Local link building
-
Hi,
I am looking to ask for peoples experience on getting local links and the best and most successful approaches made.
Let's say we have a local sports physiotherapist and wants to engage with local sports clubs, running clubs, etc.. What are the best methods for an agency to deploy to try and build relationships and links. Our client may have treated some of the local sports club members but as an agency we may not have the specifics.
What success have Marketing agencies got with emails, telephone, site visits etc in order to assist with building good quality relevant links.
What success do you have with offering discounts to build links or promoting competitions and offering guest blogging at a local level.
Are there other tactics, such as linkedIn or engaing on other social channels.
It would be nice to find out others experiences what ever the business sector for building local links.
Many thanks in advance to all those who contribute.
-
Miriam,
Love the answer, some great info hidden in those links , Cheers.
Also I love the "Happy thanksgiving" message. Being in the UK it obviously means very little to us apart from for some strange reason we have decided to adopt your "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday" .
All we do over here is have a few fireworks on the 5th November to remember some chap who tried to blow up the houses of parliament ages ago, no Turkey till Christmas for us Brits
I hope that you had a great Thanksgiving anyway
-
Instead of calling or sending mails I would try to figure out how to get in touch with the local business trough meetups or small business networks in the local area.
Most places has a business network for the area and meetings where you can show up and show you commitment for the local area. and that way gain trust and be endorsed by the locals though out the area.. that way you can build up a strong business relationship with the local community and also gain more then just a link.
Most sports clubs have a sponsor network that you become a part of by being a sponsor or helping them look good, this is the perfekt way to get in there and start making relationship that you can build on. Remember its all about getting your foot inside the door.. the rest is easy.
-
Happy Thanksgiving, Smartcow!
You might find some little gems here:
http://blog.ahrefs.com/local-link-building-guide-2014/
http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2301740/link-building-101-local-link-building#
http://www.whitespark.ca/blog/post/8-local-link-building-tactics-beyond-business-listings
I hope some of the tips in the above will get some creative ideas going for you!
-
There is no absolute truth, you have to see what example works better for each case.
Yes, i think starting with a research on targeted businesses/clubs will be the best idea, then you can try to apply some of these cases.
I let you my bible:
Call them - Get them on the phone. Make them hear your voice and know that you're a real person. I did it with some clients and i got great results.
Sometimes a good comment on a blog that makes a difference can help you build the relationship you want.
Interviews-Normally companies like to be interviewed, so take the advantage of this and make some. Remember to give them a mention when you gonna share that content on your social networks, they will be happy to share it.
Random acts of kindness - Whenever you can, be nice to people. It might just payoff. Always be on the lookout for helping those in need. These random acts can turn into lasting relationships.
Give a crap - Actually care about people. Show them you're not just a bot with a picture, but that you're somewhat human. If they share on Twitter that their daughter just graduated, congratulate them. Something as simple as that can open up your chances to build a relationship in the future.
Participate - If someone is conducting a survey or testing something, get involved and participate. Those are great chances to start conversations with new people.
Local meetups - Whether you find one or start one, meetups are a fantastic way to get to know people close by.
User group meetings - A great way to get to know people who think like you is by finding those who use the same products or services like you..
Conferences - Seriously, go to them.
G+ Hangouts/Skype - Be the first person to use a Google+ hangout! But seriously, that or Skype is a great way to meet face to face with someone without actually meeting face to face (if that makes any sense!).
Twitter RTs, Responses, & DMs - If you want to get to know someone on Twitter, first retweet them a few times. Then respond a couple times to a few of their tweets, then continue the conversation as direct messages. Finally, ask to email (because 140 characters is never enough), and now you've got the ball rolling.
Answer questions - Answer questions on Twitter, Quora, and anywhere else people hang out. People ask questions all the time. These external opportunities are a great way to put you on their radar.
Note: don’t think of it as a short-term input & short-term output, especially if you’re a marketing agency. More so, realize that these relationships can be tapped into for multiple links (i.e. for different campaigns, clients, etc.), as well as for other marketing opportunities (i.e running a joint-contest).
Regards
-
Shakar,
Thanks for the advice. So would you say that engaging openly and socially is better than connecting by email and telephone?
I would suspect that you are spot on.
I would guess that we start with a bit of research on targeted businesses/clubs and then write about them either socially or in blogs. After a while if a natural engagement has not occoured then get in touch more personally to build a relationship.
what do you reckon?
-
Many thanks for that, great idea and will suggest we target one or two local clubs.
What is your experience of gaining local links through email, calls, begging, blackmail etc.... OK not blackmail but you get my drift
-
Hi there,
What I would do would be to start contacting them by facebook, twitter or other social networks. On twitter mentions work very well especially if you have written an article that you talk about them.
Buil relations, not backlinks- Instead of focusing on getting more and more backlinks, try to focus on creating relations.
being proactive in a community – actively commenting and participating in discussions
social media interaction – sharing valuable content and commenting on the topic in social media
creating content – it’s always good to add new value or fresh thoughts to the community
Hope it helps you.
-
Not long ago I was working on a local project for an Event agency that needed local links. What we did was:
We contacted a local soccer club about making an event (for free to support the team) right there on the stadium. The deal sounded like:
We would setup two Bouncing castle for families with kids, so they could have some fun at half time. We asked if they were willing to announce this service on their homepage and Social account.
The event went smooth and gave us:
- A Post about about the company and the event on the clubs homepage with link
- Mentions in the local news
- New customers from the audience.
