one of the associations listed, you will realize that they have URLs with outbound links to their member sites.
In the US, there are trade associations that negotiate with the government and unions to provide benefits to members. These associations have insane link values because they have links to government sites. Becoming a member of one of these associations through an application or membership can help you get the backlinks you need.
2. Valuable and meaningful guest posts on local websites
One of the best off-page SEO tactics to get high-quality backlinks is guest posting.
What you need to do is find local sites in your niche that you can submit to.
Let’s say you are a pastry chef, you can use an SEO tool to search across different pages of content. Then you filter your prospects based on their SEO metrics.
Target those local websites with blog posts about food and pastries as they are likely to accept a guest post submission.
Next, set up a word count filter to show pages with at least 500 words along with a domain rating filter. This process will reveal sites that have reasonable authority over the website.
With the few blogs left, you can start featuring a guest writing opportunity. Consider pitching blogs by sending a direct email to the editor.
3. Generate social media backlinks
Social media is not only for showcasing your product but also for improving the visibility of your website. The truth is, 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 largest number of Twitter users at 77.75 million users. And states like California and Florida are in the top ten for active Twitter users. So let’s say you’re in California, you’ll be lucky to get enough clicks.
With the above statistics, it is clear that you can get a good number of backlinks on this microblogging platform by setting up a decent profile.
One of the most suitable places to get Twitter backlinks is your bio and website field.
Do you know that your profile has a real field for your website? It does, and with its 100+ character bio space, you can share your link in both places. The benefit of having your site link in your bio is not only to appear directly to visitors to your profile, but also to appear in Twitter search results.
Sites like Klout help elevate Twitter bio information but unlike Twitter, they will only hyperlink to websites with http://.
Other places to include your site link are your tweets with photos and videos.
4. Creating links to the local resources page
This is one of the most popular link building tactics that has been around for quite some time.
Linking to resource pages is the practice of featuring your site on web pages that link to useful industry resources.
Here are some examples of resource pages.
These are good resource pages because they link to other related web pages.
To build links with this tactic, you need to create a resource that will be of tremendous value to your local community (shopping guide, travel guide), then find the relevant resource pages. Look for websites with decent domain-level authority. Then visit the pages to check for external links to other websites. After reviewing the sites for SEO metrics, scan the remaining potential customers and contact us to suggest your resource. For example, Amit Raj got a link for a fish business 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 help your competitors rank well in Google. You will need to find common links among your competitors and reach out to those sites. Look for competitors in your niche who are located in your city. Then gather a list of those website domains using SemRush or Map Pack.
Make sure you are dealing with the sites of your real business competitors and not directories.
Use a tool like Ahref’s backlink tool or spyglass SEO to see websites that link to your competitors but not you. Check out the site listings and you will be able to find enough link building opportunities.
6. Create content that fits your local audience
This is another great opportunity to make local connections. It involves creating relevant local content for a local audience.
Here, the first thing you should target is getting local keywords. For example, if you are a baker in California, you can search for the most popular cookie recipe in California.
Use keyword research and planning tools like Google Keyword Planner or SemRush to get the most popular local search queries.
So your blog posts should be about local events and activities on a local scale.
It would be best if you also connect with local influencers and bloggers to get mentions from them on their websites or social media. With this strategy, you can be sure of getting local backlinks and clicks in your area. For example, after reaching out to a local influencer, you can be listed in the top 10 bakers in California, increasing your reach.
Final thought
Now it’s your turn to implement these strategies for your local link building system. Even if the process seems challenging, take it one step at a time. You can’t predict the algorithm, but at least you can try to be as creative as possible in building your brand’s SEO.
Using the tactics discussed in this post, begin your journey to gaining local relevance and authority in your niche.
Guy Sheetrit is the Managing Director of Over The Top SEO, an award-winning marketing agency providing customized SEO marketing solutions for ecommerce, local and Fortune 500 companies. He can be found on Twitter @guysheetrit.
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