How Can Local Businesses Build Quality Local Backlinks?

Many local businesses underestimate the power of local links.

The reason is that they do not know its importance or just believe that backlink building is difficult, and only SEO experts can handle it.

The truth is backlinks are a crucial part of local SEO. They provide search engines with a signal that other websites find their information good. 

Search engines will give you a higher ranking if you have quality local links. While it can take time, building local backlinks isn't difficult if you know where to look. 

This guide lists the popular and easy ways to gain local backlinks and skyrocket your rankings. 

Let's get started. 

7 Tips to Build Local Links for Your Website

1. Create Locally Relevant Content 

A few years ago, ranking a local business was pretty straightforward. But, due to cutthroat competition today, basic local SEO doesn't produce the same power as before. 

If you want to rank higher in local search, you need something more powerful - high-quality backlinks. An excellent way to get local backlinks is to create local content. 

Here's how to create local content that attracts attention:

• Research the most popular local keywords in your area. E.g., If you are a gardening business in North Carolina, you may use search terms like "Best plants to grow in February in North Carolina," etc.
• Connect with local bloggers and influencers. Often, local influencers create "Best of" lists for local businesses. Partner with them to have your name on the list. For instance, 'Top 10 gardening supplies businesses in North Carolina'. Don’t forget to get a link back.
• Create FAQ pages to address the most common questions asked by locals. However, ensure the FAQs relate to your business. E.g., answer questions like, "What are the best gardening tools? " or "How to keep pests away from the garden in NC," etc.

Here is a screenshot from the Google keyword planner tool:

Utilize tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Google Keyword Planner to research local keywords and the most popular queries. 

2. Take Advantage of Unlinked Brand Mention

Unlinked brand mention is simply when other websites mention your business on their websites but do not link back. 

Here is the image showing unlinked brand mentions from the scrap box:

Unlinked brand mentions provide you with an excellent opportunity to gain backlinks since you are already halfway. The author is familiar with your local business but forgot to link back to you. 

Here’s how you can claim backlinks from unlinked mentions on other websites: 

• First, we will use tools like Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, or Free Link checker by Scrapebox to track your brand mentions. 
• These tools will show you what sites have mentioned your website or business name but haven't linked back to you. 
• After finding the top websites worth getting a backlink from, message the owners and request them to link back to you. In most cases, they will happily link back to you. 

3. Reverse Engineer To Get Your Competitor’s Backlinks

Reverse engineering your competitors will provide you with vital data such as keywords and backlinks they are ranking for. 

We need tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, or Moz Local to find your competitor's backlinks. 

The image shown below have searched result of the competitor regarding searched keyword:

Here is a screenshot from the Moz competitor analysis report.

• Conduct local keyword research that you want to rank for. For instance, if you are a gardening supplies business, you will rank for “Best gardening supplies business in Minnesota’’ etc. 
• Identify the competitors who are ranking for these keywords. Analyze their backlink profile with any SEO tool of your choice. 
• After analyzing their backlink profile, you will get a list of prospective websites on which you want to build backlinks.

• Now that you have the list. You just need to get the contact information of these websites and pitch to them. 

Pitch can be as simple as ‘’Hey, I read your blog post and am pretty amazed. But I see you have not updated it yet. I know how you can add more value to your blog. If you like the idea, please feel free to reply.’’ 

This way, you can build a relationship and ask for a backlink down the road. 

4. Create A Local Infographic 

Infographics combine the power of an image and text into one. The great thing about infographics is that they are flexible. 

You can easily share them on social media and even include them in blogs. But have you ever heard of using infographics to build a local backlink? 

Here's how you can gain local backlinks with local infographics: 

• Businesses can curate local data in high-quality graphics. For example, suppose you are a vacation rental business. In that case, you can create rising trends of holiday settlements in the venue, new restaurants opening in the area, affordable holiday rentals in the town, etc. 
• After creating an infographic, you need to find local business sites to submit this infographic to link back to your business. For example, suppose your infographic is about 'Best Rental Places in Bay Area'. In that case, your target audience should be vacation rental companies, vacation blogs, and subreddits in your city with similar interests. 
• You can also write a detailed blog post about the content included in the infographics and add it to the posts. In our case, this would affect publishing in a vacation rental blog.

Read: Infographic & SEO: Everything You Need to Know

5. Provide Free Testimonials To Other Local Businesses

As a local business, you may have dealt with other local businesses at one point or another. For example, you may hire carpenters or painters for your gardening business. 

Here is a screenshot of a testimonial by the client on a carpenter business:

But did you know you can leverage this relationship to gain a quality local backlink? Here's how to use the power of testimonials to earn local links.

• Reach out to all the local businesses you have worked with—E.g. Carpenters, painters, builders, etc. 
• Let them know you wish to submit positive testimonials for the services they offered to you for a link back. 
• Most of them will happily link back to your site for a positive review. Voila! You just improved a relationship with local businesses and gained a backlink too. 

6. Participate In Local Community 

Local events provide an excellent opportunity for businesses to build relationships with local communities. But these local events also provide a golden opportunity to earn hyper-local backlinks. 

Here's How You Can Use Local Events To Gain These Quality Links:

• Volunteer or host a local event. You can host a gardening workshop if you run a gardening supply business. It will get you featured in local newspapers and magazines and other authoritative sources and thus gain you backlinks. 
• As another option, you can organize a local interview. Invite local celebrities or influential figures who people already know. You can write the interview in detail and submit content to other sites with your link embedded. And Voilà! There you got a backlink. 
• Organize a local meetup. Meetups give you a chance to network and promote your brand. But they are also a great way to gain backlinks. Just include your website link in the meeting description. You now have a local backlink!

7. Reclaim Lost Links 

Changes to your website can result in the loss of a link. A website URL structure change will result in a link to an existing page on your website and a 'broken' link. 

So, whenever someone clicks on that link, they will be shown as a '404 not found' on your website.

Here is a sample list of broken links for a website from Ahrefs broken link checker tool.

Here's How You Can Reclaim Your Lost Backlinks:

• Finding broken backlinks is a cumbersome process. But, with the help of tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush, we can see the broken links. 
• You'll identify your competitors’ broken backlinks with either of those tools. Research their site’s contact information and share a link to similar content from your local business website. Chances are, they will link to your site to remove the broken link. 
• Reclaim links from broken links, with redirects. You can perform this by using Screaming Frog.

Key Takeaways:

• Create attention-grabbing local content to attract natural links. 
• Leverage the power of infographics to build local links with other local businesses.
• Sponsor local events and participate in the local community to build powerful connections and, of course, quality local links. 
• Pay attention to unlinked mentions. Use social listening tools like Ahrefs to find unlinked mentions and reach out to websites for a link. 
• Provide free testimonials to other local businesses in the area that are not your competitors. 
• Reverse engineer your competitor’s links and find where you can gain those backlinks from.