As a small business, you probably already know how important it is to be engaged with your community. You might also know that backlinks are important because they can help increase your website’s page and domain authority, two factors that Google considers when ranking websites in search engine results. But, did you know that you can use the community you have to build backlinks to your site? Using a concept known as local link building, you can get backlinks by working with other local businesses, website owners, and organizations. In this post we’ll explain how to get these backlinks from your community to improve your website’s SEO.
The basics of how local backlink building works is:
Step 1: Write a blog post or page about something locally relevant; information, other businesses, events, etc and mention them by including outbound links to their websites.
Step 2: Reach out to the businesses or organizations involved via email or social media.
Step 3: In your outreach message to anyone involved, ask for a backlink or social share to the blog post or page.
Step 4: Rinse and repeat at least once per month to create a steady process for gradually gaining more backlinks and increasing your website’s authority on the net.
Ways to Build Backlinks through Local Link Building
What’s great about local link building is that it’s easy to make into a habit, or something you do to reliably acquire backlinks every month. Below are some specific article ideas and tactics you can use to start building backlinks through local link building.
1. Blog About Your 5 Favorite Businesses in a Similar Niche
As a local small business owner, you love it when others talk about you positively. When they do, you’re much more likely to help them out, right? We can apply that same principle to your blogging strategy.
Take the time to talk about 5 small businesses in similar but non competitive niches to yours in a blog article. An example would be a chiropractor writing a blog post about his five favorite pediatricians, dentists, or general physicians in the local area. After writing the post, send the businesses you mentioned a quick email or message on social media letting them know that you talked about them and ask for a backlink or a social share!
2. Create a Resource Page on Your Website
If you’ve ever browsed an educational or very professional website, you’ve probably noticed that they have multiple pages dedicated to “additional resources.” These pages are filled with useful information and links to other related websites. You might wonder why do they bother putting together these seemingly useless pages? Interestingly, not only do these pages make businesses seem more knowledgeable and like thought leaders, but they provide a unique opportunity as a backlink building tool.
These resource pages can be about anything as specific or as general as you want. Generally, for local businesses, we recommend sticking with pages focused on your local community. Examples include a resource page about the best parks in Boston, or the best places to explore in St. Louis, or something specific to your niche, such as the best resources to learn design in Texas. Ultimately, you’ll want to think of what type of resource page would be the most useful to your audience and that best fits your niche.
All you need to do is group links to useful blog posts or websites, both your own and others, that are relevant to the piece, into an article and voilawhallah! You now have an awesome resource page!
Similar to the 5 Favorite “x” strategy, you’ll want to email or message anyone you mentioned in the article asking for a backlink or a social share.
3. Host or Sponsor a Local Event
Hosting or sponsoring a local event is a great way, regardless of backlinks, to drum up awareness and business. One of the main reasons people don’t buy from small businesses isn’t because they don’t want to, it’s because they don’t know they exist! By participating in a local event, not only do you have the opportunity to get your name out there, but you also have the chance to get a few easy backlinks.
Any time you host or sponsor an event, you should make a blog post or page dedicated to that event. Talk about who’s going to be there, mention any other businesses or sponsors (be sure to reach out to them afterwards!) and promote the article on social media. Not only will you help get more people out to the event, but people and businesses are much more likely to share or link to your article to tell their friends and spread the good word. By leading the pack with your digital marketing savviness, you can drum up some easy backlinks in addition to getting your name out there!
To further increase the success of this type of campaign, always create a Facebook event on your Facebook business page. This provides an easy way for people to get involved and can help increase your marketing effectiveness. Read more about the benefits of Facebook events here.
4. Search for Business Mentions
This is a small but easy step to potentially reclaim some backlinks that are owed to you from the past. Many businesses freely make mention of other businesses on social media or on their blog without giving official credit through a backlink or social tag where it’s due.
Social Media Listening Tools
Use tools such as BrandMentions and Mention to monitor your business’s reputation on line. These tools will check if anyone’s mentioned yor business in the last month or do a Google search for your business name and relevant keywords. If you find any resource pages, blog articles, or tweets where a business failed to tag you or link to your website, kindly reach out to them using one of our outreach email templates asking that they do.
Google Alerts and Alternatives
If you want to know about people mentioning your brand on an ongoing basis, then you may want to consider setting up Google alerts for your business or keywords or checking out our list of Google alerts alternatives. Using tools such as these, you’ll be passively notified any time someone uses your business name (or any other phrase) on their website or on social media.
Email Templates for Local Backlink Building
5 Favorite Businesses Email Template
Subject: We mentioned your business
Body:
Hi {First Name},
My name is {Insert Name}, owner of {Insert business name} and we just mentioned you in our piece titled {include link to article and article name}. As a fellow local business in the {Insert city/area}, we’re glad we got the chance to recognize you for being awesome and would appreciate your help in promoting this article!
Would you mind linking to this article from your blog or sharing our post on social media?
Thanks!
– {Insert Name}
Resource Page Email Template
Subject: We included your content in our resource page
Body:
Hi {First Name},
My name is {Insert Name}, owner of {Insert business name} and we linked to your website as an awesome resource for our resource page titled {include link to article and article name}. As a fellow local business in the {Insert city/area}, we’re glad we got the chance to recognize your great content and would appreciate your help in promoting this incredibly useful resource page.
Would you mind linking to this resource page from your blog or sharing it around on social media?
Thanks!
– {Insert Name}
Host/Sponsor Local Event Email Template
Subject: We noticed you’re attending (or hosting) {Insert event name}
Body:
Hi {First Name},
My name is {Insert Name}, owner of {Insert business name} and we’re excited to hear that you’re attending {Insert event name}. To help inform more locals about such a great event, we went ahead and created a quick blog post to share the good word about the event. As a fellow local business in the {Insert city/area}, we’re happy to help promote community building through local events and would appreciate your help in promoting this post about the event!
Would you mind linking to this article from your blog or sharing our post on social media?
Thanks!
– {Insert Name}
Search for Business Mentions Email Template
Subject: You mentioned us—mind linking (or tagging) us too?
Body:
Hi {First Name},
My name is {Insert Name}, owner of {Insert business name} and we noticed that you mentioned us in your article (tweet, post, etc) titled {include link to article and article name}. We really appreciate you giving us a mention and wanted to ask if you would mind giving us a quick link to our website {Insert your web address} or tag us on social media {insert social link}?
As a fellow local business in the {Insert city/area}, we appreciate your help with this and will be sure to return the favor in the future!
Thank you,
– {Insert Name}
Using these strategies you should be able to reliably generate a few backlinks to your website every month. By doing this, you’re increasing your website’s authority and telling Google to trust you more, resulting in better search rankings. If you’re not sure how to implement these strategies or need help understanding backlinks, comment below with your questions!
