Businesses run on leads, customer traffic and revenue. Talking particularly about driving new leads, they are possible through search engines. Local customers rely on Google to look for services in their specific area. For this very strong reason, it is crucial to make the listing pop up as it enables customers to call and visit the business.

Ranking a local business website shares same techniques with ranking a website nationally but results appear faster in the local. Local and profitable keywords push many local businesses close to ranking high in Google. The only thing that’s needed to get an extra boost is high quality Backlinks.

Let’s get honest and confess that finding high quality Backlinks not just takes time but serious efforts too. Good news is that all the hard work and ample time invested payoff in an excellent way. Be it anything, quality excels over quantity; hence, strive to earn good links rather than getting low quality link. One good link is way powerful than several low quality links. Setting yourself apart from the competition depends on the thumb rule, ‘the easy a link is earned, the useless it is.’

Enough of high quality links but how does they look like? Let’s unfold the answer below.

The Look & Feel of High Quality Link

Link building for local business depends on a few factors. The more factors you get from a single link, the better results you can expect.

1. Links from a site in the local target area
2. Links relevant to the business industry
3. Links that drive beneficial traffic to the website
4. Links that build brand's image and identity

8 Link Building Strategies To Fetch More Links

1. Harvest Link Opportunities Regularly

Unless you create a list of opportunities, earning links is next to possible. How to do this then? As obvious, open the very reliable Google and look for sites in the industry and area you belong to.

For a more extensive and faster search, open Link Assistant, open your project (you can also create a new one) and click the ‘Look for Prospects’ button. Select from a variety of Backlinks types to grab tons of valuable link opportunities. Don’t forget, having a diverse Backlinks profile is equally important as having high quality Backlinks.

2.Take Away Your Competitors' Local Backlinks

Ever wondered why your competitor stays ahead of you? Do a little search on their activities to get insight into new Backlinks opportunities and you will discover ways to surpass them in the search results.

Spying on the growing competition has gone easier than ever. The best tool to do this is, SEO Spyglass. Once you have entered the URL of your competitor’s site, you will get an immediate overview of their link profile along with its strength areas.

Check out the process to do it…

• Open SEO Spyglass and enter a URL
• Enter the website of top local SEO competitor

SEO SpyGlass will now pull together a list of competitor’s backlinks as well as basic statistics. Here, you will get to know about the total number of backlinks, the linking domains count, percentage of dofollow backlinks, IP diversity of backlinks and much more. With the backlinks list, you will see new opportunities to pursue into the Backlinks dashboard. Also, there will be variety of title, pages linked to, anchor text and dofollow vs nofollow links. You can also pull the quality backlinks by their InLink Rank and skip low quality or spammy ones.

3. Reach Out First

Without acting on backlink, looking for its opportunities is useless. When you have potential prospects from Link Assistant and list of your competitor’s links from SEO Spyglass, comes the turn to approach the website owners directly. Always have a promising reason to request a link as it will compel more people to do so. This comes to the quality of your content.

How to Make Good Content?

Website owners make links to content that:

• Is relevant to the specific area
• Provides offers, discounts or coupons
• Is actionable
• Is informative
• Offers contests

How you achieve this depends on the location you want a link on, what you have got to offer and your level of relationship with the site owner.

Let’s take an example.

If your target website has a ‘write for us’ or ‘contribute’ page, follow their instructions about submitting your work and you will receive a backlink. On the other hand, if you have a content that can benefit the readers, it will help you get the backlink. However, before asking for a link, it is important to reach out to them to ensure they know about who you are. Act smart and thank them for their work. You must also start a conversation regarding something they have done and you noticed. What else? Connect through social media, offer help, comment on their blogs, etc.

Don’t let yourself appear as a part of the crowd that begs for links. Instead, write a personalized message, making them feel valued.

4. Create A Case Study Or Review

When it comes to jump on the radar of a reputed website, a local blogger, or other publication, a promising strategy that always works is creating a case study or detailed review of their product/service.

So, how it happens? Here it is:

You visit the prospect’s website to know whether they are selling any product or service. You then buy it and use it in your business. After getting some results, you can report back with a detailed case study.

Why does it work? Here it is:

It acts as an instant boost to ego. Every business owner wants to see others using their products/services with satisfactory results. What’s even better is that it will not portray you asking for a link but will give an impression that you are thanking the business genuinely. Need not say, this can result in backlink and social media sharing.

5. Visit Prospect's Location

Local SEO presents too many opportunities. Getting high quality backlinks is all about relationships. The more healthy relationships you create, the worthy backlinks you earn. Develop the habit of going out and talk to people in person. And why so? Because meeting people in person is effective and fast way to develop a strong relationship which takes you close to earning a backlink.

Some examples of places to visit or people to talk and show interest are:

• Manufacturers
• Networking events
• Local meetups
• Suppliers
• Similar non-competing businesses
• Associations Conferences and tradeshows
• Chamber of commerce / Rotary clubs

6.Focus On Guest Posting

Google’s algorithm has changed over the years. Ranking a site only by resorting to spammy techniques was enough previously. However, Google has cleaned up its algorithm for a better users experience, at present. To get away from spammy sites in the search results, Google has undervalued some types of backlinks. However, there is one link that has retained its value despite the changes. Yes, this link is none other than guest posting. When done right, it is most effective.

With your prospect list from above, expanding it is easy by searching for guest posting opportunities using search queries like:

• Industry Name + "write for us"
• Industry Name + "contribute"
• Industry Name + "guest post"
• Location + "write for us"
• Location + "contribute"
• Location + "guest post"

Speeding up the process is of course possible with Link Assistant:

• l  Open it and click‘ Look for Prospects’ button
• l  Choose the Guest Posting option and find websites as per your industry

As each site has its own requirements, you must review the criteria. Contact the site owner which can actually help. How? Because they want to provide informative and rich content to their readers; however, don't have the time to write.

7. Find Local Business Directories

Citation building is an important part of local SEO. The best way to do it is by using local business directories such as Yelp and Yellow Pages. There are location and industry specific directories as well and they are worth submitting your business information to. You can either do it manually or by doing searches like:

• Location "recommended links"
• Location "add your business"
• Location "add your site"
• Location * directory

Save the time by looking for new directories in Link Assistant.

8. Track Efforts & Reward Linkers

Building sustainable relationship takes time and hence, you should never stop connecting after earning a link. When you continue a relationship, you open up opportunities to earn additional backlinks, more subscribers, increased traffic and better connection in future. Missing out on all these definitely makes no sense.

After earning backlinks, continue monitoring those which are possible to be done inside of SEO SpyGlass. To see if the links are still live and not switched to nofollow, select the links in your project and click Update Backlinks. Now, Choose Backlink Page Info that to update and hang on while SEO Spyglass is looking up your links. After this is completed, look at the Links Back and Backlink Status columns.

Why not do some extra goodness? Reward those who link back to you. A simple thank you mail can go a long way and shows you notice and appreciate their efforts. This will encourage them to link to you again. Go extra mile by sending a handwritten note in the mail.

These small efforts make a big difference in the rankings and make you stand out from rest.

Conclusion

Link building is a vital element of local SEO and makes the difference of getting the local business website to top positions. It brings more leads and customers for the business. With this easy, simple and effective process, you can go ahead faster and better.