Do you struggle to obtain local links for your business? We understand that securing local links can be just as difficult as other types of link building. The fact is that link building remains one of the crucial factors for achieving high rankings.
You can be certain that it will have a significant impact on your rankings in the local area.
Obtaining high-quality backlinks from neighboring businesses and organizations in your locality can enhance your website’s domain authority, thereby increasing your chances of achieving higher rankings on local search engine results pages (SERPs).
Local Link Building
The process of local link building involves obtaining backlinks from local websites that are relevant. This practice can enhance your organic search rankings for terms related to local searches and expand your outreach to a broader local audience.
In simple terms, the concept of local link building involves obtaining links, brand mentions, and references from nearby businesses. Essentially, local links are links that originate from location-specific sources. For instance, as a small business located in New York, you may obtain top-notch links from local directories.
Local SEO involves enhancing your online visibility in a specific area to attract a greater number of visitors through organic search, thereby increasing leads and generating revenue at a local level.
Getting link equity from local web pages can significantly impact your SEO efforts since link building is essential in every SEO strategy. Additionally, having a Google My Business page that includes testimonials from your customers can also be beneficial.
Local link building can act as an enhancer for your website, contributing to increased visitor traffic.
Process for Effective Local Link Building
1. Find Link Prospects
The initial step is to locate local link prospects that we can contact in order to begin establishing local links. Additionally, when setting up our campaign, it is important to choose a descriptive and easily memorable name for it.
Although it may seem insignificant, this can be especially beneficial when managing multiple campaigns simultaneously. To achieve this, we employ an advanced search operator that enables us to fine-tune our search and obtain the most pertinent outcomes for our campaign.
2. Prepare your Outreach Email
To ensure a successful link building campaign, it is essential to have a well-written outreach email. Whether you excel at composing meaningful emails or often find it challenging to communicate effectively via email, your link building efforts can still flow smoothly.
If you want to include follow-up emails, they will be placed in your email sequence directly after your initial email.
It is crucial to think step by step as it enables us to incorporate all required modifications for creating an email that has a high likelihood of receiving a response.
3. Find Contact Information for Your Prospects
Trying to locate contact information for potential customers, such as their company name, contact number, and email addresses, may appear difficult or unattainable. Nevertheless, we are confident that the required steps are fairly simple and can be easily followed.
To begin, we must complete our automation setup.
In order to prioritize discovering a local piece of content from local URLs, our request to Respona is that opportunities be assigned only to authors of URLs who are actively employed by the company connected to the URL.
The simple reason for this is to think step by step.
If the author of a guest post is not actually affiliated with the specific local URL we want to obtain a link from, it would not be logical to directly contact them.
Instead of assuming that an unassigned opportunity is lost, it is important to consider alternative steps to ensure that our opportunity gets a contact person. One of these steps involves conducting a Domain-level Contacts search.
In addition to the email addresses, we receive a LinkedIn icon near the contact’s name.
By reaching out to them before our campaign launch, we can connect with them and increase the likelihood of establishing a relationship and receiving a response regarding our local link building campaign.
In the fields provided below, you have the ability to include various forms of contact and professional information that you possess for individuals. With this information, you can then generate a contact and subsequently associate it with an opportunity.
4. Reach Out to Your Prospects and Manage Communications
The last thing to do is initiate your local link building campaign by contacting your prospects. To accomplish this, it is important to ensure that we customize our email for each prospect so that it doesn’t come across as spam.
To increase your chances of receiving a reply and ensuring your email does not end up in spam or trash, it is recommended to personalize your message.
To simplify the entire process, you should select an outreach tool that facilitates personalization of your emails.
5. Build a List of Local Citations
Afterwards, create a compilation of websites where local citations can be added. These refer to various online platforms where one can input their law firm’s name, address, and phone number (NAP). These citations can appear in numerous locations, thus necessitating the development of a comprehensive list. Several potential sources to explore encompass the following:
- Business directories
- Social networks
- Review sites
- Local business listing sites
- And more
First, generate ideas by brainstorming the various citation options, and subsequently proceed to include your contact details on those platforms.
