Links for Local Search: Relevance or Proximity?

[waynekolenchuk]

Hi Mozzers,

In the best situation links for a local business should be relevant and come from a local organization, but this is not always possible. In cases where you have to choose between relevance and proximity which is more important?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Wayne,

I vote for a good mix of:

• Locally relevant sites, like local newspapers, local business organizations and possibly local blogs

• Industry relevant sites, like industry publications, industry organizations and industry blogs

I wouldn't focus on one over the other. I'd go for both!

[AndrewAtMGXCopy]

No problem, Wayne. Hope that helps.

Nope, but thanks! That was a hypothetical I created. I'm part of an in-house SEO team for an San Diego online printing service. If you have a spare "online printing" link, that's a different story...

[waynekolenchuk]

Thanks for the response Andrew. Will a "dry cleaning" link from Oregon help your customer?

[SoleGraphics]

Check this guy out, he's one of the leading experts

http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/

http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/definitive-local-search-citations/

[waynekolenchuk]

Thanks for the help. I Cant use Moz Local because Im in Canada.

[SoleGraphics]

Proximity will get your business more targeted in a local sense, and that's still a hard case to make because the site you're getting the link from has to be set up in a way where they've geo tagrgeted as well. Don't forget to get the business listed on the well known places https://moz.com/local/search.

Hope that helps

[AndrewAtMGXCopy]

Hey Wayne,

I prefer relevance over proximity much more.

When I think about keywords I want to rank for (e.g. a local dry cleaner), I think "dry cleaning" first (keyword relevance), "Los Angeles" next (local). I would rather Google know that I am a "dry cleaner" than "Los Angeles"; it pins your website higher up for the business type.

-- Andrew