The Latest Marketing Insights

3 Great Strategies for Local Link Building

Local link building Seafoam Media blogAs more businesses continue to develop their online presence and compete for the top rankings on Google, it is becoming harder and harder to dominate your niche, especially if you're a new business. One area of search engine optimization that has become more important than ever is that of link building. Acquiring backlinks is the best way for a business to gain domain authority, which is a key component in Google's algorithm for determining how reputable a site is. When other highly ranked websites link back to your site, you gain domain authority, which in turn affects how well you'll stand out when people search for keywords related to your business.
Now, there are plenty of articles out there with advice on generating backlinks, but in this post we're going to focus on 3 strategies that are simple and easy for business owners and marketers alike to grasp. We were inspired from this recent post by Moz, which has a bunch of ways your business can get links. Here are our three favorite strategies they suggested!

3 Local Link Building Ideas

1. Host or sponsor a community event

Fundraisers, special sales, classes, or grand opening events...all are fantastic ideas that just about any business can benefit from hosting. However, one step that many businesses forget about is submitting their events to local community sites, such as their Chamber of Commerce. Doing so is an efficient way to generate backlinks back to your site, while simultaneously doing something that those in your community will enjoy or benefit from. Remember to create an event details page on your site before submitting, and be sure to promote it on your social channels and through email! Also of note: if you can get your event listed on a .GOV or .EDU site, it will be seen as even more authoritative in Google's eyes, which in turn helps give a stronger boost to your site.

2. Offer special discounts to students, teachers, senior citizens, and/or veterans

Universities, schools, and local organizations are great resources for acquiring backlinks (and potential business!). By offering an exclusive discount or promotion to those who are part of those groups, you have an opportunity to get your business linked to from their site. While most people typically think of doing this with local universities, K-12 schools and local area groups can also be great avenues to consider. The trick is to run a Google search and find pages that exist where these organizations are listing businesses and showing the discount or promotion they offer. In the example above, I searched for
site:.edu "staff discounts"
Which pulled a list of searches showing .EDU sites that offer staff discounts, one of which was Missouri State University.

3. Reach out to manufacturers and wholesalers 

If your business gets its products from a wholesaler, you have the ability to reach out to those distributors and request a link to your site as a retailer of those products! Many manufacturers enjoy showing off a list of "authorized resellers" or a list of "where to buy our products". The best way to do this is to first sort the products you sell by brand. Then, visit the websites of all those brands and carefully scour the site for any indication of a page that shows customers where to buy their products. If you find such a page, bingo! Find their contact info and send a friendly email asking them if they could add your business to their site to help more customers find their products.
Local link building is crucial for small businesses, and hopefully these three suggestions will get you on your way to generating some! What other strategies do you use for acquiring backlinks?
Send us a comment on Facebook or a tweet to @SeafoamMedia with your thoughts!

Share this:

Contact Us 

We love doing good things here. All it takes to set your business on the path to growth is a conversation with Seafoam.
Let's Go
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram