10 Local Link Building Tactics

Intro

Local SEO is a bit like a magic trick.

And, just like magic, there is a bit of an art to getting it right.

To the uninitiated, it seems to be nothing more than optimizing your website for some key phrases and then sitting back and waiting for the phone to ring.

But those of us who know a thing or two about how local SEO works know that there’s a lot more to it than that.

In this post, we’re going to take a look at nine different tactics for acquiring links for local SEO.

Some of these are fairly traditional, while others are a little more cutting edge. But all of them can help you improve your local search engine rankings.

Let's rock and roll.

1. Create a Google My Business Page

A GMB listing should be one of the foundational steps you take when you’re trying to establish your local business’s online presence. So make sure that it does link back directly to your website, as this will be an important signal.

You should also carefully select your business categories. Don’t just pick multiple categories for the sake of keywords or trying to get more “reach” - Pick the ones that’s most appropriate and relevant to your business.

If you have multiple physical branches in multiple locations, also set up each GMB so it links back to the appropriate subpage of the website as well, and include the full branch name on the listing.

Useful both for user experience, but it can also act as a signal if someone is looking for something in a very specific neighborhood.

You can even post updates on your GMB, and each post is an opportunity to link back to specific content pieces, potentially driving visitors directly to important updates.

You could leverage this when you do your link building outreach later. Perhaps another website will link to your business but they want something in return? If you don’t want to link to them from the blog, you could just share one of their pieces on your GMB profile.

2. Make sure your NAP is consistent

Getting listed on business directories and doing your citations is one of the first items you think of when you start your local link building strategy. However, your Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) consistency is very crucial for your local SEO strategy.

Any slight inconsistencies here in the format you use, will have a cumulative effect later. Even something as simple as using different formats for your phone number like this:

• Example 1: (555) 123-4567
• Example 2: 555-123-4567

This type of inconsistency may send confusing signals to search engines like Google, and lead to lower rankings, and lower likelihood of showing up in certain local search results.

So make sure you settle on the correct way you’ll be using NAP, and that it's consistent across your website, the citations and business directory listings.

3. Get listed in online directories

Make sure you get maximum coverage and get on as many of the main online directories as you can find. There are different ones depending on your region but if you’re in the US, some of the big ones include:

• Bing
• Yahoo
• Facebook
• Yelp
• YellowPages
• Whitepages
• LinkedIn
• Chamber of Commerce
• Foursquare

To name a few.

There may even be some very local directories, or industry-specific categories, depending on your niche.

You can run a search like this on Google just subbing in the appropriate keywords:

• [location keyword] business listings
• [location keyword] business directory
• [location keyword] directory
• [business type keyword] business listings [location]
• [business type keyword] business directory [location]
• [business type keyword] directory [location]

Here’s a few more local SEO resources you can check out - you’ll find more examples of directories you can submit your site, as well as other general local SEO advice.

4. Create local content

Content is always going to be important to any SEO strategy, and local SEO is no exception. You may be posting about some local events your business is running, maybe you’re running some discounts, special offers, or competitions.

Just make sure to produce content around those items, and if you combine this with social media, you may find it gets re-shared and businesses or people in the local area will naturally link to it, and share it with each other.

Other things you could create content on include:

• A mental health initiative for local residents
• Creating a data study about the local region and/or the population (you could get this data from government sources or running your own survey)
• Interviewing people in your company about a topic
• Interviewing other businesses in the local region about a topic

The possibilities are endless. And if done right, it could naturally earn backlinks from local media, local bloggers or local forums.

5. Get involved in the local community

Participating with the local community can help you get word of mouth, and today, those conversations can then carry through online and help drive customers to search for your brand to engage and learn more about it.

You might be able to donate or contribute in other ways to things happening in the local area. Some ideas include:

• Sponsoring local events
• Charity drives
• Community volunteering
• Sponsoring local sports teams

Just think about what's important to your business and its values, and that will give you some ideas on what you can contribute to.

For example, if you’re a local funeral service, you may want to donate to the local cemeteries in the area. Here’s an example of a Sponsors page.

From a link building point of view, this can directly get you some backlinks as well. You sometimes find these organizations will have a Donors/Sponsors page, and will display your logo - but if they don’t already include a link, just make a point of asking them.

