Six Link Building Strategies for Local SEO

Links have an immense impact on rankings. But although it is a well-known fact, the power of connection building is still underestimated and even denied by a lot of small business owners. The fact is, the authority of your web pages and your domain is determined by links, the two variables that Google considers when ranking pages. But if you don't want to kiss goodbye to your rankings, make sure to invest your time and effort in creating quality ties.

Still not sure whether you need local ties to be built? Then consider this: 84 percent of SEO experts think that link building is an important activity for their local business customers, according to the latest research conducted by BrightLocal.

What's more, each survey expert confirmed that link building boosts local search rankings, with more experts finding this practice quite successful this year. 

Now that you know that local link building is the main, let's continue with the real strategies. By the way, it's totally OK to use ordinary link-building strategies for local SEO as well.

Why local link building should be different

1- Uncover your competitors' backlinks

2- Submit guest posts to local websites

3- Leverage unlinked mentions

4- Get listed in local business directories

5- Write about local events

6- Reach out to local influencers

Final thoughts

Why local link building should be different

When you type keyword phrases with "local intent" like "pet store near me" Google uses a separate algorithm to come up with location-specific results, the explanation why local SEO and local link building services in particular need to be done a bit differently can be boiled down to one core thing.

The source of links pointing to your website may be totally irrelevant to your business, as Greg Gifford, DealerOn's Director of Search and Social, clearly mentioned, the place is what matters most. In other words, first, create local ties and increase your relevance among the local users. Other connections are still useful, both nationwide and industry-wide, but they are more of a bonus.

So let me introduce you to six powerful strategies for building links that will help you find new opportunities, improve your local company, and make your rankings go through the roof.

1- Uncover your competitors' backlinks

Who doesn't want their opponents being spied on? Revealing the backlink profiles of your top competitors is the best link-building technique, to begin with. 

For two reasons: 

1. It's a good chance to explore your local competition.
2. Backlink prospects that your rivals have already vetted can be identified.

2- Submit guest posts to local websites

Needless to say, there is still an increase in content marketing, and it will hardly improve any time soon. While guest blogging takes time and effort, links, exposure, a new audience, and related traffic will certainly pay off. But first and foremost, quality guest blogging begins with the hunt for opportunities that are important. 

3- Leverage unlinked mentions

Unfortunately, a lot of clients who chat on the Internet about your product or service don't bother to link to your website. Therefore, there are high chances that lots of unlinked brand mentions are out there, giving you far less profit than they should. So what I say is to spot and turn unlinked mentions into related ones.

4- Get listed in local business directories

Another great technique for gathering local ties is citation creation. Local citations do a very good job in allowing local companies to be noticed by consumers. But most importantly, they will improve your local search engine rankings dramatically. For those who do not know what a quote is, that is when the company's name, address, and phone number are listed together.

On local business directories, websites and apps, and social media, citations can appear. The best way to generate citations, however, is via local business directories, which is exactly what we will do now.

As a rule, there are some small directories in every area, so it's very easy to find relevant ones and list your company. By running searches such as the easiest way to spot local business directories is:

Location "recommended links"

Location "add your site"

Location "add your business"

Location * directory

5- Write about local events

Yet another way of feeding your backlink profile is to create link-worthy content. You may think, for example, about adding a "blog" section to your site, knowing that people are always interested in events going on in their geographical areas.

Data about local events or news can be reported there. Most possibly, people who, for example, are involved in local markets or yard sales would be connected to you. This is how, with one stone, you kill two birds, drive traffic to your site and gain local ties.

6- Reach out to local influencers

Needless to mention, the marketing of influencers is still growing. The most valuable strategy for creating local backlinks, according to BrightLocal, is through partnerships with companies and influencers.

You might think of some government pages, local news media, or just bloggers in your region while searching for local influencers in your niche. To be applicable to your niche, the best practice is for them. Try reaching out to some places that overview local restaurants, for example, if you run a local coffee shop. Speaking of bloggers, in exchange for a connection, you can give them partnerships with your product or service.

But there is also another way, once you decide to reach out to whoever you are willing to, look for events in the nearest future that they can host. Attend the event after that, meet them in person, and see if you can support each other.

Track your results

Link building is definitely an incredibly important task, but it is by no means less important to keep an eye on your connections. So they need to be monitored in order to know if your links are still active and have not turned into no-follows. 

Final thoughts

We want to stress the link building is not going anywhere any time soon. Links take time to create, of course, but if you want to improve your rankings and hold them up, it should become your long-term dedication to link building.

Please don't forget that it's easier to hunt for connections coming from your location because you are doing local link building. What's more, try to give priority to quality links relevant to your niche and it won't take long for your rankings to rise.