Why Is Local Link Building Important

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important aspect for any online brand. An excellent SEO strategy will enhance your chances of appearing higher in search results. Because of this, you’re more likely to drive more traffic to your website. In fact, statistics show that 71% of search engine clicks are always from the first page.

So what is the criteria for this ranking? Search engines use web crawlers to scan your web pages and index them. Google then ranks these pages based on their authority and usefulness. When a person posts a query on Google, the algorithm will find the most relevant results and order them accordingly in search results.

There are many factors that Google considers when ranking pages, and it’s hard to keep track of them all. One factor is local link building, which is a crucial aspect in any local SEO campaign.

If your business serves a particular geographical area, investing in local SEO will enhance your presence within your neighborhood. Let’s look at this a little more.

What is Local Link Building?

Link building in general refers to the process of getting links from other publishers to your website. In local link building, your main focus is on high-authority publishers within a given geographical area. 

A link from these sites to your own sends a signal to Google that your site is a quality resource. Sites with more links tend to rank higher on SERPs because the search engine and users regard them as high-authority. Keep in mind, though, that link building isn’t the only determining factor for ranking in local searches. It’s not uncommon to find a website with as few as ten backlinks ranking higher in local search results.  

Therefore, it’s good to invest in all SEO ranking factors to compete with the best in the market. That said, here’s some reasons local link building should be among your priorities: 

Why Is Local Link Building Important?

1. It Enhances Your Online Visibility

Online presence is vital for your business even if you already have a brick-and-mortar store. Local link building enhances your visibility through other complementary websites. When high-authority publishers within a given geographical area give you backlinks, their audience becomes aware of your site. Those high-authority backlinks will help drive traffic to your website and increase customer outreach. But for your strategy to work, you’ll need to find relevant local websites.  

2. It Enhances Your Ranking

Many people today prefer to search online for a local brand that fits their needs. After finding one, they can either order the products online or visit the store physically. Statistics show that at least 45% of customers visit a business’s physical store after finding them online. So, every time your website doesn’t appear among the top results, you lose potential customers.  

Local link building strengthens your site’s local SEO. Google uses your backlinks to draw a distinctive line between you and your competitors. From the search engine’s perspective, sites with backlinks deserve to rank higher. A combination of this and top-notch content will help you appear among the top results in relevant local keyword searches.   

It’s always a good idea to analyze your competitors’ performance before commencing your strategy. Check their linking websites and top-performing content. You can do this by: 

Step #1: Going to ahrefs.com, search the competing domain, and click top pages under Organic Search to check the top performing content. 

You’ll see a list of your competitor’s highest-ranking URLs and the content that’s ranking well. From here you can determine the level of content you need to work towards to get results.

Step #2: To see the linking domains you can check the referral links and the backlinks as well. Simply click on backlinks or referring domains under Backlink Profile and you’ll see all the connecting backlinks and referring domains.  

Backlinks

Referring domains

The overall goal is to have more high-quality backlinks than your competitors. Although this isn’t the sole determinant of your SEO ranking, it plays a vital role. Is it easy to acquire? No, it takes time.  

3. It Boosts Your Site’s Credibility

Google and other search engines aim to offer their users the most relevant and high-quality results. Backlinks are one of the most important factors considered in ranking criteria. Google uses them to determine the relevance of an article. When both aspects are positive, your content qualifies as high authority.  

Diversifying your backlink profile boosts your site’s credibility even further. You can diversify your backlink profile by gaining different types of links depending on the publisher’s preference. Some ways include:  

• Bio Link: Your link gets added to the author bio after a publisher shares your content. Here’s an example of a bio link.

• Editorial Link: Your link gets added to an already existing piece of content but you add around 200-300 words extra to enhance the content to make your link look natural. Here’s an example of a before and after for editorial link.  

Before:

After:

Contextual Link: Your link is added within an article in a natural way. Here’s an example of a contextual link.

• Image link: Your link is added as the source of an image that you own which is added to an article. Here’s an example of Image link building.

Every link from a different local authority website is like a vote of confidence. Therefore, it’s a good idea to have five links from five different sites than all of them from one website. The former means five different publishers have endorsed your content and proven its value. On the other hand, getting many links from one publisher may count as one vote in the grand scheme of SEO.

4. It Increases Your Revenue Opportunities

If you’re looking to reach more potential customers, local link building is one of your best bets.  With local publishers endorsing your content, you’re likely to get many interested internet users visiting your site. 

This increases traffic to your website and improves your overall metrics. So how’s this related to more revenue-generating opportunities? If your backlinks land on your sales page, you might get direct clients. Visitors who land on other pages might also browse through your content, products or services.  

When your website ranks higher on search engines, you get a better chance of attracting new clients. HubSpot’s statistics show that 92% of search engine users usually pick businesses on the first page. Therefore, appearing on this page gives you an opportunity to gain more sales. 

It’s also worth noting that many people prefer purchasing their products from a local brand. Therefore, they’ll often trust a referral to a store that’s close to them. In fact, HubSpot Marketing Statistics suggest that local searches account for 46% of all Google searches. At least 72% of people who do these searches are likely to visit the store if it’s within five miles. Provided you sell high-quality products at a fair price, this could work in your favor.  

5. It Enhances Your Relationship With Other Niche Players

As an entrepreneur, you should always look for ways to connect with brand leaders within your niche. Building a strong relationship with industry influencers will enhance your brand’s growth, giving you more revenue opportunities.  

But how will you get there? Link building helps you build and nurture these relationships. Google recommends that you build links within your niche. Apart from generating relevant links, this strategy helps you connect with reputable publishers in the industry.  

Whether you use a link building marketplace or approach the publishers directly, you’ll still enjoy this business connection. It opens up an opportunity for future collaborations, which can be significant for your brand. However, you’ll have to generate top-quality content for these industry influencers to consider working with you. 

How To Gain Local Backlinks

Generating local backlinks can be an intimidating project if you don’t know where to start. It’s a challenging task, but you can enjoy significant benefits once you get the hang of it. That said, here are some of the most effective ways of building your local backlink profile: 

1. Hire a link building company: Find a link building company who specializes in local link building. One advantage of doing this is that these companies can find potential publishers for you. However, it’s important to understand that local link building can take longer to achieve because the pool of websites within your geographical area, plus niche, is a lot smaller. The odds of them wanting to link to your website is also small as well.

2. Approach publishers directly: You can also choose to contact relevant publishers to have them add your website link to their content. One way to find potential publishers is through your competitors’ link profiles. After you’ve curated your competitors’ link profiles, you can use a backlink tool to check and dissect this information. You can also check online to find relevant local websites with high domain authorities. With your list ready, write a personalized link-building pitch and send it to each publisher. Here’s an example:  

3. Create Great Content: Creating great content that people like and share is also a great way to earn backlinks. When creating this type of content work on solving the readers problems by using step by step instructions, screenshots, images and clear explanations to convey your message.  

Conclusion
More companies today are investing heavily in local SEO, and rightly so. One of the biggest players is local link building. With an excellent local backlink profile, your company’s online presence will improve. This means more potential for your business to grow and gain more customer’s long term. Are you interested in local link building?