Link building for a non-linkable site?

[asbchris]

Hello,

I am trying to zone in on a link building strategy for a non-linkable site.

What I mean by non-linkable is I have a construction site. It's a family owned and operated small business.

Our clients are farmers and older people usually.

We go do a job, do it right the first time, and leave.

Basically even if a couple of people who link to me for some weird reason, this is no way in the realm of 6,000 that my main competition has.

I have tried to get as many quality citation resources as possible by using get listed, and white spark.

My domain authority is only 16 though, so I must be able to increase this somehow.

I have listed with Google +, Bing, Yahoo and every other major citation I could find.

So now with trying too increase links with other ideas.

I read somewhere to donate to charitable organizations, but if they link back to me as a donor, in an unrelated field, isn't that spammy like?

So a construction site donating to a disease website, and then getting a backlink in return, does that look weird.

It just seems like there are so many rules that I do not want to mess something up.

I do not want get spammy links, but not sure if citations count as links so I am doing a win-win thing?

Thanks for any tips

Chris

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Chris,

Your post has made me curious about your competitor's link profile. If the industry is tough to get links to, what has he done to get 6,000 links. Sounds like you know the number of links he has - have the analyzed where they are coming from? Are they natural and high-quality or are they weird and potentially a red flag to Google?

I also think your industry sounds interesting. If you are doing construction for farmers, specifically, I'm guessing you're building some kind of agricultural structures. Would this be something that you could create an interesting infographic around that could be helpful to others in your industry, earning you industry-relevant links? How about videos? And I completely agree with Erwan's comments about developing great content on the site.

And here's a great WBF from Rand on earning links via social mentions:

moz.com/blog/the-top-4-ways-to-use-social-media-to-earn-links-whiteboard-friday

Also, this one from Paddy Moogan is a bit old now, but still contains some good, creative ideas:

http://moz.com/blog/how-to-get-links-in-tough-industries

Local SEO is a very interesting field in that, in many cases, linkbuilding isn't even really necessary. Yes, in really tough verticals like law, it may be, but often it isn't, provided the business has an established, excellent website, clean citations and ongoing reviews coming in. How is your competitor doing in these areas and is there a chance you could surpass him in these things?

Hope these thoughts are helpful!

[johnny122]

Thanks, this is the post I wanted to mention.

[KeriMorgret]

There's a great set of answers for a very similar question at http://moz.com/community/q/how-to-get-links-for-boring-niches-industries.

[johnny122]

1/Links = 40% of ranking factors.

Try the first step to rank : write good content. Even a family owned and operated small business can do it.

Egol wrote a great answer about this recently but I can't find the post anymore. The idea is to write about your customers, their problems and how you help them #InboundMarketing.

2/ IMO, a spammy link is a link you can't control. With a charitable organization, you can always ask them to remove the link in case of a possible penalty. If their thank you page has a high PR, I would take the risk.

3/ When I get a new customer, I try to get him links from the town hall website, the local chamber of commerce, his suppliers, his clients, school they accept a trainee from etc. Try to think to everyone who has an IRL link with your client.