13 Local Link Building Tips To Grow Your Local Business in Search

As of this writing, there are?more than 1.8 billion websites?live on the internet, and that number rises every second.

To put that in perspective, if you looked at one?website?every second, twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year, it would take you more than fifty-seven years to see all those websites – and by then, more would have been created.

How are you supposed to make your website stand out among a universe of other websites?

The good news is that you don’t have to – with proper?search engine optimization, you can make sure your site gets in front of the right people at the right time.

And by focusing your SEO efforts on your local market, you can improve your chances of getting noticed by the right people even more.

Read on to learn more about?local link building?and how it can help your business grow.

What Is Local Link Building?

Local link building focuses on improving your standing in one specific aspect of the search engine algorithm: location-based rankings.?Local link building is achieved by building backlinks to your local business website from resources located in your city.

Contrast this with when you’re working on search engine optimization on your website, you’re working to increase your web page’s overall ranking in search engine results.

When you search a term like “Indian restaurant” or “hair salon,” search engines will check?listings near you.

Like other listings, these results are arranged based on how reputable a site is according to the search engine algorithm.

Local link building can help improve your placement in these location-based results.

Why Should You Focus on Local Link Building?

Search engine optimization is a good idea for a business of any size to focus on.

When people are looking for businesses in your industry, you want to make sure your name is at the top of the page. This can help bring in new customers and keep your revenues on the rise.

But small and mid-sized businesses can especially benefit from local link building.

You don’t need people worldwide to find you; you just need your neighbors to know about your company. It’s easier to get noticed in a smaller pool, and that’s exactly what local link building can do for you.

13Local Link Building Tips

Here’s the top 13 local link building tips to start ranking higher in local search results to grow your local business.

Tip 1: Use Your Local Network

One of the best ways you can increase your local link building is to use your network. Remember, your goal is to increase awareness within your community.

So use your website to engage more with your community and take advantage of those networking connections.

Interview your town’s mayor, a city councilperson, or another prominent local figure.

Talk about a topic that overlaps between their area of expertise and yours.

Then you can link to any web presence they have and hopefully get a link to your site in return!

Tip 2: Use Local Resources

When you’re trying to find content to use on your site, try to keep things as local as you can.

The more you specialize in your particular area, the more weight search engine algorithms will give your site in local rankings.

You’ll also build a great rapport with other influential people in your area, expanding your network.

When you use photographs for your website, try to get images from a local photographer.

If you’re redesigning your site, work with a local web designer and link to their site on one of your pages.

This increased local networking will help your page stand out as locally reputable.

Tip 3: Work with Local Influencers

Another great way to get your business on the local map is to partner with influencers in your area.

Influencers are content creators?who have a large social media following.

As the name suggests, these people are very influential among their followers, who may take their recommendations about which products or businesses to spend money with.

Find some influencers in your area and arrange sponsorships or partnered content.

For one thing, this can be a great way to make a whole new range of people aware of your business.

But you can also get reputable local links to your site, which can help boost your search engine rankings.

Tip 4: Become a Local Resource

Telling your customers about your business is wonderful, and some of your site content should focus on that.

But your business should also provide your customers with content they can use in their daily lives.

This will keep them coming to you as a resource, as well as for your products or services.

Work to become a resource in your local community.

Maybe you offer information about the latest community events or policy changes in your industry.

You could also create a new resident’s guide to your city or publish a map with popular restaurants, shops, and local attractions on it.

Tip 5: Promote Other Local Businesses

One of the best ways you can work on local link building is by promoting other businesses in your area.

As a small business owner, one of your most important tools is the community of other business owners around you.

And when you promote them through your site, everybody wins.

When you link to other local businesses, you establish yourself as a leader in your community.

You also create a strong outbound link that SEO algorithms will weight heavily.

And you improve your chances that that business might link back to your page in the future, further improving your?local SEO.

Tip 6: Use Strategic Discounts

Another great way to bring people into your business and improve your search engine rankings is to be smart with your discounts.

People are more likely to think positively about your business and spend more money with you if they get a discount on your goods or services.

You can use that to your advantage when you’re trying to gain standing in your community rankings.

Give a discount to local teachers, military, senior citizens, or members of certain public clubs.

Those people will spread the word about your business to their friends, bringing in more customers for you.

And the groups you’re giving discounts to may link to your site in their media distributions, improving your local link status.

