Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
International Versus Local Backlinks?
-
I'm running a dentist's website and I've been wondering if there is any additional benefit to achieving local backlinks from other medical sites versus larger international ones?
For example, if I had a blog article that I wanted another site to link to, would you choose the local medical website within the same city or the international one that has more viewers?
-
Thanks, Miriam Ellis
-
Good thoughts from Roman, for sure, and a good question, Dylan.
Roman is right that formal link analysis will provide the only data-based answer to your query about which link will "do more" for you. But, in general, for local businesses, it is best to build up local relevance with local links. However, if a dental practice had a chance to be featured on the website of the ADA or something like that, then of course, you'd jump at that chance.
What you don't want to do is focus on getting backlinks from something that really doesn't relate to the geo-industry. So, for example, a dentist in Chicago doesn't really have a sensible relationship to a directory of dental providers in San Diego ... even if you could somehow get a link there, it wouldn't be very relevant.
But, in general, build up highly relevant local links, and if the chance comes up to be featured on an authoritative industry site, go for that, too.
-
I made a quick research and I founded 12 sites related to dental health care as link prospect who already accept a guest post with an average PA over 40 who accept guest post. so as I mention if the link has enough quality no matter the origin will help your site to rank and if this link has local signals or local keywords even better
-
No matter where the link is coming from your main concern should be if that link is relevant to
- your audience
- your content
- your goals
You need to understand that your main goal is your audience (not your brand)
Which keywords are using? (I'm talking about your possible patience)
How they make their research? (of your services of course)
Which site are they visiting? (I'm talking about your competitors)Example: you have a link coming from a relevant blog with an article related to dental health
and pointing to your site with this anchor text keyword with your location, this blog has a lot of traffic and a good authority.On the other hands, you have a local directory pointing to your site
Which one do you think is more relevant to Google?
No matter if the first one is local or not. From the Google, perspective it's a relevant website, with relevant content, giving you a vote of trust (link is like a vote) with a local signal "your location"
what would I do in your case?
Make competition research
Identify your competitors
First, you need to identify your main competitors, those sites who are in the first results of Google
and are taking those possible clients with those keywords that you to rank forBacklink analysis
Then you need to determinate the site who are linking to your competitors I mean if your biggest competitor has 15 links will be easy to beat of course if have 200 you need to think in a better strategyKeyword analysis
On this point, you need to determinate the competition level of the keywords that you want to rank.I mean with competition level of 0 to 30 is fine, with a level of 30 to 60 will be not easy and I will take some efforts but you can do it, on the other hands over 60 just forget it and found another keyword.Performance analysis
On this day the performance matter so if your competitors have a poor performance then you have an opportunity, if don't so you need to think that you need, an outstanding performance, plus an outstanding content, plus outstanding structure.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Unsolved GMB Local SEO question
I am trying to diagnose how one particular competitor is smoking us in local rankings. I came across a text field “Service Details' within Google My Business Services. This allows me to put in a brief description of each service we offer. My thought is that this could be a good place for keywords. That said, the descriptions are not public facing (or to the best of my knowledge) so I am reluctant to do all the work for nothing. I am wondering if anyone has filled these out and if there were any noticeable results. Any insight is appreciated
Local SEO | | jorda0910 -
Local Site stuck on page 2 for years. Can’t penetrate page 1! Help!
Hey there Moz community! This is the first time I've ever asked a question here so please forgive if I slip up on any etiquette. I manage a website for a small Orlando Florida family law and divorce law firm who are targeting search phrases that include those "Orlando divorce attorney" variants. The site is located at https://www.affordablefamilylawyer.com/ If you run a search for "Orlando divorce attorney" along with close variant search terms our law firm website for about the past two years has hovered at the top of the second page of google but has never actually penetrated page 1. When you examine metrics such as page authority, domain authority, trust, and other traditional metrics it tells you that our site should be on page 1 but alas it's not happening. We have, however been featured quite often in the three pack for the local listings for the target search terms. Though valuable, our goal has always been to be featured in the top three of the organic search results. To add to the confusion we have a practice area page located at https://www.affordablefamilylawyer.com/orlando-divorce-lawyer/ dedicated to divorce and expected that page to rank for these divorce attorney search terms but it will not rank for the search terms and instead our homepage ranks for them every single time regardless of how we swap around the optimization on the page. Never had any manual actions. any help you guys can offer is greatly appreciated and I really appreciate your time!
