What are the best local directories to use for link building?

Well the short answer to the question 'what's best'- as always - #itdepends (in German: #eskommtdaraufan). First of all it is a matter of topic and goal the project has. If it's a restaurant or hotel trying to get more customers to book a seat or room aside of Google Business Profile directories like Yelp, Tripadvisor and regional players - in and around Graz "graztourismus.at" oder "10things.at" etc. are a must have, if its in the medical sector you need to have "docfinder.at" or "arztsuche24.at" etc. in mind to to gain visibility. A good indicator are features in den SERPs. To be present in their sources counts twice in having visibility and often tripples up, when it's also source for large language models (LLM; AI) suchas CHatGPT!

Local directories are amazing, I am not saying that are bad, but they could be pretty harmful if you don't know how to use them. Also, it doesn't work in all the countries they are used in most big countries with big demands, but if you are working in a small country, most of the time are useless because of the demand.

Choosing the best local directories is about 100% on the demand, categories, and sub-categories. Because if you target the correct audience and put the correct categories. It is BANG you target the right place in the dartboard.

The best thing you have to stick in your mind when you optimize your listings: Your main category is like the top pyramid it is where everyone sees but the sub-categories are where you get most of the demands the bottom of the pyramid in other words the base of your leads. Second always use the rule NAP, Name, address, and Phone, if you want to put thousand things more later do it but always put that 3 topics.

It can be quite challenging to analyze the isolated impact of factors or actions on SEO, but we need to make an effort to measure what we do to determine whether our strategy is effective or not. When it comes to link building, we should not only track the received visits but also monitor other indicators such as the positions of our target keywords, the number of keywords we rank for, and organic traffic. However, it's essential to keep in mind that local SEO has its peculiarities, and we should measure our strategy within the local pack.

My best recommendation for link building with local directories is to look at the niche you want to attack and then take at least 100 places that have a website. Then look for broken links and go personally to that places to give a new link.

The best local directories can't be listed in this format, as the buzzword is in the name: local. Seek out directories that are in close geographic proximity to your business, and it's even better if these directories are niche-relevant.

Google My Business, Yelp, and Yahoo Local are some of the best and most authentic local listing websites. But before listing your brand, ask yourself why you are doing it, whether is it useful for your audience, will people reach you if you list your brand on these platforms. If you have valid answers to these questions go ahead and publish your brand else just refrain from doing it.