Tip 7: Give Local Sponsorships

A more direct way to get this sort of local interlinking is to give local sponsorships.

With a sponsorship, you trade donations to an organization for publicity through their networks.

You also position yourself as a valued and involved leader in your community.

Talk to local schools,?youth sports leagues, and other youth activity organizations about whether they need sponsorships.

You can also work with local media companies or even different civic organizations.

Ask that these groups link to your site in their media publications as a part of your sponsorship agreement.

Tip 8: Donate to Local Charities

Another great way to use your funds to improve your local linking status is to donate to local charities.

This is great PR for your company, as well as making a positive difference in your community.

You may want to carefully consider who you donate to; your donations could have an impact on your public image.

Consider donating to your local food pantry, animal shelter, or homeless shelter.

You can sponsor 5Ks and fun runs for cancer research and other such causes.

If you don’t want to donate part of your revenue, consider setting up a donation box for canned food, books for the local library, pet supplies, or school supplies for underprivileged kids.

Tip 9: Host an Event

If you want to get a lot of buzz going in your community, consider hosting an event for your neighbors.

For one thing, this will get the media outlets talking about you, providing you some stellar inbound links.

But it will also put your name on the map of your community, giving you more clout with other community leaders.

COVID-19 has made event hosting trickier, but there are still some great options for bringing your community together.

Rent a large projector screen and host a drive-in movie night for your community.

You can also host a virtual 5K, run an AMA through your social media, or even arrange a community game night through a free app or website.

Tip 10: Run a Contest

Another great way to bring your community together (and get people talking about your business) is to run a contest.

This is also a fantastic option for businesses looking for ways to stay involved in their communities while following?COVID-19 protocols.

You can even partner with your local newspaper to announce your contest results, getting you even more inbound links.

With the holidays on the way, you could run a pet costume contest to see whose pooch makes the cutest elf, dreidel, or fruit.

Challenge people to send in the best-made Hallmark movie title and description or their favorite holiday dinner side dish recipe.

Give the winner some goodies from your business, and be sure to announce the results far and wide!

Tip 11: Enter for Local Awards

Your customers aren’t the only ones who can wind contests in your community – you can too!

Winning local awards does a few things; for one, it shows your customers that you’re a quality business they can trust.

But it also shows search engines that you get mentioned as an award-winning business in your community.

Look for local awards in your area that your business may be eligible for.

These could include excellence in your industry awards, customer favorite awards, or best workplace awards.

Take time filling out your application, and if it’s decided by a public vote, promote it through your social media as much as possible.

Tip 12: Try to Make It into Local Guides

If there aren’t any local awards you can apply for, try to get your business listed in local guides.

Many cities will publish pamphlets or booklets with lists of popular local businesses.

Getting listed in these can increase your foot traffic, as well as getting you a mention in their online publications.

Look for local maps, magazines, pamphlets, or visitors’ guides. Find out who publishes these guides and reach out to them to determine what is required to get listed. In some cases, a simple phone call could be a great step towards building your local links.

Tip 13: Run Locally Targeted Ads

Another great way to get people in your community buzzing about your business is to run targeted ads.

Thanks to the rise of?social media platforms?like Facebook and Instagram, advertising is accessible to anyone.

You can spend as little as $10 or as much $5,000 or more on advertising through these platforms.

Run Facebook ads targeted to people in your specific demographic area.

Not only will this make your ad more effective, but it will also boost your standing in local SEO rankings.

Search engines will see that local people are responding to your ads and will boost your ranking.

Learn to Master Local Link Build-Trying to improve your search engine ranking for a worldwide search can be difficult and may not make sense for small businesses.

But focusing your efforts on local link building can get you much better results with a much more reasonable amount of effort.

Focus on getting involved in your community and getting as many other local businesses, media outlets, and organizations to link to your website as possible.

If you’d like help mastering local link building, check out the rest of our site at Bipper Media.

We can help you improve your website’s SEO score with link building and content improvements that will help grow your business.

Contact us today?and start improving your business’s standing in search rankings the smart way.

John hold's a Ed.D from Liberty University focusing on?Executive Leadership.?He has dual Certifications as a Business & Life Coach and various Google Certifications in?Ads, Display, Analytics and Search.?We can help you with Organic SEO, Building out Google Business Profiles, Social Media Integration Marketing and Review Marketing.?I will help you get Found, Chosen and Be Easy to work with!??