Although overlooked, local link building serves a lot of good in campaigns by helping gain traction within extremely competitive search verticals. However, there are two things you need to be aware of to optimize local link building – use of geo-specific anchor text and links from prominent local authorities.
In this blog post let’s focus on how to build links from local authorities. This is no easy task, your creativity and relationship building expertise will be tested to its limits.
So, why are local links so important?
Well, Google wants to move beyond just displaying relevant websites on SERPs. They want to become an information provider in the true sense.
They want Google to be a social tool that helps users and changes the world. Google aims at making access to knowledge superfast and seamless. We need to leverage this desire of Google and secure an easy win for us by using local link building.
How to go about it?
Before we do anything else, we need a local mindset. A national mindset necessitates link building on sites that are extremely relevant to the industry we operate in, however, when we think of local mindset the most important entities are the ones that have authority within the local community. Hence two important questions should be answered before a local link building campaign.
- Who is the authority within our community?
- Have we interacted with local authorities like businesses, charities, service providers, news organizations, educational institutions, and local associations?
Answering these two vital questions will get our local link building campaign on track.
Identifying local authorities is crucial for two reasons: One, you can approach them for a link from their site to your site. This will also give a clue to Google about the authoritativeness of the site. And second, understand what makes them a local authority so that you too can become one.
The first step is the goal and the second can be considered a bonus.
Convince local sites to link
This is possible only if you reach out and build relationships with local authorities. Create a positive impression about your organization by getting involved in some activities of the target authority.
- You can sponsor an event or participate in an event organized by the target authority.
- Organize an event and seek the target authority’s participation
- Use their services or write positive reviews about their services
- Interview them and give them free publicity on your website
- Contribute an article or a blog for their site
- Create content that is relevant for the community
- Offer to bring them in the news whenever they have a story to tell
- Release positive news about your organization which is also relevant to the target authority
These are some of the measures you can take to reach out to local authorities and build relationships before asking them to link to your site.
To become an authority yourself you need to do the following:
- Invest substantial amounts of time, energy, and money in the local community
- Be a source for news and information to the community
- Identity hot topics concerning your community and have regular discussions on such topics
- Organize relevant events for your community
A successful local link building campaign is all about finding relevant local authorities, creating positive impressions about your organization, and bringing this relationship into the online world. This calls for substantial investment of time, money, and energy, which depends on how important, is local for your business.