Do you remember how high school cliques worked? The jocks hung out with other jocks, the nerds got along best with other nerds and so on. Like-minded people or crowds with similarities get along. Search engines use a similar logic to develop trust and authority for websites.
If website A has high domain authority and features a link to website B, search engines understand that website B must be good as well. Links from a trustable source help build authority for your website.
Every SEO strategy involves building quality backlinks. All marketers have, at some point, approached website owners, bloggers, PR personnel or publications for a backlink to their website. It is regarded as one of the oldest and most trusted SEO tactic used.
What are backlinks?
Backlinks are hyperlinks from one webpage to another. Backlinks have two main functions – they increase traffic and build authority.
Firstly, if a website has backlinks on multiple sites, it is bound to see referral traffic. This helps in increasing awareness of the brand and also brings in new customers.
Secondly, backlinks help boost SEO for the domain. Your business gains trust in the eyes of the search engine when the crawlers come across the backlinks. The more the number of backlinks a website has, the better the chances it being found on search results.
Since backlinks have direct effects on your business’ online presence, you should only look at building good quality ones. Although the volume of backlinks impacts local SEO, it is advisable to concentrate on quality over quantity.
Local backlinks and search engines
Search engines take backlinks as certificates of trust. You should concentrate on increasing the volume of local backlinks your business has. This will boost your efforts and benefit your local SEO. Local backlinks are useful in building credibility of a business. They are enforced with an intention of building local awareness of the business website.
If you are looking to capitalize on the customers in your locality and improve on your local SEO, your link building strategy should be focused. Aiming at building backlinks on domains with high authority alone will not help. You should also look at websites that your target audience frequently visits. Local communities, forums, business directories, social networking sites, etc. can help you with this.
Tips to build quality backlinks for your business
- Create accounts for your business on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram and Tumblr. The social platforms you choose will depend on the kind of audience you are targeting.
- Look for online directories that are specific to your niche. There is a high possibility that your customers visit these sites to look for businesses like yours. Most of these allow you to create a backlink to your website for free.
- Local newspapers, forums and communities help spread the word about your business. You can reach the plethora of audience in your vicinity and at the same time, get a backlink.
- You could also look at posting your articles or content pieces on sites that allow it. Some of these directories include – Slideshare, LinkedIn Pulse, Growth Hackers, Self Growth etc.
- Guest blogging is an option that local businesses should definitely look at. You can approach local bloggers to host an article from your business’ end on their domain. This can help you capitalize on their existing fanbase.
- Partner with local influencers for a review or feature of your business on their page. The idea is to increase brand awareness by reaching out to their followers. They could become potential customers to your business and thereby increase revenue.