UK Based - Link Building Ideas for home improvement market? Brainstorming
-
Hi
I am looking for some advice / lists of recommended local search directories / citations that I can add our double glazing window site - as part of our strategy to improve local search rankings and increase our visibility on the web through SEO for phrases such as 'pvc windows' 'pvc doors' 'double glazing' and 'conservatories'
For example I have added the business to the likes of
Yelp
Qype
Tipped
Ufindus
Hotfrog
Freeindex
BrownbookBut are there any specific home improvement sites that I should add the business to also.
I would also be interested in sharing recommended strategy for this market in relation to link building, for example I have thought about offering staff in local goverment / universities / hospitals a genuine discount on our products as part of their staff discount schemes
Many Thanks
-
Hey,
No worries
I meant you could also ask for those companies that you've provided windows for to link back to you.
Re competitions - I mean actually frame your competition around link building.
For example you could run a competition with bloggers to give something away - to enter bloggers simply need to write a post and link back to you with the winner drawn from the hat.
See - http://bit.ly/znm31w for an example of what I mean.
I hope this helps,
Hannah
-
Hi Hannah
Great response - many thanks. I am just looking for some clarification on some points you made - hope thats ok
What do you mean by
"Something similar could also be applied if you were providing services for companies with websites"
If we ran competitions how would that help a local audience - we are not a national provider just in a certain region of the UK. Also I thought this appraoch would only lead to temporary links as once the competition is over the likes of loquax, prizefinder etc would remove the competition entry
Thanks
-
Hello there,
I'd definitely encourage you to think about how you might go about getting some higher quality links to add in to the mix.
Guest posting (as Donnie suggested) would definitely be something that I'd encourage you to engage in, plus I really like your ideas for getting links from government / universities etc.
Something similar could also be applied if you were providing services for companies with websites.
Other opportunities might include:
Press release opportunities (either local or national).
- Do you have an interesting story to tell about a particular project you are working on? Are people in your company doing something for charity? Obviously it will need to be a genuinely good story in order to get coverage - but local press are often easier to engage with than national.
'Linkbait' Content
- Can you create some content to garner links? Perhaps something environment-related around window recycling or decreased heating bills? Or something around home improvement?
Competitions
- Could you run a competition to give something away? Doesn't necessarily have to be a full set of windows
Sponsorship
- Are there any local events that you could sponsor? This sort of thing can often result in both links from event websites, plus links from local press / other sites which cover the event.
Speaking at local events
- Similar benefits to sponsorship (see above).
I hope this helps,
Hannah
-
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/nonintuitive-search-queries-resources-for-link-building
Read #4 it will help you find blogs and forums in your area.. I also use omgili.com to find blogs and forums.
I would also recommend guest blogging. Check out myblogguest.com make sure you read the guidelines before making friends to exchange link building strategies with.
BTW IMO no follow links can be just as good. It shows the engine that people are naturally linking to you. In your quest to build links I would highly suggest using different variations of your keywords. This will help mask your site from appearing optimized to the search engines.
-
Any other ideas for the UK market?
Outreach is easier when you have a product to give away to bloggers, review sites etc to review the product etc
But for builders, plumbers and in our space pvc windows, doors and conservatories this is more difficult as we cant use the above approach.
So to summarise am I just looking at
1.) local directories
2.) web based directories that are primarily used for seo purposes
3.) Participating in DIY forums and posting comments on DIY blogs?
What is the best what to find DIY forums/ DIY blogs in the UK
The only popular DIY blog for the UK market is
diynot.com and some of these blogs have nofollow for links
-
I would recommend finding home improvement forums and making connections there. I have a good amount of success on a construction site from doing this.
People on forums are discussing everything you just have to look for them and engage them in a way that they cant turn down. My approach is usually humor.
you can introduce yourself like this: You guys want to know what the owner of the best pvc windows company eats for Breakfast... pause .... well today for breakfast I had some fruit and granola. Giving value + helping others = relationships
Relationships + Link Building = SEO results
First you make friends on forums/blogs/google+/facebook/linkedin then you can guest blog or ask them to mention some of your articles.
Since you are based in the UK I would suggest looking for sites there... Here is a great post Rand Fishkin released not too long ago, it should help you find good sites. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/nonintuitive-search-queries-resources-for-link-building
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
-
What are the SEO implications of high quality backlinks from US-based websites to UK-based websites?
Hi everyone, quick question I hope someone could help me with: We're representing a client based in the UK. As part of their overall strategy we've been linkbuilding. At the moment, about 80/90% of the links we've gained come from UK-based sites, with 10/20% coming from US-based websites. The US based websites are very good (think New York Times and genuine, relevant blogs with good readerships). An external search analyst/consultant has contacted the client to say that the US links will be harming the site, because the links are from websites in the US and not the UK. We believe that if 80/90% of the links were from the US this could indeed cause harm as it could indicate to search engines that our client is in the US when it's not (which might compromise their chance of ranking in .co.uk versions of search engines) however because it's only 10/20%, and because the linking sites are very good, we believe that they will getting all of the benefits of the positive metrics without any meaningful negatives. We just wanted to get a few opinions on this to see if people think that we're mistaken, and would be glad to hear any opinions contrary to our own.
Link Building | | GoUp0 -
What are your link-building strategies?
Link-building seems to be the biggest SEO item that still remains foggy to me. I was wondering what this community's thoughts and strategies are around in for your own personal projects. I think if I can hear some real life success stories, it might make more sense to me in the long run. Anything, good or bad, is welcome!
Link Building | | rachaelpracht1 -
UK Times Pay wall effect on links?
Hi all Our PR agency has obtained a few inbound links from the UK's Times website. This is a great website with a very high DA, however they have a pay wall. My question is does the paywall counteract the efficacy of the links into our site? It would be good to know because if they aren't having the desired effect on rankings then I'll ask our PR agency to focus their efforts on other national newsapers. Thanks
Link Building | | gavinr
Gavin0 -
Content Marketing - Getting Webmaster to Link to Article
Hello, We're doing a niche article and we want to do a link building campaign around it. I'm not as interested in being linked to in resource sections - that will happen - but my question is for other links. What types of links am I looking for, is it guest posts - is that the best? If so, how do convince them to allow a guest post around an article? Thanks.
Link Building | | BobGW0 -
How much should a link building program cost?
Hi All, I am relatively new to the world of SEO but it is vital to our business that we improve in this area. I believe our site architecture is good although we have a new site coming in the next few weeks which is effectively a re-skinning of the existing one that makes the user experience more relevant. What I would like to know is how much a link building program shoudl cost from an SEO provider and how they quantify what they charge - is there some kind of indicative cost per link or is it just "give us some money and we will do our best?" We have started writing daily articles on our news site and our natural listings are already pretty good. What I am looking to achieve is top three status for the London area (where we work) accross a broad range of keywords. I know this is what everyone wants but we are already front page and top 3 for many keywords and the back link building would appear to be where we are weaker compared to some of our competitors. Thanks James www.morganpryce.co.uk
Link Building | | Jcoveyduck0 -
How we can Compare these 3 Link Building Tools
1. http://ontolo.com 2. http://www.buzzstream.com 3. http://raventools.com If you want to add more kindly add. lets find best one...
Link Building | | vinku0 -
How does social bookmarking help in link building?
How can I use social link building to my advantage, and how long does the link exist?
Link Building | | pulseseo0 -
Link building tools
hello all Please can you suggest the top 5 link building tools that an agency can use? Thank you 🙂
Link Building | | vijayvasu0