In this guide, by following these local link-building ideas and tips you will learn how to find local SEO backlinks for your local business.
Local SEO backlinks are an effective way to rank a local business in search engines like Google. Higher rankings mean more leads, more customers, and more revenue.
Link building is an important element of any local SEO strategy. Whether you're a brick-and-mortar business or a service company, link building can help you improve your rankings.
Finding relevant, high-quality backlinks for local SEO will also be one of your biggest challenges.
So here you'll find all sorts of useful tips and ideas that help you to be more successful with your link-building strategy.
What is Local SEO Link Building?
Link building is the practice of getting other websites to link to your site. Local SEO link building is specifically focusing on links from businesses located in a targeted local area. It is most often optimized for Google, but Google is not the only search engine to consider.
The goal is to drive traffic and users to the website and help your business rank higher in local searches and relevant map packs.
Local Search Engine Optimization Backlinks
Best backlinks for local SEO
Wondering about local link-building strategies to get local backlinks and improve your local SEO?
local SEO backlinks opportunities may not have the same variety as national or global link-building options. You're fighting to rank for hyperlocal keywords that tend not to have much search volume, and you'll be working with low-authority websites, to begin with.
Here are some local SEO backlinks examples you can build for a sandwich shop:
- Local newspapers or media outlets that publish articles about local food.
- Local bloggers who have a small following but are in your target area.
- Local event pages that write content about what to do in an area - tourist sites, downtown directories, chambers of commerce, etc.
- Other local businesses that also have a website and are willing to have a "Local Partners" page or a "Businesses We Love" page.
- Local charities that the business owner may sponsor or volunteer for and have a dedicated volunteer page.
- Tourism websites.
- Local organizations and group sites.
How to find local backlinks?
All the major local SEO studies show that links are one of the most recognized ranking factors. If you want your local business to rank higher on Google, you need a link-building strategy to find those famous backlinks.
Here are some valuable tips to give you some ideas:
- Get links from authoritative websites
- Earn links that your competitors are using
- Create local content
- Get those localized citations
- Find as many link opportunities as possible
- Claim unlinked brand mentions
- Buy quality links
- Include relevant internal links to your content
By getting backlinks from authoritative websites, you can then build your own authority in your niche. Authoritative websites are high-traffic sites and are already trusted by Google.
Studying your competitors is an important step in understanding what your business needs to improve. After researching what you need to change to increase your traffic and sales, it would be a good idea to try to gain some of those same backlinks that your competitors are enjoying.
Creating quality content is always considered a good idea when planning your SEO strategy. However, local content would be blog posts about local events or sales. It is good to post on social media and other platforms besides your web pages. Getting the word out via content is a good idea to boost your local SEO backlinks.
It is important to know that a spammy website that links to your website can result in a penalty. So, stick to reliable and trustworthy backlinks as much as possible.
Claiming unlinked brand mentions is a good idea. What you can do is search your brand name on Google and for any mention of your business that is not accompanied by a link, you can email the website owner and ask for a link to your website. This can create links and earn you backlinks.
Internal links are also important. They show Google that your website has enough content to be relevant to your target audience for the keywords you have selected.
Are Backlinks Important for Local SEO?
Backlinks are an important part of local SEO, as they signal to search engines that other websites like the content on your site. Look at backlinks as a vote of trust.
Link signals, including inbound links, anchor text, linking domain authority, and quantity of linking domains, are among the most important factors in local SEO.
Most businesses underestimate the importance of local SEO backlinks. While all backlinks from credible websites are valuable for organic SEO, there is a specific subset of websites that have the most influence on local SEO.
Backlinks from local publications, such as newspapers and magazines, local organizations, and community customers are useful for boosting local SEO. This include also websites that are geographically relevant. Inbound links from geographically relevant websites will improve the performance of a brand's local landing pages in local search.
Benefits of Local SEO Link Building
How to find local SEO clients? Local SEO backlinks can help you improve your organic traffic and ranking for locally searched keywords. This way you get a wider audience! As I mentioned, local link building refers to the process of getting links, brand mentions, and referrals from other local businesses.
Here are some of the main benefits of local SEO link building:
- Improved local traffic, both online and offline
- Higher search engine rankings
- Improved site metrics and SEO scores
- Improved domain authority and reliability
- Increased sales, conversions, and click-through rates
- Improved B2B and customer relationships
- Better visibility and lower bounce rate
- More user engagement and followers on social media.
Improved local traffic is one of the main benefits of local SEO link building. Your business can rank higher in the SERPs, and your SEO metrics and scores will improve.
Your business will appear more trustworthy to new customers and your domain authority for your business niche will improve. You may even see an increase in sales, click-through rates, and conversion rates.
Customer relationships and business-to-business relationships will also improve because when you make connections, you start to network and build meaningful relationships.
One of the main reasons for link building is visibility and being seen by the customers and businesses you want to see. This means higher user engagement and more traffic.
Google Maps and Local SEO Backlinks
Ranking in Google Maps is another important part of your SEO strategy and local link-building tactics. It's probably one of your goals if you're trying to develop a good digital marketing or local marketing strategy. You need your business to rank in local search results, as well as that includes Google Maps.
Backlinks play an important role in ranking in Google Maps and in the map "3-pack". Local SEO backlinks have an effect on ranking because they tell Google that authoritative websites in your area consider your business or website important.
Local directory listings have the benefit of improving local campaign citations. As I mentioned above, local citations are when other sites share your information (name, address, and number). This is known as NAP.
The more of this information that is posted on authoritative websites, the more Google's algorithm will recognize your website in Google search as being important in your area. This is one of the reasons why backlinks are so essential for local SEO link building.
Here are some other suggestions for ranking in Google maps:
- Optimizing the Google Business Profile (formerly GMB)
- Add subcategories to your Google business profile
- Create high-quality local citations
- Optimize your website for SEO
- Reach out to local websites to get a referral
- Get testimonials
- Increase Google Business profile reviews
- Beware of spammy backlinks
Google Business Profile Optimization is a great way to make sure your business ranks when someone searches locally for "places near me" or other local keywords such as "stores near me". This is a great way to get your business known, ranked, and connected to potential customers.
Optimizing your website for SEO is not only a good way to rank in general, but it's also a good way to prove your authority to Google. It's Google and your customers that you want to impress.
So, creating great content and then optimizing your homepage and landing pages for customers will prove that your business is trustworthy and will make you appear in local search rankings.
Outreach is one of the most effective ways to get local backlinks. One of the benefits of local search engine optimization backlinks is that you can meet your potential customers face to face and create great business relationships.
Testimonials and reviews are a major element of showing local customers why your business is great. The more reviews you have on your Google Business profile, the more legitimate your business looks.
A quick tip would be to respond to every review, whether it is good or bad. This shows that your business cares and makes people want to buy your products or use your services.
Local SEO Backlinks Summary
Local link building is important to your local SEO strategy. Link building is the bread and butter of building a local audience that brings users to your brick-and-mortar store and increases your online traffic.
By following the steps above and creating and planning a strategy, you can increase traffic, sales, conversion rates, rank in Google Maps, and even reach the first page of Google for your target keywords.