6. Local influencers & podcasts

Social media links as we know, will tend to be nofollow links, and may not have much direct impact on your SEO. But, it is still useful for driving referral traffic and brand awareness. In turn, this can fuel more people to search about your brand, and may even lead to links.

As we said earlier when we talked about creating local content - social media can play a big part here. Especially if you’re in an industry which is very visual - such as food, beauty, and aesthetics for example.

You could even collaborate with other niche influencers in the local area, send them some product, and get them to share that content on social media, which you can re-share.

Or there may even be local podcasts you can appear on. If their topics align really closely with your business even better.

7. Local universities, colleges and schools

There’s a few different ways you can get links from educational institutions, but when it comes to universities and colleges, you could try running a discount or special offer which the local students can benefit from.

Or you may even be able to get mentioned (and get a backlink) on the alumni page of your local university. Sometimes universities like to talk about former students, what they’re doing, and especially if they are running a business.

Scholarship link building is also another technique used to get links to universities. This was a slightly abused method over the years, but still can be effective and it's still possible to secure legitimate scholarship links on some universities.

Just think about the scholarship fund you’d want to create, who you would want to help, and then reach out to universities and colleges and let them know about your scholarship. They will then promote it on their “Scholarships” page.

Schools also often have resource pages where they can link to useful content, and they especially favor anything from the local region. You may even be able to sponsor the school if they are running any events, or lets say, the school has a local sports team or club - you may find they have a sponsors page like the example below.

8. Get interviewed by local bloggers and journalists

You will also have some newspapers, small blogs or magazines in the local area that also have an online presence. The advantage here is that the audience will generally be quite local. The media sites will especially have a large audience.

Try searching on Google, and you may even find some not so obvious ones you weren’t aware of. WIkipedia is also pretty good if you’re trying to find local newspapers. For example, the wiki listing for newspapers in Maryland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_Maryland

They may not list out all the website URLs, but you can search each one on Google and see if they have an online presence.

With local media, this relies on having something that is newsworthy, or is helping the local community in some way.

For bloggers, you’ll be best to search manually like this:

• [Your area] bloggers
• [Your area] [your industry] blog
• [Your area] best blogs

Bloggers may expect some kind of sponsorship, some product or to be invited to an event, in return for covering your brand.

9. Speak at (or hold) events

Speaking at events is great for brand awareness and for your personal brand. But, you can also use these opportunities to get a backlink.

If you have any expos, seminars or other types of events where you have a chance to be a speaker, you may find that there’s a page on the website, where they share more info about the speaker, complete with a backlink to their website and socials.

Or if you’d rather not be in the limelight as a speaker, you could even just hold an event related to your business niche, and invite others to speak.

For example, if you're at a local gym, you could find a nutritionist, or fitness instructors in the local area to speak about certain topics. And since they’re a speaker, they may also share it and link to it from their sites. You can also kick the promotion up a notch, by listing it on platforms like Meetup, EventBrite or any other region-specific platforms near you. That will drive even more backlinks to the site, and expand the reach.

10. Guest blogging for local sites

Guest blogging is a great one for sharing your expertise and top of funnel content, that is relevant to other people’s audiences.

The key here is to find businesses that are in the local region, and where there is some sort of audience or topical crossover.

For example, maybe you are an accountancy firm, and you want to comment about some new business grant scheme, or a very specific tax topic. Try reaching out to businesses where the audience for that content (and your potential customers)are browsing. So you might want to reach out to real estate agents, law firms, local mortgage companies, etc.

You may find this a bit easier than local media, as in many cases with other small to medium sizes businesses, you’ll find they don’t have time to produce a lot of content. Since you’re solving that issue and providing something that’s written with some expertise behind it (and its free) they’ll be glad for the help!

The fact that its a local website linking to you, will also give you an edge from a local rankings point of view as well.

Take control of your local SEO

Local SEO is a complex and ever-changing beast. But by following the tips and tricks in this post, you should be able to give your local SEO a real boost.

Just remember to keep your eye on the prize and focus on tactics that are likely to bring you both traffic and leads.

The rest will take care of itself.