Local SEO | | Seanthewood1230 -
Giving to Charities in exchange for a backlink is a Paid Link. What about links from real charitable donations?
What if my client already donates to charities? They've been donating for years before I thought to conduct linking outreach to their charities... can Google distinguish between honest charitable giving and charity link schemes? https://www.seroundtable.com/google-charity-links-a-paid-link-23094.html
Local SEO | | ChristianEDavis0 -
Importance of backlinks from legal indexes such as avvo for lawyers
I have a client who is a general practice Lawyer. This particular client refuses to acquire free profiles from legal sites such as AVVO, Super Lawyers, and Justia. I have been working with this client for a year and have had a tough time getting him to rank in an ultra competitive marketplace. The other law clients I handle have all secured these backlinks and traffic is produced, domain and page authority is much higher. My client say that he has heard from other lawyers that sites like AVVO produce bad or little results, so he wants no part of them. I feel these lawyers are giving him bad advice. They are competitors and each of them have their profiles on these sites. I thought I would get some thoughts from the community to maybe help back my thoughts on these particular back links. Thanks
Local SEO | | donsilvernail1 -
Local SEO Website Structure.
Hi everyone, This might be quite a long post so please bear with me. I am currently rebuilding my website. My previous website was built by a web designer and was very basic. 5 page html site consisting of home, services, gallery, testimonials, contact pages. None of them were great - thin content, not optimised as well as could be - no h1's etc. To be fair I knew nothing about websites and didn't bother much with the site. As a new business I used it simply as a place for people to visit for more information after receiving a leaflet and never bothered much about driving traffic to the site. A few years down the line and I have realised I need the website to be working for me as opposed to alongside me. I am building it myself via wordpress as web designer didn't want to work in wordpress. I have done my keyword research and I'm working on pages as we speak. Previously my homepage - around 80% of visitors landed here for my main keyword (driveway cleaning glasgow) as it was number 6 in the organic listing. With my services page appearing directly underneath in 7 for the same keyword. I have starting building a new page for that keyword which contains (driveway-cleaning-glasgow) in the url. I have 301'd my previous services page to this url. Now for my questions...
Local SEO | | sfrediktru8
My 2nd keyword based on volume is driveway cleaning. How do I optimise for this or will the (driveway-cleaning-glasgow) page rank for this also as the words are contained within this page? I plan on having the same structure for the remaining services - pressure-washing-glasgow, monoblock-cleaning-glasgow etc, etc. As I am building new pages for each service with location built in, where does this leave my homepage? Should I be targeting keywords for this page? It is still my strongest page and apart from the (driveway-cleaning-glasgow) page which will get some help from the 301 these are all new pages so I would expect perhaps initially to lose some traffic. But as I am not ranking well for anything other than the main 2 keywords mentioned above it can only be beneficial long term when google recognises the specific pages for each service. And when I start using Adwords I will have a specific landing page for each service. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks0 -
How to find best local websites?
For example, I'd like to type in a zipcode and get the highest ranking websites by DA/whatever metric the software uses, within a 25 mile radius? Does that type of service exist? I'm looking to build up our local links, but most of the websites have extremely low authority. I'm trying to find some good ones without having to manually check each one. Thanks, Ruben
Local SEO | | KempRugeLawGroup1 -
Local Search - Google Mobile Results (Web&App)
Hi, I have a client with multiple locations. One of the locations manager is searching for branded and non-branded keywords on his mobile phone and not able to locate the business (within the parking lot of the location). Our ranking reports via a local search platform and manual checks indicate the location is actually ranking well. and we're seeing progress in GA. Has anyone deal with something like this before? This is a location that recently opened to the public. The concern is around mobile web and app results. I'm looking for some guidance around how to approach the situation. I'm sorry I cannot provide more details on the client.
Local SEO | | burnseo0 -
Whitespark or Moz Local
Hello all, We can't use Moz Local as we're in the UK. Tempted to use Whitespark, but not quite sure what the differences are between the two. Also, can a website design / digital marketing agency be considered to be a local business - in Googles eyes? Thanks!
Local SEO | | wseabrook
William1