- And last but not least a contract for 2 more events at the club
Hope you will find this useful.
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
-
Website with higher domain authority and good content not ranking locally?
I've got a client that has a higher domain authority than top ranking sites, is pretty well optimized from a content perspective, has good local reviews but still isn't ranking well at all... often not at all in local results. We don't show in map pack or even regular organic listings in a pretty small city. They are a local sign shop- so they make business signs/church signs etc. Have you seen anything negatively impacting local rankings that is worth digging into as possible cause? A few historical insights: They had some spammy backlinks (we think a competitor was being shady) that I've sent disavow files into Google for They had a previous SEO person create 100's of orphan pages for every possible city + offering combination you can think of- I've cleaned those up via 301 redirects Should I just keep waiting, doing content optimization or am I missing something else?
Local Listings | | karmadigital0 -
Local Listing Submissions: Best Bang for Your Buck
I have a client that has ~30 office locations. Normally, if a business has 1-2 locations then I just submit through Moz Local. However, the marketing director won't approve a $1000+ annual local submissions package. My question: What strategy or service do you recommend that would allow me to submit these 30 locations to the best directories that I can without spending an excessive amount of budget and time? More specifically, if you had around 4 hours and ~$300 to spend on submitting 30 locations, how would you do it?
Local Listings | | capsquare0 -
Local citations - domain or business name
I have a bit of a tricky situation with a client where there is some history with old domains. But this is the current situation which I need to stick to: Business name (all made up) is Acme Print 2 live websites - acme-niche(dot)com and productsandservices(dot)com Third website acmeprint(dot)com is live and owned by an old partner, different NAP. acme-niche(dot)com and productsandservices(dot)com share the same NAP. Not much traffic and a bit of a poor domain profile for acme-niche(dot)com, so suggest just using productsandservices(dot)com. Also acme-niche(dot)com would be a bit misleading for use for the whole business in any case. However, all content for productsandservices(dot)com refers to Acme Print. Because of all the confusion should we keep the productsandservices(dot)com referring to Acme Print throughout, or update with new productsandservices(dot)com logo, mention that it is a trading name of Acme Print and refer to the trading domain name throughout the content. I want to know the best option for listings and citations - the trading name which is a domain name or Acme Print? I've not worked with a local site where domain name and business name and a separate business with domain are mixed up.
Local Listings | | MickEdwards0 -
What's the 20/80 rule in local SEO as it relates to health care organizations
Hello all, I'm in charge of local SEO for a health care system that covers the entire state of Nebraska, with dozens of clinics all over the state, but mainly Omaha and Lincoln. I'm trying to build a cohesive local strategy for our organization, and a big part of that is figuring out what are the 20% of the actions I could take that will get me 80% of the benefit. Based on your experience as a local SEO specialist or ideally someone who does local SEO in a health care setting, what are the key things I should focus on? I'm not new to local SEO (just new to health care). My guess would be to focus in on getting a good local page on our website for every clinic/location etc., and getting a good Google Page listing for each one as well. But I figured I'd seek out advice on this before I plunge ahead.
Local Listings | | Patrick_at_Nebraska_Medicine1 -
Citations or Links
My I just verified 2 new locations via "Google My Business" (G+) for a client. - the purpose is to get visibility and rank in the google maps for those 2 new areas. These locations are not storefronts but are verified in G+ as branches of the business. The G+ listings are set to display zip codes and not show the address to the public - this is akin to showing a service area radius. Normally I'd just do citation building. But I dont want the address to show up to the public. Most listing websites need the address and don't really allow for service area radiuses. Since they are not storefronts, I do not want to display their addresses online. My question is can I see traction to just get links other than business listing citations pointed to the G+ pages? I think that since Google trusts it's own web pages above all else so pointing links to those G+ pages should work. Who's got an expert opinion?
Local Listings | | Rich_Coffman0 -
Creating a new Google local business page vs. adding additional locations to an existing Google business page?
We are a service company that both travels to customer locations and serves customers at our business location. The split is about 80/20 (travel vs. serve customers on location). We just opened up a new office in a city about 1 hour away from our main location. The question is, should we create a new business page and account on Google local or should we add the new location to our existing google local account? The new location has a separate website, phone number, email etc. My inclination is to create a new local business account/page on Google. Has anyone experimented with both solutions and tested which option creates more powerful local signals for ranking?
Local Listings | | Vspeed0 -
Any ranking success with Moz Local?
In the last three months, our Tampa office has gone from a listing score of 2% to 72% and is considerably higher than everyone else on the first page for Moz Local...but we are on the 13th page! We have not improved at all, even though our score has dramatically. I know that the listing is only a part of the local equation, but it just a little shocking to me we haven't moved up even one page. Anyone have any success with this tool that translated to increased rankings for local? If so, how long did it take you to see results? Thanks, Ruben
Local Listings | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Site links mutually exclusive with Google+ Business?
Hey all! I've been looking at the search results for our company name (Angelsmith). Looking at our listing, our search result has title, authorship, ties in with Google+, reviews, link to map, plus the big sidebar Google+ Business result with map, logo, directions, hours, etc. Our site is well-indexed, we're using a sitemap, etc. but I notice we do not have any sitelinks under our result. And come to think of it, I can't remember seeing any search results that have authorship and Google+ listings on it AS WELL AS a nice set of sitelinks underneath. So I'm wondering: are Google+ Business and sitelinks mutually exclusive? How about authorship and sitelinks? Do we have any control over which get displayed on search results? Thanks in advance, --eric
Local Listings | | EricOliver0