Did you know that 50% of users who do a local search on their smartphone also visit that local store within a day? That is why local SEO is so important for small businesses.
Local link building has one important intention, it helps build relevance for a website within its locality. So, creating local backlinks for your business is really very important, so you can turn up in the local search results.
These local link building practices are geared towards building a strong signal net that will only positively improve your Google Map situation, as well as your organic rankings. Let’s move towards the best practices that’ll help you acquire quality local backlinks for your website, that will help push the needle for your business!
1. Build and Optimize Citations
Building citations is probably the most efficient way to make your website relevant to local search terms. Citations basically refer to the NAP (Name Address Phone) information of your brand across the Internet including social media platforms, review websites, and directories.
If you want to improve your local search visibility, it is extremely important to keep the NAP information consistent on different platforms on the Internet. Not only this will help your brand to rank for local search terms, but it will also provide users with accurate information about your brand.
In addition to the general NAP information, citations also include several other business details such as:
-Business Hours in Which You Operate
-Additional Contact Details such as Fax Number and Emergency
– Business Description
– Directions to Your Physical Store
-Social Media Links
Optimizing citations is extremely important as you don’t want to give inaccurate information to the customers. Whether it’s a mis-spelling or you have forgotten to update the address, make sure to go through every existing citation and make it correct. And, while building citations in the future, ensure that you are keeping the information the same as the existing citations.
When it comes to building citations, you have a plethora of options to choose from. For instance, if you are performing local SEO for Dentists, you can find local directories for landscapers. Similarly, travel agencies and restaurants can get a citation from websites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor. Building citations on different directories will help you acquire quality backlinks from authority domains, eventually resulting in a stronger backlink profile.
2. Get Customer Reviews (As many as possible)
Even though reviews alone won’t take your website to the top of SERP, they sure can help your website build brand authority. In fact, if you want to see your brand in Google’s local pack results, getting positive reviews from the customers will make your job a lot easier. Now, we know you don’t have control over what customers feel and write about your brand, there are a couple of tips you can follow to get good reviews for your brand.
These Tips Include:
Instead of overlooking negative comments, address them, and try to resolve the issue. A negative review (1-start) can damage your online reputation. So, make sure to talk to customers who have left a negative comment and do your best to find the right solution for their query.
Reply to customer feedback. Even if it’s a positive review, make sure to respond to it with an appreciation reply. This will help you build a healthy relationship with your clients. Ask the customers to leave a review. Don’t assume that your customers are going to write a review on their own. Tell them they can leave a review on your Google My Business account, and if possible, try to explain the process as well.
Whether you want to assign a dedicated team or respond to the reviews on your own, it is important to stay on top of Google reviews as the majority of the customers are going to make a decision by checking the reviews of previous clients. Steal Backlinks from Your Competitors. If you are a small business or a startup, you are most likely to have dozens of potential competitors who have already fought the battle to acquire quality backlinks for their website.
All you need to do is analyze their backlink profile and steal local backlinks to improve the backlink profile for your website. How do you steal competitor backlinks, you ask? Well, it’s quite simple. In fact, way simpler than you think. You need an SEO tool like Ahrefs that provides a deep insight into a website’s backlink profile. This allows you to see where they have links currently, so you can try and get your site listed in the same areas.
3. Add a Link to Unlinked Brand Mentions
Many times local sites would have mentioned your business without adding a link to your website. These are known as unlinked brand mentions and they are simply wasted opportunities. Considering the fact these websites have mentioned your brand name without any hesitation, they are most likely to leave a link to your website as well. Think about sponsorships for a second. Have you ever donated or helped support a local sports team or organization? These are some of the most common areas I have found these unlinked brand mentions in the past.
All you need to do is reach out and ask them. To identify the unlinked brand mentions, you can simply use the Google Alerts tool. This is a tool that’ll alert you every time someone mentions your brand name on their web page
4. Get Backlinks from Local Influencers
Although this local link building method is slower, if you manage to get backlinks from the local influencers in your niche, it’ll skyrocket your local search visibility tremendously.
Start out by finding all the influencers. You can use Buzzsumo to do this task. It is an online tool that allows you to find and connect with influencers in your niche.
Local Link Building-Final Words
Like we mentioned earlier, local link building is different from regular link building. So, it’s important to follow different strategies that deliver results. The above-mentioned tips will help you acquire quality local backlinks for your website and rank for local search terms.
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