When rephrasing the text, please keep in mind that there are two types of citations. One type is a structured citation, which includes the business’s name, address, and phone number. These citations can be found in directories and social media profiles.
Unstructured citations, mostly found in forum posts and blog posts, refer to mentions of your business in a context, such as being included on a community’s list of the “best law firms.”
It is beneficial for your local linking profile to include both structured and unstructured citations with links. It is recommended to create both types, but keep in mind that structured citations provide more control as you create your links.
To be included in structured citations, data aggregators can be utilized. These companies gather business details and disseminate them among different local citation choices. As per ahrefs.com, the United States is served by three data aggregators.
- Express Update
- Neustar Localeze
- Factual
By getting listed with these services, which are free for the first two and require a small payment for Factual, your website will be included in numerous local citation options. Utilizing these tools can help you save time while developing your link profile.
6. Guest Post on Blogs
You can also acquire local inbound links by writing guest posts on local blogs from influencers and local businesses. If you are aware of local websites that have a good ranking, make contact with them and inquire if you can write a blog post about a legal topic. Numerous websites require content to boost their own ranking, and if your topic aligns with their target audience, they will be glad to publish it.
In certain cases, it is necessary to find inventive ways to connect the subject matter to both your business and the page where you are contributing as a guest blogger. Generate ideas for topics that align with the interests of the blog’s intended audience, and subsequently propose your concept to the blog’s proprietor. The more valuable and informative your blog post is, the higher the chances that the website will be receptive to publishing your blog and incorporating your link.
If you have the chance to be a guest blogger, ensure that you utilize it as an opportunity for link building. Within your bio or within the blog post itself, you can request a link to your website, which will then act as a chance for local link building.
When Google notices that your website is being linked by local bloggers, they will increase your rank for local search terms as a reward. To reciprocate, consider accepting guest posts from non-competitors within your local market.
Guest blogging not only helps to enhance your overall branding within the local community but also establishes you as an expert in your specific content area. When potential clients frequently encounter your name on blog posts related to legal matters, even while exploring other local business websites, they build trust and are more likely to seek legal assistance from your firm when the need arises.
7. Be Active in Your Local Community
One way to be active in your local community is to find ways that not only allow your name and image to be seen by people but also provide chances to potentially acquire organic links on local websites.
If you choose to attend or sponsor a charity event, you might receive a backlink when the charity mentions the event on their website. Additionally, you will have the opportunity to interact with your local audience in the community, which may not directly affect your link-building efforts, but will contribute to your overall branding objectives.
8. Claim Your Google My Business Listing
If you have not yet claimed your Google Business Profile listing (GBP), now is the perfect time to do so. By claiming this listing, you will receive a backlink with Google, which is crucial for your SEO strategy. Moreover, it is free to claim, leaving you with no justification for disregarding it.
By claiming your GMB listing, you increase your likelihood of securing the highly beneficial placement in the three-pack, which holds significant value in terms of your local link-building strategy and overall SEO. Ensure that the NAP information in your GMB listing is precise and aligns with your listings across other pages to maintain consistency in your link profile.
It is crucial to claim your Google My Business listing, even though the process can be time-consuming. To start, log in to your Google account on Google Maps and enter your address in the search bar. Afterward, select “Add your business” and carefully adhere to the provided instructions to successfully add your business.
To ensure the completeness of the listing, please rephrase the given text using a step-by-step thought process. Remember not to add or remove any information while maintaining the original meaning. Additionally, provide ample information such as photos of your product, storefront, or service. The goal is to include as many details as possible.
Google will require you to verify your listing before it is live. Generally, this involves receiving a postcard with a verification code sent to your business address. There may be the option to verify through phone or email as well. It is essential to complete the verification process, as failing to do so will result in your listing not being live.
